When people write in their journal on the subject of their life do you think they are telling the literal truth, an approximation, or a fantasy about their life? How about a mix of all of those things? In general, how about the differences in the writing on the subject of their life as reported by women, and by men? My 'prejudice' if you will, is that women can write more openly on their subjective lives, than can male writers of journals and novels. Men, including me, are very into 'looking good.' They are especially alert to how they are stacking up vis-a-vis other males. Do women truly say, in private with other women, "Men are dogs"? I bet they do, ha!
Some would-be rapacious males, if you get my drift, excoriated me for exposing my children to danger in yesterday's post about driving. They conveniently overlooked that children weren't in the car in the main episode. I now believe that gay men without children feel intensely hostile to males who talk about their own children. I'd like to know more about gay, male couples who adopt children, or, who sperm donate to a female willing to give birth, for their sake.
The theater, very small, on lovely Hyperion Street in Silverlake, a nice district of Los Angeles, a theater recently under new ownership called Company of Angels, has staged a new play called Dust I saw the play with my wife last Saturday night. The average age of the small audience might have been age 50. The play was written by a very young man getting even with his family. His conceit is that a rich family living in NYC lives off enormous, accumulated fortunes made from manufacturing munitions. As a result family values have vanished, one son is a 'dog,' and the other is gay. Everyone in the family is more of less mad. So far, so good; where the play runs aground is that 70% of the lines are directed at the audience, long monologs, well done, but the natural dialog scenes, by comparison, seem not rehearsed. When a writer uses writing, any writing, to get even, I believe, the reader tunes out. I'd like to learn how to deal with that. I'm not agin' getting even. You? How does one do that and still make a difference so that ultimately everyone benefits?
Barry
1 comment:
"When a writer uses writing, any writing, to get even, I believe, the reader tunes out. I'd like to learn how to deal with that. I'm not agin' getting even. You? How does one do that and still make a difference so that ultimately everyone benefits?"
Attitude's probably the key. If a writer writes for revenge, he/she should be careful not to lose reason or credibility through anger and emotional outbursts. You might want to pause from time to time for perspective. Revise a lot. Or just forget the schmuck altogether and write something fun.
Vengeance...Such a momentary sweetness. Is it worth all the effort?
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