I'm writing again - this time properly, and hopefully in a way that will lead to something happening a little way down the line... But the most important part of this isn't that I'm hoping it goes somewhere - it's that this is happening at all.
I stopped writing for various reasons - I'd always turn my hand to a poem or two if the moment took me (or allowed it), but with the exception of the (currently dormant) Ood Cast, I hadn't done anything for a long time - something approaching four years.
I started up again thinking that it might be a nice distraction and would get some of the half-decent ideas out of my head. So I began taking notes for an idea. Just sitting down and brainstorming an idea re-awakened something in me that filled me with some kind of joyous light. Creating a character, and planning their journey through the story that was taking shape in your head is something wonderful and sacred to me - learning about the characters too. In this case, to my utter confoundment, I found that these characters are already formed in my head.
In amongst the joy of writing about these people, and seeing whether I can tell their story to a level that does it justice, I wondered where they came from. The answer is simple, but complex: they spring from people I know - some very well, some less so - and also from music. Some of you reading this may well have been reasons I've got these people in my head. Some of you I know precisely, some I think may be a mixture.
What bits and pieces of the puzzle I choose to write on a particular day always tend to spring from what kind of music I've been listening to... I'll write another post about some of the music affecting me at the moment soon - but if I'm in a Paul Simon kind of mood, I know what sort of scenes I'll be working out later that day. And that isn't always predictable - love songs don't always mean a scene about love, for example. Something very odd happened when I was listening to "Rocky Racoon" by the Beatles, for a start...
The long and the short of it is that I'm rediscovering what I thought I'd never lose... the joy of writing something. Maybe its more true that I didn't lose it, but more sort of buried it somewhere and remembered where that was. But with a lot of other stuff in turmoil round me, this is my one little safe harbour. And its not even important in the slightest if anything I do gets into print or onto a screen - its the joy that I want to hang on to. Although success would be great - I would be lying if I said I'd hate that.
And now that little door has opened again, more are being left hanging wildly off one battered hinge:
I have more ideas in my head than I can cope with - too many more projects I want to start and more impatience than a ravenous dog in an unattended butcher's shop.
For all of this, and for all the other things going on, I'm really and unreservedly happy about that.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Thursday, September 18, 2008
An exciting marriage…
No, not an actual marriage… But it’s the first thing to make me so excited (if you discount the release of Artemis Fowl book 6 last month… and perhaps not surprisingly, this is related).
Here’s the press release on Eoin Colfer’s site: And Another Thing: Full Press Release
And here’s a summary for those who can’t be bothered to read it:
The widow of Douglas Adams, Jane Belson, has chosen Eoin Colfer to write book 6 of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Trilogy… It will be called “And Another Thing”, and will be out in Penguin Hardback next October (2009).
I saw that yesterday and stared at the screen in wonder for several minutes.
My reason is this: Douglas Adams and Eoin Colfer are two authors who have changed the way I think about writing and about storytelling – both have surfaced in my consciousness when I was looking for something to keep going for, and have sustained their appeal for me ever since (which believe me, is unusual). They both also inspired me to write – in different ways.
I was lent a copy of the first Artemis Fowl book in April 2002 by someone who recommended it as something good to get through the gap between Harry Potter books. I devoured it in less than a day, and since then, I’ve read that book probably hundreds of times and have far and away preferred Artemis to Harry.
It was as visual a piece of writing as I’ve ever come across, if that makes sense. I wasn’t surprised to hear talk of a Hollywood film soon afterwards. But its exciting – writing that makes your heart beat faster, your nerves jangle and every sense in your body tingle is a rare and treasured thing. And he managed it with the first book in the series.
My theory is that most series of novels take a couple to hit a peak – it happened with Harry Potter, in my opinion (Book 3: The Prisoner of Azkaban is the best, I think). Saying that, its disproved countless times…
I then bought a copy of a different Eoin Colfer book – The Wish List – thinking I could read it during a week away at Spring Harvest. I read the whole thing on the journey up to Skegness – finishing with about an hour to spare.
