Sometimes, late at night on the deck, I will write a particularly tasty passage and wish I had somebody to read it to right then. I’ll even read it back to myself out loud and say, “Now that’s some good writing, right there. Top shelf!”
Blake Atwood reminded me of this Monty Python sketch, one of my favorites.
I have often reflected on how weird it is for some professions to not only be done as thousands or millions of people watch (sports, music, acting) but even weirder that some are subjected to endless analysis and discussion.
Consider the pre-game/post-game shows for football and other sports. These things occur before/after every single game for the entire season, hours and hours spent dissecting every player and play, their past performance, their future prospects. The only other profession that comes close is the politician.
Imagine if we did the same thing for musicians. What if every stop on a rock star’s tour was televised, with instant replays of especially tasty passages, and post-concert analysis of the bands performance were dissected and analyzed, compared to the last ten concerts, and compared to stats and abilities of the other national rock stars in their conference or league?
This video spoofs that kind of thing for novelists.
1 comment:
You're right, of course. As usual. But I much preferred your reflection over Monty Python's (fan though I am) rendition. Would've been so much better had they actually treated it as a book club group might, with dissent ranging from voice and vocab to interpretation and intent. A lot can be said for the English professor who argues against the student that despite the author's meaning, he, the professor, will lecture the class on what the author's book *really* meant.
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