Personally, I believe staying in the same place for extended
periods of time, living in a form of stasis, is bad for writing – eventually
you’ll start writing in circles, only writing “what you know”.
It’s best, and
beneficial, for some to get out of their comfort zones, travel, and experience
new things for inspiration. Not only does getting out there expose you to a new
plethora of experiences, but it also allows yourself to be subject to
contingency – or accidents.
This is what the author of my essay, Jonathan Garfinkel (“By
Accident: A Young Writer’s Life”) believes. He is the author of one book of
poetry, Glass Psalms, and three
plays, Walking to Russia, The Trials of John Demjanjuk: A Holocaust
Cabaret, and his most recent play, about a divided house in Jerusalem
(inspired by a story he heard and then his own experiences), Blind.
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| Jonathan Garfinkel |
By the advice of a dream-apparition of Margaret Atwood,
Jonathan flew to Mexico and began staying in his friend’s cabin to begin his
writing career – though it didn’t start off as easily as he had hoped. However,
one day, he went outside to turn on the propane, not realizing it was already
on, and almost killed himself by lighting a cigarette and triggering an
explosion that made him temporarily blind. This freak accident “opened a door
inside [him]” and shortly after, he wrote his first good poem. By not opening
up himself to experience this accident, Jonathan may have never become a
functioning writer.
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| Steve McOrmond |
My poet, Steve McOrmond’s poem, “The Hypochondriac Flies to
Mexico”, I believe, also employs this idea.
It is a poem about a person who is afraid of becoming ill
entering what they think is the worst place to be: a confined space with dozens
of people – an airplane. He repeats the line, "The plane is sick." and personifies the actions of the plane with sickly phrases like its "feverish chills shudder" and describes its hatch as "a stopper in a test tube of plague." The speaker's nightmare becomes more and more real in their
mind as they see people "wheeze[ing]", "sob[ing]" and, the most terrifying of all, using the washroom – though
they are only seeing what they want to see to make the nightmare come true. Though
it is unclear who the speaker is and who they are speaking to, one can assume
that due to the circumstances brought on by the fear, they reveal to who they
are speaking to that they love them – something they may have not done if not
in this new situation, pushing them out of their comfort zone.
Hey, maybe it’s a stretch. But, apparently, Mexico is a
popular place for writers to visit and/or write about.
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| Here's a random Mexican guy. |
This is a good point to make: writers need to travel, move around and experience in order to get new inspiration for their writing. It amazes me how poets can take common experiences and make them sound original but familiar at the same time (like the plane poem).Steve McOrmond’s poem, “The Hypochondriac Flies to Mexico” includes a continuous line of personification "The plane is sick". It's the major theme of the poem and many subjects and ideas come from it. It struck me, while reading the poem. I hope you touch on this line during your presentation. Your visuals for your blog are great and it was great to include personal opinions as well as the poem itself.
ReplyDeleteI agree that stepping outside of one's comfort zone is essential to creativity. We must face our fears to be able to write something real.
ReplyDeleteI think that you are right about moving outside your current surroundings, but perhaps one should use up the resources they have before exploring those they don't. I'm not so ssure moving to Mexico is completely necessary, there are many great writers who never left where they are from. Look at George R. Martin, writer of the Game of Thrones series for instance, I recently saw an interview where he said that he never left home, and that the world of his books was one he made up, and saw as what Coney Island must be, because it was some place he'd never been. So maybe one should look around, before they move around. Also, I hope not every writer needs to almost kill themselves to write a good poem!
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