When I think about it, it’s the spirit of the writing that attracts me – the style, certainly of Artemis Fowl – follows on almost fittingly on a line that includes Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne and John Buchan, with a twist of HG Wells. His writing – even for small children – is engaging, vivid, exciting, and laugh-out-loud-funny when it wants to be. All things I aspire to achieving one day.
One of my favourite things about Eoin is his enthusiasm. He recently wrote an introduction to a new Penguin Classics edition of “Treasure Island”, extolling the virtues of the book for good reason… and he also embraces his audience – going on national tours to connect with people, encourage kids to read and make people enjoy stories – not to promote his books… And his enthusiasm for Hitchhiker’s is infectious – here’s the piece on his website about the new project…
Eoin Colfer on Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
If you haven’t read an Artemis Fowl, go and do that. Beg, borrow, steal, murder, whatever. You have to read the original book at least.
Hitchhiker’s Guide was a discovery I consciously made myself. I heard a couple of people at school talking about it, and soon after I got my first job, I went hunting for the cassettes of the original radio series. I wore those out in a matter of months. It took a while to read the books – mainly because I assumed that Adams would have produced a pretty standard novelisation (like happened with Doctor Who books – although they’re still marvellous). But I was proved delightfully wrong. Having then read Neil Gaiman’s biography of Douglas, I realised that he was so full of ideas, so creative in his thinking, that he never quite got the same result twice. I know that he suffered from crippling writer’s block, which depressed him – and he was famously not a prolific writer – often having to be forced to sit down and write.
The influence these two have had on my reading tastes and my desire to write is sizeable, but I’m not going to get all gushy – for people to spout forth about the brilliance and the influence of Douglas Adams is more cliché than a Westlife video and the best thing I can say about Eoin Colfer is what I’ve already said… Plus, I don’t want to look like a fan now, do I…?
Despite not wanting to be gushy, the combination of Eoin’s writing and Douglas’ creations makes me want to squeal with joy. So naturally, I’m already panicking that its going to be a huge let-down… Oh to be able to ignore paranoia.
Here’s the press release on Eoin Colfer’s site: And Another Thing: Full Press Release
And here’s a summary for those who can’t be bothered to read it:
The widow of Douglas Adams, Jane Belson, has chosen Eoin Colfer to write book 6 of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Trilogy… It will be called “And Another Thing”, and will be out in Penguin Hardback next October (2009).
I saw that yesterday and stared at the screen in wonder for several minutes.
My reason is this: Douglas Adams and Eoin Colfer are two authors who have changed the way I think about writing and about storytelling – both have surfaced in my consciousness when I was looking for something to keep going for, and have sustained their appeal for me ever since (which believe me, is unusual). They both also inspired me to write – in different ways.
I was lent a copy of the first Artemis Fowl book in April 2002 by someone who recommended it as something good to get through the gap between Harry Potter books. I devoured it in less than a day, and since then, I’ve read that book probably hundreds of times and have far and away preferred Artemis to Harry.
It was as visual a piece of writing as I’ve ever come across, if that makes sense. I wasn’t surprised to hear talk of a Hollywood film soon afterwards. But its exciting – writing that makes your heart beat faster, your nerves jangle and every sense in your body tingle is a rare and treasured thing. And he managed it with the first book in the series.
My theory is that most series of novels take a couple to hit a peak – it happened with Harry Potter, in my opinion (Book 3: The Prisoner of Azkaban is the best, I think). Saying that, its disproved countless times…
I then bought a copy of a different Eoin Colfer book – The Wish List – thinking I could read it during a week away at Spring Harvest. I read the whole thing on the journey up to Skegness – finishing with about an hour to spare.
When I think about it, it’s the spirit of the writing that attracts me – the style, certainly of Artemis Fowl – follows on almost fittingly on a line that includes Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne and John Buchan, with a twist of HG Wells. His writing – even for small children – is engaging, vivid, exciting, and laugh-out-loud-funny when it wants to be. All things I aspire to achieving one day.
