As some commenters have ruefully noted, TN has been on a lull for the past fortnight. I have a few reviews to write - and will, I hope, in the near future. This time I don't even have the excuse of being distracted by other work: I simply seem to have run out of words. It's a mysterious inability: as Orwell noted once, when a writer says he can't write, he really can't. However, this paragraph is a note of intent, and perhaps returning writerliness.
Nice try Alison. But Orwell's comment clearly only applies to men. ("he really can't")
ReplyDeleteNo excuses! :)
Dear Orwell. His sexism is a real problem, but someone who wrestled with such anguish and transparency with his own heavily conditioned upbringing deserves credit. It would have felt wrong, all the same, translating his pronouns... so I'll just leave you with the highly arguable thought that the writer has no gender.
ReplyDeleteMy sympathies. There are times when new reflections on acting and the teaching of acting, which is what I write about in my blog, come effortlessly, and others when they quite simply do not.
ReplyDelete"Alack, what poverty my muse brings forth!"
Hope the muse returns soon Alison. I have missed reading your reviews/thoughts this past month.
ReplyDeleteThanks, James and Andrew. I think my muse went on strike, complaining bitterly of overwork. I've been doing the sweet talk, and hoping I will finally upload something today. Fingers crossed!
ReplyDeleteOrwell also wrote 'Confessions of Book Reviewer', that scurrilously honest appraisal of reviewing in which he seems to be saying the opposite. To wit, a writer can write even if he says he can't, if the consequence of not writing is a blank page in the newspaper. Still, I know how you feel.
ReplyDeleteYes: and it's true that I have (almost) never missed a deadline - though I'm right on the nervy edge of one now, and have begged an extension, which is very rare for me. Deadlines have always been an excellent motivation... All the same, what you write for deadlines when that inner refusal is happening can end up kind of empty. And I hate that.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it hideous? Good luck with your deadline.
ReplyDelete