Bradbury Prescription Day 2: Plath, Bradbury, and Bernard Shaw

Poem: Sylvia Plath - Trio of Love Songs

I have never read much of Sylvia Plath. I remember vaguely discussing her work in high school, but, like most teenagers, my heart was not in it because it was an assignment. I also must get around to reading her novel "The Bell Jar," one of these days (shameful, I know). From what I have heard, I will need to make sure I am ready for an emotional day when I do get around to it.

As for the poem this time around, I quite enjoyed "Trio of Love Songs." It is the last of the trio that I want to focus on because it made me realize that I have been going about this writing thing all wrong. This is a sentiment that was later solidified the same evening as I reread an essay in "Zen in the Art of Writing," by the catalyst, himself, Mr. Ray Bradbury.

Take a look at the last of the trio:

Trio of Love Songs (3)
by Sylvia Plath

If you dissect a bird
to diagram the tongue,
you'll cut the chord
articulating song.

If you flay a beast
to marvel at the mane,
you'll wreck the rest
from which the fur began.

If you assault a fish
to analyse the fin,
your hands will crush
the generating bone.

If you pluck out my heart
to find what makes it move,
you'll halt the clock
that syncopates our love.

The surface message hits you right on the nose. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." In other words, if you love something, don't analyze the situation too much or hold on too tightly. This can be taken many different ways and I believe the message can certainly hold true between two human beings.

However, as this blog is about writing, I immediately thought of my love for writing and how I had forgotten a fundamental element that made writing such a joy in elementary, middle, and high school. That element is freedom, not of yourself, but of the freedom you allow your words. After reading this poem, I immediately reached for my copy of "Zen in the Art of Writing," as I think Mr. Bradbury summed up my missing element (he calls it surprise) quite eloquently.

In the essay, "Just This Side of Byzantium: Dandelion Wine," he writes:

I began to learn the nature of such surprises, thank God, when I was fairly young as a writer. Before that, like every beginner, I thought you could beat, pummel, and thrash an idea into existence. Under such treatment, of course, any decent idea folds up its paws, turns on its back, fixes its eyes on eternity, and dies.

I think he just nailed my struggle that I have so expertly crafted in my adulthood. Put bluntly, I analyze the shit out of everything. If I have an idea, I analyze it to death. If I actually manage to put said idea to paper, I analyze that writing until it throws up its hands and surrenders to the unstoppable force of my left brain.

You see, as a child and growing into a teenager, I did not have the weight of "life experience," to hold down my writing. My writing was absolutely absurd. I wrote about pickle bombs and heinous rods of thwacking. I wrote poetry comparing toast coming out of a toaster to a soul escaping from Hell.

I need to channel the creative naïveté that I had in school into my writing today. Since I do have "life experience" now, by combining that creative process with the lessons and experiences of today, my writing should be richer for it. So, I will try my hardest from this point on to chill and let my most ridiculous thoughts do the typing.

Short Story: Ray Bradbury - The Toynbee Convector

I needed a Bradbury fix tonight, so I decided to read one of his short stories. I was fortunate enough to come across a first edition of the book "The Toynbee Convector," by Ray Bradbury on a recent trip to Palo Alto, CA.

Ray Bradbury's "The Toynbee Convector" - First Edition.

The titular "Toynbee Convector" is about a device called the Toynbee Convector, that is, essentially, a time machine, and the man who used it returning to the "present." This was most certainly named after the historian "Arnold J. Toynbee" as indicated in the text. Toynbee (the man), presented the idea that civilizations rise and fall based on challenges they face and the response they have to those challenges.

I will not ruin the plot for those who haven't read it, but that singular idea presented by Toynbee is the theme of the story and it is prevalent front and center. The plot definitely comes secondary and only as a mechanism to explore the theme. The story talks about apathy and cynicism of society. I believe Bradbury may have even unknowingly foreseen the decline of the U.S. space program due to our collective lack of enthusiasm. 

The challenge and response that Toynbee was talking about was on a macro scale, but I started to think about my own challenge and response mechanism on a personal level. I wondered if that's what it will take for me to finally get serious (but not too serious) about my writing.

It is true that I have always produced my best work under a deadline, but I think over the next few years I will dig deeper and see how I can challenge myself to "rise to the occasion." Even if that challenge is to be more ridiculous, I think the result will pleasantly surprise me.

Essay: George Bernard Shaw - Ideals and Idealists

Optimist, n. - A proponent of the doctrine that black is white. 
Source: "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce.

For those who have not read it, "The Devil's Dictionary" is a wonderful piece of satire that offers alternative definitions of words that are closer to what a cynic might think.

I could not help but to go straight to my copy of the Devil's Dictionary after reading the essay "Ideals and Idealists," by George Bernard Shaw. In the essay, Shaw discusses ideals and idealists contrasting the constructs to realists. It is absolutely fantastic.

I could write an entire series of blog posts on this essay. For the purposes of this endeavor, I will limit my composition to the general idea. I get the distinct feeling that Shaw and I would have gotten along famously. Shaw is a realist and, in my opinion, argues from a realists point of view.

The basic idea is this. Many people, not able to bear inconvenient or even terrifying truths about their circumstance, life, society, or whatever, mask those truths in what Shaw refers to as ideals. According to Shaw, ideals are the pretty pictures that we want to believe, when the truth is unbearable. This is an interesting point that he sums up nicely with the following line:

For the fox not only declares that the grapes he cannot get are sour: he also insists that the sloes he can get are sweet.

This bit of prose is all about the "pretty little lies" that we tell ourselves to fit a situation neatly into one of our ideals. Anecdotally, I believe that this happens often. I know that I have even been guilty of it at one point or another.

If this line of thinking is applied to an entire society, one begins to see people's actions through a different lens. One can see how intelligent, well-educated people form their ideas that seem counter-intuitive to some. There are those that just accept the stories in the Bible as absolutely true instead of metaphors and allegory. There are those that would deny a loving couple the right to adopt simply based on their sexual orientation.

They have these beliefs because they align with their ideals. Ideals about the traditional family or traditional religious belief. When someone comes along that challenges those ideals, these same intelligent, well-educated people may resort to anything from character assassination to real assassination to "protect" those ideals. This phenomenon is described nicely by Shaw in the following passage:

The great musician, accepted by the unskilled listener, is vilified by his fellow-musicians...

The great artist finds his foes among the painters, and not among the men in the street.

So, why am I discussing all of this and what does this have to do with writing? Well, I see this enlightenment as a way to understand character motivation. Perhaps I will create opposing ideals in a story and watch two characters go at it. Instant conflict, people! These challenges are opening up my mind more than I thought they ever would.

I'll leave you with this passage, also from the definition of an optimist in the Devil's Dictionary.

A pessimist applied to God for relief.

"Ah, you wish me to restore your hope and cheerfulness," said God.

"No," replied the petitioner, "I wish you to create something that would justify them.

"The world is all created," said God, "but you have overlooked something--
the mortality of the optimist."