One of my favourite things about Eoin is his enthusiasm. He recently wrote an introduction to a new Penguin Classics edition of “Treasure Island”, extolling the virtues of the book for good reason… and he also embraces his audience – going on national tours to connect with people, encourage kids to read and make people enjoy stories – not to promote his books… And his enthusiasm for Hitchhiker’s is infectious – here’s the piece on his website about the new project…
Eoin Colfer on Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
If you haven’t read an Artemis Fowl, go and do that. Beg, borrow, steal, murder, whatever. You have to read the original book at least.
Hitchhiker’s Guide was a discovery I consciously made myself. I heard a couple of people at school talking about it, and soon after I got my first job, I went hunting for the cassettes of the original radio series. I wore those out in a matter of months. It took a while to read the books – mainly because I assumed that Adams would have produced a pretty standard novelisation (like happened with Doctor Who books – although they’re still marvellous). But I was proved delightfully wrong. Having then read Neil Gaiman’s biography of Douglas, I realised that he was so full of ideas, so creative in his thinking, that he never quite got the same result twice. I know that he suffered from crippling writer’s block, which depressed him – and he was famously not a prolific writer – often having to be forced to sit down and write.
The influence these two have had on my reading tastes and my desire to write is sizeable, but I’m not going to get all gushy – for people to spout forth about the brilliance and the influence of Douglas Adams is more cliché than a Westlife video and the best thing I can say about Eoin Colfer is what I’ve already said… Plus, I don’t want to look like a fan now, do I…?
Despite not wanting to be gushy, the combination of Eoin’s writing and Douglas’ creations makes me want to squeal with joy. So naturally, I’m already panicking that its going to be a huge let-down… Oh to be able to ignore paranoia.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Like A Rowling Stone
There was a really interesting article on Guardian.co.uk back in May, which looks into whether JK Rowling is accepted as a fantasy writer, or whether the world of critics and academics are sexist towards her (and other female sci-fi/fantasy writers). I meant to blog about it at the time, but a lot has been happening... So here are my thoughts.
Firstly, the article is here.
There are a few things that I picked up on particularly. Firstly, the quote from Michael Rosen, which was jumped on by the media the week before that for being anti-Potter... He was quoted in the Scottish Sunday times as saying that the Potter books are rather hard-going for children under six. Well, that's right, surely? Why is that controversial or anti-Potter? That's no more a criticism than saying Shakespeare is difficult for toddlers. The books are full of heavy themes and events - things that a lot of adults struggle to comprehend. Michael Rosen is not the Children's Laureate by good fortune. He knows what he's talking about - I'm not sure there are many who understand and promote storytelling better. And yet, his comments were interpreted as meaning that the books were unreadable.
Secondly, and I hadn't paid attention to the criticisms of JKR before now - I was content just to read and enjoy the books, enjoying the storytelling and the escapism - but the comments of AS Byatt are snobbish and ignorant. If you don't know what this is about, she has said that the popularity of the Potter books is because they are "written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip." Sounds disturbingly like jealousy to me... Very unseemly for an extremely well-respected novelist, poet and Dame of the British Empire...
I, for one, don't fall into the target audience Byatt suggests, and I find it offensive to be pigeon-holed like that. If you don't like it, fine, but I don't see what right you have to condemn others. It's easy to read - maybe not all that deep and meaningful (to me), but its a nice escape from a world that is increasingly becoming dark and corrupt. You write what moves you - and you know what you're talking about there. But Rowling wrote what she felt she had to - and there's no doubt that she knows what she's on about in that realm.
Another point in the article was about Rowling being invited to give Harvard's graduation day commencement address this June. The reaction from students was not altogether positive. This is from the Guardian article:
Writing in the university paper, the Harvard Crimson, student Adam Goldenberg rips into Rowling as "a flash in the pan", "a petty pop culture personality" who "tricked parents into letting their kids read books filled with sex, murder, and homosexual role models". Furthermore, "writing bedtime stories is lame".
What utter, utter crap. I'm going to sound like I'm JKR's press officer now, but I have to disagree. A flash in the pan - seven books worth. Does that make seven flashes in seven pans? A highly successful movie series isn't exactly half an hour’s work either...
