Welcome to the 21st century

Today, in the food court of the building where I work, I was publicly saluted for my civic-mindedness by a garbage can which said loudly as I dumped the trash from my lunch: “Thank you for helping to keep our area clean.”

I was so startled, I almost dropped the tray in, too.

(Perhaps I should take this opportunity to say that I am not interested in the opinion, on any subject whatsoever, of any public toilet I use, now or in the future. I sincerely hope it won’t come to that.)

Writing from the gut

Another 400 words of snippets tonight.

Have been mulling over the concept of "writing from the gut." Agnes, in particular is going to be a truth speaker. Have been reading kijjohnson's Fudoki which reads like an arrow straight through the heart. It's always exhilarating to read something that inspires you to want to do your best (but it can be a little intimidating, too).

Anyway, more in general: I want this book to speak from somewhere deep inside that's true. From the gut, to the heart, as it were. That was, perhaps, what I was struggling to put into words a few nights ago when I said that I didn't want this to deteriorate into a standard romance novel. Now I'm not foolish enough to dismiss all romance novels as being unable to speak from the gut. Lois McMaster Bujold says that she writes about identity in all of her books ("Stand up straight and speak the truth" she wrote in "The Mountains of Mourning" and Memory). Standing up straight and speaking the truth: that's want I want to explore with Solveig, too. One of my favorite novels dealing with identity is Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, because the events of the novel force Elizabeth Bennett to examine her own heart, until she discovers "Till this moment, I never knew myself."

That should be a new sign above my desk, I think, or a text for the screen saver on my screen:

Write from the gut. Speak the truth from the heart.

One caution for myself: I must be careful not to spend so much time writing about the novel in this LiveJournal that I actually fail to write it.

Peg