Monday, March 03, 2008

A friend writes:

Creative non-fiction - which is autobiographical, but
is always dangerous because the images and characters
are so present, so vivid, that when I write I take a
lot for granted - forgetting that the reader cannot
see what I see.

That shower of dust particles dancing in that lazy afternoon light, sepia tinted with gold The timbre of voices, crystal, as they rose in unison, tackling mundane scales, now supportive, now showing off.

The fine wrinkle lines on the corners of my eyes and the laugh lines when I look in the mirror and see what I want to see.

The intricate needle point of a memory that recalls events from five decades ago, but not as much last week, or that important letter in today’s mail.

How could you ever see that?

Charade. A 1963 thriller. Audrey Hepburn, perfect, lovely clothes, and they all stay on. A completely impressive Cary Grant. Witty, laugh a minute. The dialogues are so crisp you couldn’t pare them if you tried. Yes, we finally watched this last night.

7 comments:

Portia said...

Your friend makes a good point. I could get lost trying to explain my own perspective, when there is no way for another to truly know it anyway.

Anonymous said...

That is a real problem: What does your reader know? For whom are you writing? All the whit can drop like lead, it can all go terribly wrong. In a way a writer creates the reader.

Charade - I always thought it to be a Hitchcock, but after some decades I now know that I am wrong.

AmitL said...

Hi,Austy-is this you writing or your friend,I wonder?Some nice,vivid images conjured up.


BTW, what is this-it appears in each paragraph of your post:
if !supportEmptyParas]endif]--

austere said...

portia- sometimes there are too many differences and factors, way too many..

mago- very well said, the writer creates the reader, each viewing througj a different lens, yet we try...:) not Hitchcock, but superbly funny.

Amit- the para at the top she wrote, the rest I did. the code has to do with google's html issues, no clue. I asked for your mail id, where is it?

Baby Island said...

You ask, "How could you ever see that?" I can and do, lovely descriptive words. As always.

AmitL said...

ah..I just came back to give the mail id,and,I see your question:)ayeayealatgmail

austere said...

babyisland: thank you smiles.

amitl- ty. the code is rather disconcerting isn't it, now you see it, now you don't...