Petty pop culture personality - the way she's handled her fame, and riches - the philanthropic and compassionate way she's dealt with it all makes that comment every bit as ignorant as AS Byatt's jealous rant. Writing articles about subjects you clearly know nothing about isn't the way to cultivate respect...
I'll skip the tricking parents thing, as I think its nuts - OK there's murder in there, but sex? No more than kids would have experienced growing up, and homosexual role models - that maybe true, but when you're not told a character is homosexual until well after the books are published, it kind of diminishes the effect. And what's wrong with a homosexual role model anyway? That would make two ‘isms’ from Mr Goldenberg in one comment. Good going there...
"Writing bedtime stories is lame." That comment is just so wrong that I actually feel violently-inclined to this whingeing, envious wheeze bag. As a parent, I love reading stories with Luke. I have always loved stories and storytelling, and I am a huge fan of children’s or “young adult” books - because they tend to be more creative and imaginative. I read plenty of bona fide adult fiction and non-fiction too, mind you. But that only sharpens my appreciation to it all. I don't think I would enjoy either one half as much without the other. Writing a bedtime story is every little bit as legitimate, literary and commendable as writing a historical novel, or a thesis on the US constitution.
In general, I agree with the point of the article - novels of this genre are generally only talked up if they are written by men - Philip Pullman, Garth Nix, Darren Shan, Philip Reeve et al. But there are female writers who produce books of a quality matching, if not surpassing them - Diana Wynne Jones and Marjorie Blackman are two that spring to mind immediately. Both of those I discovered through recommendations, having seen nothing of their work advertised or hyped up in the press to the same extent as the male authors quoted.
People like different things. Lord of the Rings is pretty good, I think - but I don't consider it to be that good to deserve obsession and repeated readings. Or a musical. When you strip that down to its bare bones, it’s essentially a fairly tedious road trip story. Albeit a road trip with tiny men in possession of huge hairy feet. And a fiery thing at the end. And orks. I did enjoy it, but I also got very bored at various points.
JK Rowling has achieved what she has through hard work - and in the process she's stimulated millions of minds (not just those of children), and made reading popular with many, many children once more - in an age where the internet and TV rule without competition. How on earth, with clear conscience, can you criticise that?
Unless she’s selling more books than you, of course…
Firstly, the article is here.
There are a few things that I picked up on particularly. Firstly, the quote from Michael Rosen, which was jumped on by the media the week before that for being anti-Potter... He was quoted in the Scottish Sunday times as saying that the Potter books are rather hard-going for children under six. Well, that's right, surely? Why is that controversial or anti-Potter? That's no more a criticism than saying Shakespeare is difficult for toddlers. The books are full of heavy themes and events - things that a lot of adults struggle to comprehend. Michael Rosen is not the Children's Laureate by good fortune. He knows what he's talking about - I'm not sure there are many who understand and promote storytelling better. And yet, his comments were interpreted as meaning that the books were unreadable.
Secondly, and I hadn't paid attention to the criticisms of JKR before now - I was content just to read and enjoy the books, enjoying the storytelling and the escapism - but the comments of AS Byatt are snobbish and ignorant. If you don't know what this is about, she has said that the popularity of the Potter books is because they are "written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip." Sounds disturbingly like jealousy to me... Very unseemly for an extremely well-respected novelist, poet and Dame of the British Empire...
I, for one, don't fall into the target audience Byatt suggests, and I find it offensive to be pigeon-holed like that. If you don't like it, fine, but I don't see what right you have to condemn others. It's easy to read - maybe not all that deep and meaningful (to me), but its a nice escape from a world that is increasingly becoming dark and corrupt. You write what moves you - and you know what you're talking about there. But Rowling wrote what she felt she had to - and there's no doubt that she knows what she's on about in that realm.
