Hi John, You write wonderfully imaginative posts. You are already a writer, and a good one. I think the point of view you choose will be whatever lends itself to the telling of your story. Is this an autobiography you have in mind? Why not be straightforward and use first person, then? If it's good enough, you can still make the top of the best-seller list without being a celebrity. I agree with you about second person. If not done carefully it can come off as supercilious or presumptive. What makes you think everyone would make your choices?
I have been thinking about writing a book too for the past 3 years. Every since I came to my senses. The sheltered Daddy's girl who did everything right; put herself through college, honor student, successful career, friends, nice home, cars, etc., etc., ad nauseum until the day she met the Biological Level head-on in the form of her third husband. Wow! Boy do I have stories - and I think my perspective is unique. I was not a wild child, but became a wild adult there for a while. All it took was for Daddy to die on my 41st birthday. This set a chain of events in motion that had probably been poised to happen all along. You see, I happen to believe that _everything_ that happens to us is our own fault. A few years ago some woman journalist wrote a book, "Nickel and Dimed", I think it was called. She went undercover to live the life of the poor in America, and attempted to show how hard even doing the smallest things to improve one's situation could be. She didn't know the half of it. For instance, did you know that when you are on food stamps you can buy food, but not toilet paper or toothpaste? I used to know the best place to get an inspection sticker without car insurance for the price of a six-pack of beer. This can be life-saving knowledge since there is absolutely no public transportation in Texas unless you happen to live in downtown Dallas. There are plenty of cops looking at stickers as they pass you on the road, though. There's a whole underworld out there that most middle-class type people never see. Human tragedies big and small are playing out daily. - Mary The most important thing you will ever make is a realization. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Carl Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 4:18 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [MD] Avatars, SOM and me You had to suffer shipwreck though your own efforts before you were ready to seize the lifebelt he threw you.... The Master knows you and each of his pupils much better than we know ourselves. He reads in the souls of his pupils more than they care to admit. Eugen Herrigel, Zen and the Art of Archery So I was thinking the other day, about writing. My brother in law wrote a book about when he and Lu were kids growing up in Africa and he used a literary device, I think it's called the "second person objective" or something like that. It went something like this: You walk down the hall to get a glass of water, you see that there is a need for another log on the fire and the cat needs to come in, so you set down your glass and open the woodstove... I guess it could be interesting if done really well, but coming from pure narcissism it's just real annoying. It flows from the assumption that everybody else would see things the way I see them, naturally. But then, he's annoying like that so I guess it makes sense that his writing would be too. Now, Pirsig, on the other hand, writes about himself in the third person, while narrating from the first person: I used to know this guy, I knew him really well. He's gone now, but not forgotten for he turned into me. See, the "me" that is in the past is just as much an entity separate from who I am now, than any other person I've read about in history books. But we don't think like that. We should, but we don't. But writing that way sort of forces you to confront the real situation as it is, and to an extent, by playing with the definitions of self, frees you from the ego-attachment to your old self. And really, when I'm writing about the guy I used to be, why should I do him any favors? He's certainly never done me any. If he had any consideration for me, he'd have dieted and exercized more and taken better care of his body so that when it came time for me to use it, I'd be in real good shape. On the other hand, I can't criticize him too hard because if I was in his position, I'd probably have done the same thing. In fact, that's what happened. Anyway, I wonder if any of you literary types are familiar with this technique and know what it's called. Lots of writers have referred to their past in the third person, but not from the ongoing narration of the first person. Pirsig did it because his past person was separated from his present person by electroshock therapy, but it doesn't take anything that dramatic to realize the separation. All it takes is a realization of a momentary separation between him and me. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
