Returned and refreshed
I am back from a lovely visit with my family. They stayed two nights at my house and then we went to New Harmony, Indiana for two nights. The visit seemed too short, but it was great to see everyone and I think they all enjoyed New Harmony very much. Even though neither attempt at a Utopian society really worked there (do they ever?), the spirit of trying to make something better has lingered, drawing artists, writers, theologians, scientists, and philosophers. There are lots of sculptures, gardens, and quotes everywhere you look, engraved on rocks, on the sides of buildings, on plaques in front of sculptures.
My favorite is this quote by Thomas Merton:
"As long as we are on earth, the love that unites us will bring us suffering by our very contact with one another because this love is the resetting of a body of broken bones - even saints cannot live with saints on this earth without some anguish. Without some pain at the differences between them.
"There are two things men can do about the pain of disunion with other men - they can love or they can hate.
"Hatred recoils from the sacrifice and sorrow that are the price of resetting the bones - it refuses the pain of reunion."
Thomas Merton
On the way home in the car, I did manage to cut 300 more words out of my short story, "For the Love of Trees," which I sent for my Odyssey assignment. It was a good exercise to tighten things up and work for more economy of language, but I can't help but think that there is too much summary and not enough scene, too much telling and not enough showing, since I had to keep things shorter than I might have wished. But if it needs to be longer, I can always expand.
I've started making piles of things to take with me to Odyssey, though I know once I get there I will have to buy a few new things. It seems ridiculous to buy stuff just for the summer, but on the other hand, I can't just take our only can opener and leave Stephan with none! I don't know how much cooking I will be doing, but I am sure I will be doing some. Six weeks with no homemade spaghetti sauce? No way!
One of the Odyssey assignments is to bring a copy of a short story we enjoy and include a few paragraphs about why we like it. I wasn't sure what to bring, but I have just about decided on The Big Green Grin by Gahan Wilson. It is short, clever, and the sort of thing I wish I could write. The story first appeared in Gathering the Bones, an anthology edited by Dennis Etchison, Ramsey Campbell, and Jack Dann. I read it in Year's Best Fantasy 4, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. To me, the story is an excellent example of how a writer can take a pretty simple premise, a supernatural element, and tell a vivid and gripping story in only a few pages with minimal world-building or setup.
My favorite is this quote by Thomas Merton:
"As long as we are on earth, the love that unites us will bring us suffering by our very contact with one another because this love is the resetting of a body of broken bones - even saints cannot live with saints on this earth without some anguish. Without some pain at the differences between them.
"There are two things men can do about the pain of disunion with other men - they can love or they can hate.
"Hatred recoils from the sacrifice and sorrow that are the price of resetting the bones - it refuses the pain of reunion."
Thomas Merton
On the way home in the car, I did manage to cut 300 more words out of my short story, "For the Love of Trees," which I sent for my Odyssey assignment. It was a good exercise to tighten things up and work for more economy of language, but I can't help but think that there is too much summary and not enough scene, too much telling and not enough showing, since I had to keep things shorter than I might have wished. But if it needs to be longer, I can always expand.
I've started making piles of things to take with me to Odyssey, though I know once I get there I will have to buy a few new things. It seems ridiculous to buy stuff just for the summer, but on the other hand, I can't just take our only can opener and leave Stephan with none! I don't know how much cooking I will be doing, but I am sure I will be doing some. Six weeks with no homemade spaghetti sauce? No way!
One of the Odyssey assignments is to bring a copy of a short story we enjoy and include a few paragraphs about why we like it. I wasn't sure what to bring, but I have just about decided on The Big Green Grin by Gahan Wilson. It is short, clever, and the sort of thing I wish I could write. The story first appeared in Gathering the Bones, an anthology edited by Dennis Etchison, Ramsey Campbell, and Jack Dann. I read it in Year's Best Fantasy 4, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. To me, the story is an excellent example of how a writer can take a pretty simple premise, a supernatural element, and tell a vivid and gripping story in only a few pages with minimal world-building or setup.