Another point in the article was about Rowling being invited to give Harvard's graduation day commencement address this June. The reaction from students was not altogether positive. This is from the Guardian article:
Writing in the university paper, the Harvard Crimson, student Adam Goldenberg rips into Rowling as "a flash in the pan", "a petty pop culture personality" who "tricked parents into letting their kids read books filled with sex, murder, and homosexual role models". Furthermore, "writing bedtime stories is lame".
What utter, utter crap. I'm going to sound like I'm JKR's press officer now, but I have to disagree. A flash in the pan - seven books worth. Does that make seven flashes in seven pans? A highly successful movie series isn't exactly half an hour’s work either...
Petty pop culture personality - the way she's handled her fame, and riches - the philanthropic and compassionate way she's dealt with it all makes that comment every bit as ignorant as AS Byatt's jealous rant. Writing articles about subjects you clearly know nothing about isn't the way to cultivate respect...
I'll skip the tricking parents thing, as I think its nuts - OK there's murder in there, but sex? No more than kids would have experienced growing up, and homosexual role models - that maybe true, but when you're not told a character is homosexual until well after the books are published, it kind of diminishes the effect. And what's wrong with a homosexual role model anyway? That would make two ‘isms’ from Mr Goldenberg in one comment. Good going there...
"Writing bedtime stories is lame." That comment is just so wrong that I actually feel violently-inclined to this whingeing, envious wheeze bag. As a parent, I love reading stories with Luke. I have always loved stories and storytelling, and I am a huge fan of children’s or “young adult” books - because they tend to be more creative and imaginative. I read plenty of bona fide adult fiction and non-fiction too, mind you. But that only sharpens my appreciation to it all. I don't think I would enjoy either one half as much without the other. Writing a bedtime story is every little bit as legitimate, literary and commendable as writing a historical novel, or a thesis on the US constitution.
In general, I agree with the point of the article - novels of this genre are generally only talked up if they are written by men - Philip Pullman, Garth Nix, Darren Shan, Philip Reeve et al. But there are female writers who produce books of a quality matching, if not surpassing them - Diana Wynne Jones and Marjorie Blackman are two that spring to mind immediately. Both of those I discovered through recommendations, having seen nothing of their work advertised or hyped up in the press to the same extent as the male authors quoted.
People like different things. Lord of the Rings is pretty good, I think - but I don't consider it to be that good to deserve obsession and repeated readings. Or a musical. When you strip that down to its bare bones, it’s essentially a fairly tedious road trip story. Albeit a road trip with tiny men in possession of huge hairy feet. And a fiery thing at the end. And orks. I did enjoy it, but I also got very bored at various points.
JK Rowling has achieved what she has through hard work - and in the process she's stimulated millions of minds (not just those of children), and made reading popular with many, many children once more - in an age where the internet and TV rule without competition. How on earth, with clear conscience, can you criticise that?
Unless she’s selling more books than you, of course…
Monday, February 11, 2008
Opening A Vein
There was a time, years ago now, when I wanted - more than anything - to be an actor. I loved, and I still do love, the feeling of being on stage, of showing all those people gathered in front of you that you could be someone else, that you could make them laugh, appall them, shock, frighten, warm, comfort, sadden them, with just an action or a phrase.
There's a very good saying that Phil Hammond used on last Friday's News Quiz on BBC Radio 4: "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put tomatoes in a fruit salad."
I don't know whether I was ever any good as an actor - I was certainly told that I was quite a few times, but confidence is a huge part of doing it. My confidence was always battered by a memory that is fast-attaining legendary status for its faliures. After all, it's all very well being able to recite Stanislavski's acting system, but being able to do it is far more valuable than knowing it.
But there was a moment - one of those moments that you know will affect how the rest of your life will go. It happened at school. I was in the sixth form (year 13 for those of you who are too young to remember proper school years...), and I was rehearsing for my A-Level drama practical exam. I'd chosen one of my favourite speeches from Shakespeare for my monologue piece - its in Much Ado About Nothing (my favourite Shakespeare...), when Benedick first believes that Beatrice loves him - in the Branagh film, it's the bit when he's wandering around the garden with a deckchair...
