carlin on writing
so, psychology today had planned a short, back page, 350 word interview with
george carlin, but given his death, Jay Dixit, the interviewer, posted
longer excerpts on his blog. Carlin talks about a lot of things: the craft
of comedy, the anatomy of a joke, the nature of language, and very often
about the nature of writing --for him-- and how he came to see writing in
his work and how he came to think of himself as a writer.
I'm giving a couple excerpts followed by a URL to the full piece. There's a lot to be
gleaned about learning, writing, and language--I am so using this in my classes with my students. If you have time, read the whole thing--it's pretty damn cool :)
So if I write something down, some observation-I see something on television
that reminds me of something I wanted to say already-the first time I write
it, the first time I hear it, it makes an impression. The first time I write
it down, it makes a second impression, a deeper path. Every time I look at
that piece of paper, until I file it in my file, each time, the path gets a
little richer and deeper so that these things are all in there.
Now at this age, I have a network of knowledge and data and observations and
feelings and values and evaluations I have in me that do things
automatically. And then when I sit down to consciously write, that's when I
bring the craftsmanship. That's when I pull everything together and say, how
I can best express that?
And then as you write, you find more, 'cause the mind is looking for further
connections. And these things just flow into your head and you write them.
And the writing is the really wonderful part. A lot of this is discovery. A
lot of things are lying around waiting to be discovered and that's our job
is to just notice them and bring them to life.
This was a really important distinction for me to notice-it happened way
after the fact. I'm a writer. I think of myself as a writer. First of all,
I'm an entertainer; I'm in the vulgar arts. I travel around talking and
saying things and entertaining, but it's in service of my art and it's
informed by that. So I get to write for two destinations. The writing is
what gives me the joy, especially editing myself for the page, and getting
something ready to show to the editors, and then to have a first draft and
get it back and work to fix it, I love reworking, I love editing, love love
love revision, revision, revision, revision.
And computers changed my life, the fact that you can move text as easily as
you can move text, and say, "Wait a minute, these two things belong
together, these two things go together, page 2 and page 5: similar ideas,
put 'em together!" But the person who is most a part of me is the performer,
is the standup, the guy who says, "Hey look at me, listen to this!" I do
that because that's what I do, I love doing it.
*http://tinyurl.com/5o6g8y*
george carlin, but given his death, Jay Dixit, the interviewer, posted
longer excerpts on his blog. Carlin talks about a lot of things: the craft
of comedy, the anatomy of a joke, the nature of language, and very often
about the nature of writing --for him-- and how he came to see writing in
his work and how he came to think of himself as a writer.
I'm giving a couple excerpts followed by a URL to the full piece. There's a lot to be
gleaned about learning, writing, and language--I am so using this in my classes with my students. If you have time, read the whole thing--it's pretty damn cool :)
So if I write something down, some observation-I see something on television
that reminds me of something I wanted to say already-the first time I write
it, the first time I hear it, it makes an impression. The first time I write
it down, it makes a second impression, a deeper path. Every time I look at
that piece of paper, until I file it in my file, each time, the path gets a
little richer and deeper so that these things are all in there.
Now at this age, I have a network of knowledge and data and observations and
feelings and values and evaluations I have in me that do things
automatically. And then when I sit down to consciously write, that's when I
bring the craftsmanship. That's when I pull everything together and say, how
I can best express that?
And then as you write, you find more, 'cause the mind is looking for further
connections. And these things just flow into your head and you write them.
And the writing is the really wonderful part. A lot of this is discovery. A
lot of things are lying around waiting to be discovered and that's our job
is to just notice them and bring them to life.
This was a really important distinction for me to notice-it happened way
after the fact. I'm a writer. I think of myself as a writer. First of all,
I'm an entertainer; I'm in the vulgar arts. I travel around talking and
saying things and entertaining, but it's in service of my art and it's
informed by that. So I get to write for two destinations. The writing is
what gives me the joy, especially editing myself for the page, and getting
something ready to show to the editors, and then to have a first draft and
get it back and work to fix it, I love reworking, I love editing, love love
love revision, revision, revision, revision.
And computers changed my life, the fact that you can move text as easily as
you can move text, and say, "Wait a minute, these two things belong
together, these two things go together, page 2 and page 5: similar ideas,
put 'em together!" But the person who is most a part of me is the performer,
is the standup, the guy who says, "Hey look at me, listen to this!" I do
that because that's what I do, I love doing it.
*http://tinyurl.com/5o6g8y*