believered masses
January 25th, 2009Reading and re-reading the Gary Lutz talk: “but there are some writers whose mission is sometimes to deliver us from conclusion to conclusion instead of necessarily bogging us down in the facts, the data, the sorry particulars leading to each conclusion.”
From the Gordon Lish interview in postcards:
Dear Gordon Lish,
Below is a list that I posted over my bed that you, Gordon Lish, created about writing. Can you tell me a story that explains this list?
1.) Loosened association.
2.) Antic behavior.
3.) Autism.
4.) Morbid ambivalence.
John Lee
Gordon Lish replies: The items listed concern the devising of a method I once advocated as productive of a state conducive to the creation of an act of imaginative writing different from all other acts of the kind, the aim being to bring about an artifact of singular character. There might have been a fifth cue also possessed of an initial A. But there just as well might not have been. How many components would you say contrive to effect the singularity of a City Bakery peanut-butter cookie?