Flood and Loathing
Flood and Loathing
This blog is written by an English professor in New Orleans. His name is Dale and I love reading his blog; I have to put some of it here because it dovetails perfectly with what my in-laws were telling me last December--people ARE stressing out in NO:
"Those of us still here walk around all jittery and suspicious, like kicked dogs.
"Because we’re scared. We’ve seen what happens when the Big One hits, or rather, when the Not Actually that Big but Big Enough near-misses, and as they keep telling us It Could Happen Again. So, yeah, we’re a bit spooked.
"Maybe because the city hasn’t made enough progress, maybe because they’ve been telling us to expect four or five evacuations this year, maybe because last week one of the new levees “slumped.” At least, that’s the word the media seemed to have agreed on using to describe how a large section of levee just dropped several feet. I guess “slumped” sounds better than “collapsed” or “broke” or “fell the fuck down.” Slumped has a kind of casualness to it, as if the levee was just feeling a little lazy and decided to kick back on the couch and crack open a beer for a bit."
Damn. That's good stuff--good writing, that is. And real. Real life. I've decided that as a writer, you really need to put yourself into situations that you wouldn't be in necessarily to grow as a human. Hard situations aren't always a perfect recipe for literary greatness, but choosing to live a different life from the rest of the couch potato writers in the country will definately give you an edge. You'll have the best stories to tell, to be sure. That's why I chose the life I live...but that's another story.
Thanks, Dale. Keep writing.
This blog is written by an English professor in New Orleans. His name is Dale and I love reading his blog; I have to put some of it here because it dovetails perfectly with what my in-laws were telling me last December--people ARE stressing out in NO:
"Those of us still here walk around all jittery and suspicious, like kicked dogs.
"Because we’re scared. We’ve seen what happens when the Big One hits, or rather, when the Not Actually that Big but Big Enough near-misses, and as they keep telling us It Could Happen Again. So, yeah, we’re a bit spooked.
"Maybe because the city hasn’t made enough progress, maybe because they’ve been telling us to expect four or five evacuations this year, maybe because last week one of the new levees “slumped.” At least, that’s the word the media seemed to have agreed on using to describe how a large section of levee just dropped several feet. I guess “slumped” sounds better than “collapsed” or “broke” or “fell the fuck down.” Slumped has a kind of casualness to it, as if the levee was just feeling a little lazy and decided to kick back on the couch and crack open a beer for a bit."
Damn. That's good stuff--good writing, that is. And real. Real life. I've decided that as a writer, you really need to put yourself into situations that you wouldn't be in necessarily to grow as a human. Hard situations aren't always a perfect recipe for literary greatness, but choosing to live a different life from the rest of the couch potato writers in the country will definately give you an edge. You'll have the best stories to tell, to be sure. That's why I chose the life I live...but that's another story.
Thanks, Dale. Keep writing.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home