I don't have much time to write these days, as the Beasts are at the gates, so I find myself scribbling (yes, actually scribbling) notes to myself all day long. Sometimes they make it to the notebook, more often they end up on the backs of receipts or folded up index cards. It makes me think of Sam Shepard writing plays on the dashboard of his car as he drove across country. He said it forced him to write meaningful dialogue because he could only dash out three or four words at a time. Unfortunately for me, I wear cargo pants and can stuff my pockets full of blathering notes. But the notes themselves do tend to be boiled down to key ideas. Maybe I should just write stories that can fit on index cards (I wonder if that's how Amy Hempel starting writing). One paragraph stories, or even one sentence stories.
Of course, I would have to contend with Hemingway's famous (and a favorite of my father's) six word story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Did you know that Gertrude Stein set out to beat him and wrote a four word story? "She stayed away longer." It's evocative, but in a much more subtle way than Hem's. That means I'd have to do it in three or less. Pretty tough. See, the great thing about the baby shoes story is the immediate arrival upon reading it of the entire life of a relationship. I tried for a few minutes this morning but all I got was: "Fatally, he'd misunderstood." Misunderstood who (whom??)? There is no arrival of the story.
I could try for a two word story, but I'll need some more time. I don't know what the standard for this one is. Maybe, "Jesus wept." Although, for this story to be powerful, you have to know who Jesus is. If you don't, you'd think, "Who is this Hay-zeus fellow, and why is he weeping? Ah, those passionate Latins!" Humbert Humbert's summation of his mother's death is a good one - "Picnic. Lightning." - but you still need the backstory to get it.
As for one word stories, all words are one word stories, so it's just a matter of placement:
"There..."
Or something like that. Maybe "Nevermore!" is the standard here.
I completely skipped the option of a five word story. There's a twitter site devoted to this (find it yourself, hyperlink junky). I liked this entry:
"Intro. Crisis! Tension!! CLIMAX!!! Denouement."
But I have to say my favorite was, "And then we had sex." That's the ending of a lot of stories guys tell each other. It takes the place of saying "the end". So to end this nonsensical entry:
And then I wrote books.
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5 comments:
Thank you for this. It was a pleasure to read. I've often wondered about the power of brevity, the clarity of concise language, and the emotion that can be held in one word (oh sorry, too late, I fucked that up!).
Your post sent me on a tangent. I thought about the word and the pen. I found myself reading two verses of the Quran that specifically address the word and the pen. The first one is in the first words believed to be the beginning of revelation to the prophet - the first five verses of Surah Al Alaq. The second is in the first few verses of Surah Al Qalam.
It dawned on me, after reading these, how brilliant they are if one is a propagandist and beginning a career as a "the man behind the curtain". One would need a book, a revelation, exhorting the people to read what you're writing and to invest in it. If I where the wizaard of Oz, I'd write a revealed book. What would a revealed book in Oz be titled?
"Behold The Yellow Brick Road"?
Good post, Moose. I often get teased for reading Hemingway and being a hunter, the combo is irresistible to the tree huggers I tend to hang out with. That aside, I love his writing because he's so very good at brevity combined with power. Damn fine lion.
Strangely enough, I also love reading Pynchon for precisely the opposite reason.
An aside - speaking of the power of words/sounds - I believe, not entirely sure, but when Deepak Chopra asked for vedic yagnas to be performed on his behalf, the task fell to two cigar smoking vedic trash sorters in a trash dump outside new delhi - just sayin. Don't stop smoking a cigar every once in awhile - may be more to balancing the life of this world with metaphysical desires than meets the eye! At the end of the path could be a good Paratagas or Monte Cristo and a glass of single malt scotch - just sayin. The essence of it all is all things in moderation - the balance.
The prophet said “The best of all dealings is the one which is moderate.” He gave a stern warning to the extremists. They are the losers because they destroy themselves by themselves. Just sayin.
*sigh* mongo only pawn in game of life.
A revealed book in Oz? How about:
The Rubyshoes of Omar Khayyam?
(Wow, that was bad even for me...)
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