I knew the speech inside and out, I'd researched into it, I'd concentrated and worked on every inflection of every syllable, and worked out timings. I'd even begun blocking the scene. Then my teacher asked me what I was doing again. I told her. She stared at me as if I'd just accused her of eating students during detentions (she was, after all, big enough for that to be believable).
Her words have stayed with me ever since:
"You'll have to change it. You can't do Benedick - you don't look like a romantic hero."
Well, to me, that's the point of acting. If I was any good at all, it wouldn't matter one little bloody jot if I didn't look like a romantic-sodding-hero. If I didn't look like one, I could act like one and speak like one. I could BE one. But instead, I had to do the only soliloquy anyone ever remembers from Richard III. And I hated it. I like the play, and I thoroughly recommend the film version with Ian McKellen as Richard III, but I hated doing it. If there's one thing I was probably less suited to be than a romantic hero, I'd have guessed at murderous hunchback king... Still, I suppose I was lucky she didn't get me to be Othello...
It was that moment, when she said that preposterous, insulting sentence, that I decided that it wasn't for me. I was going to follow something I'd been doing for just a few months - writing. I wanted, instead of being on the stage speaking someone else's words - I wanted to be the person who'd put those words in the actor's mouths.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Fa-La-La-La-La (What do you mean I'm a bit late for that?!)
Happy New Year, everyone... Welcome to my 2008...
Over the festive season, I’ve had a few chances to reacquaint myself with a few things I had forgotten.
Firstly, how lovely it is to experience Christmas with Nikki and Luke – truly the most amazing two people I have ever met, and wonderfully, the two people can share my life with. I had some lovely gifts, and couldn’t care less how much or little anyone spent, or how many gifts I received – the best bits for me is always seeing other people get presents.
Secondly, I FINALLY saw The History Boys by Alan Bennett thanks to BBC 2… And my love of Alan Bennett’s writing was completely re-awakened. I’ve re-read the script to The History Boys twice since seeing the film, and savoured so much that its made me want to turn back and try acting again… as well as begin to write again. Amazing what 90 minutes of sort-of sitting still can do to you. There were moments that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, just like the first time I saw A Chip In The Sugar from the original Talking Heads series way back when I was 14 or 15, or when I first put on a tape of Beyond The Fringe. I’m so glad he’s still writing and making an impact – the world will be a far, far poorer place when he stops writing. No one has the same acute sense of detail, gentle or sensitive touch with tragedy or the same unassuming humour as him. I’ve always felt an affinity, a closeness to his words that I cannot and don’t really want to explain.
The reason I’ve always loved his writing – and why I love reading in general - is gloriously summed up by this line, spoken by Hector in The History Boys:
"The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours."
Thirdly, the songwriting of Steve Earle. I love some country music – essentially people who try and do something interesting or different within the genre (the same could be true for any of my tastes in music). But his, I admit, isn’t particularly ground-breaking or new. It is, however, distinctive. There’s not many people who can write songs that assess the state of the nation as accurately and pointedly as he did in Amerika v.6.0 – which incidentally is on the same album, Jerusalem, which gained him as much notoriety as acclaim in the US and led to his behaviour being monitored by the security services over there because of the song John Walker’s Blues which tells the story of a young American who joins the jihad against the West - I’ll put the lyrics below, but the song rocks as well as makes your brain tick, so I highly recommend checking it out for yourself. The whole album is wonderful (if you can take alt.country).
Amerika v. 6.0 (The Best We Can Do)
(Steve Earle)
Look at ya
Yeah, take a look in the mirror
now tell me what you see
Another satisfied customer in the front of the line for the American dream
I remember when we was both out on the boulevard
Talkin' revolution and singin' the blues
Nowadays it's letters to the editor and cheatin' on our taxes
Is the best that we can do
Come on
Look around
There's doctors down on Wall Street
Sharpenin' their scalpels and tryin' to cut a deal
Meanwhile, back at the hospital
We got accountants playin' God and countin' out the pills
Yeah, I know, that sucks – that your HMO
Ain't doin' what you thought it would do
But everybody's gotta die sometime and we can't save everybody
It's the best that we can do
Four score and a hundred and fifty years ago
Our forefathers made us equal as long as we can pay
Yeah, well maybe that wasn't exactly what they was thinkin'
Version six-point-oh of the American way
But hey we can just build a great wall around the country club
To keep the riff-raff out until the slump is through
Yeah, I realize that ain't exactly democratic, but it's either them or us
And it's the best we can do
Yeah, passionely conservative
It's the best we can do
Conservatively passionate
It's the best we can do
Meanwhile, still thinkin'
Hey, let's wage a war on drugs
It's the best we can do
Well, I don't know about you, but I kinda dig this global warming thing...
