Conversations June 22, 2010

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

4:30 AM. All right, who’s up?

Remember to include yesterday’s insight with this record.

All right. I take it that is tying two strands together for purposes of your own.

Yesterday I had this thought: In his writing, Hemingway attacked or addressed certain threads, not necessarily certain individuals. Critics looking for the key to his fiction can’t see that sometimes he may use this thread from here, that thread from there, to create a character. The threads are from life. The characters and situations and incidents don’t have to be.

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So You Think Your Life Was Wasted – Section Three (4)

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

[I learned long ago to be cautious about considering something my own bright idea just because it came to me. Case in point, the following. Funny thing here, I distinctly got the word “Gothic” in the place where I finally put it, and distinctly resisted it because I was afraid it was an anachronism, and finally got the nerve to put it in only when I looked in the dictionary and saw that indeed in the time Bertram was around, Gothic cathedrals were beginning to be built. Funny, this process. Lots of resistance to looking unnecessarily foolish. Since it may not be clear who is speaking, I add J for Joseph the Egyptian, B for Bertram, and S for Joseph Smallwood’s cameo appearance.]

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So You Think Your Life Was Wasted – Three (3)

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Gentlemen, at your service. Who’s up? Pray bring whomever I need.

[Bertram, a monk of Medieval England] The word “pray” attracted me, brother. And this, by the way, is why you should watch the words you use – one reason that words are so powerful is that they vibrate particular strings, to use our “rings and threads” analogy, and so an unintended resonance may bring to light something you would rather not rouse. I do not mean this as any threat or fear-rousing picture. In my day these things were better understood than in yours, but our language describing them has become strange to you, and so for the moment our knowledge has been lost to you.

Say more, brother. And welcome. I can’t quite remember but it seems to me this communication may be a first between us.

A first occurrence in this format, yes. We have exchanged words before – and you and I share many a thread and already in your life you have consciously shared a task with me and both of us with Joseph the Egyptian.

Continue reading So You Think Your Life Was Wasted – Three (3)