Over the festive season, I’ve had a few chances to reacquaint myself with a few things I had forgotten.
Firstly, how lovely it is to experience Christmas with Nikki and Luke – truly the most amazing two people I have ever met, and wonderfully, the two people can share my life with. I had some lovely gifts, and couldn’t care less how much or little anyone spent, or how many gifts I received – the best bits for me is always seeing other people get presents.
Secondly, I FINALLY saw The History Boys by Alan Bennett thanks to BBC 2… And my love of Alan Bennett’s writing was completely re-awakened. I’ve re-read the script to The History Boys twice since seeing the film, and savoured so much that its made me want to turn back and try acting again… as well as begin to write again. Amazing what 90 minutes of sort-of sitting still can do to you. There were moments that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, just like the first time I saw A Chip In The Sugar from the original Talking Heads series way back when I was 14 or 15, or when I first put on a tape of Beyond The Fringe. I’m so glad he’s still writing and making an impact – the world will be a far, far poorer place when he stops writing. No one has the same acute sense of detail, gentle or sensitive touch with tragedy or the same unassuming humour as him. I’ve always felt an affinity, a closeness to his words that I cannot and don’t really want to explain.
The reason I’ve always loved his writing – and why I love reading in general - is gloriously summed up by this line, spoken by Hector in The History Boys:
"The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours."
Thirdly, the songwriting of Steve Earle. I love some country music – essentially people who try and do something interesting or different within the genre (the same could be true for any of my tastes in music). But his, I admit, isn’t particularly ground-breaking or new. It is, however, distinctive. There’s not many people who can write songs that assess the state of the nation as accurately and pointedly as he did in Amerika v.6.0 – which incidentally is on the same album, Jerusalem, which gained him as much notoriety as acclaim in the US and led to his behaviour being monitored by the security services over there because of the song John Walker’s Blues which tells the story of a young American who joins the jihad against the West - I’ll put the lyrics below, but the song rocks as well as makes your brain tick, so I highly recommend checking it out for yourself. The whole album is wonderful (if you can take alt.country).
Amerika v. 6.0 (The Best We Can Do)
(Steve Earle)
Look at ya
Yeah, take a look in the mirror
now tell me what you see
Another satisfied customer in the front of the line for the American dream
I remember when we was both out on the boulevard
Talkin' revolution and singin' the blues
Nowadays it's letters to the editor and cheatin' on our taxes
Is the best that we can do
Come on
Look around
There's doctors down on Wall Street
Sharpenin' their scalpels and tryin' to cut a deal
Meanwhile, back at the hospital
We got accountants playin' God and countin' out the pills
Yeah, I know, that sucks – that your HMO
Ain't doin' what you thought it would do
But everybody's gotta die sometime and we can't save everybody
It's the best that we can do
Four score and a hundred and fifty years ago
Our forefathers made us equal as long as we can pay
Yeah, well maybe that wasn't exactly what they was thinkin'
Version six-point-oh of the American way
But hey we can just build a great wall around the country club
To keep the riff-raff out until the slump is through
Yeah, I realize that ain't exactly democratic, but it's either them or us
And it's the best we can do
Yeah, passionely conservative
It's the best we can do
Conservatively passionate
It's the best we can do
Meanwhile, still thinkin'
Hey, let's wage a war on drugs
It's the best we can do
Well, I don't know about you, but I kinda dig this global warming thing...
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