"If you could spend a day with one writer, living or dead, who would it be and why?"
This is a toss-up. I'd either spend it with F.S. Fitzgerald so I could teach him about why and how the last page of The Great Gatsby is so awesome: simple, but UTTER BEAUTY in words. (It is possible he would already know this, but I think he did it on instinct. Yes, I know, creative writing teachers are currently having heart attacks thinking about the loss of pennies, after I've written these words, but that's what I think.) Then I'd go for a drink with him and get maudlin about how the glitter of life is actually vacant (nothing).
OR. I'd spend the day with Gertrude Stein. She wrote something so bad that -
Ok, yes, the experiments she did led, once diluted, to some of my favourite writing - FSF, WF, EH -
But she wrote something so terrible I physically couldn't read it. I was at uni, and I kept trying but it made me feel physically sick. It wasn't gross, it was repetitive. Each time I tried to read the second paragraph, which was basically the same as the first except one tiny detail changed, my brain said 'Read that, skip to the end.' And I just couldn't override it. It is one of only 2 primary texts that I didn't finish at uni, and at the time I wrote a play about it where she was an evil zombie coming at me for vengeance, after I burnt her book. It was called 'The Gertruder'.
So, if I came across her reanimated self, I'd make her act in my play.
Just for fun.
This is a toss-up. I'd either spend it with F.S. Fitzgerald so I could teach him about why and how the last page of The Great Gatsby is so awesome: simple, but UTTER BEAUTY in words. (It is possible he would already know this, but I think he did it on instinct. Yes, I know, creative writing teachers are currently having heart attacks thinking about the loss of pennies, after I've written these words, but that's what I think.) Then I'd go for a drink with him and get maudlin about how the glitter of life is actually vacant (nothing).
OR. I'd spend the day with Gertrude Stein. She wrote something so bad that -
Ok, yes, the experiments she did led, once diluted, to some of my favourite writing - FSF, WF, EH -
But she wrote something so terrible I physically couldn't read it. I was at uni, and I kept trying but it made me feel physically sick. It wasn't gross, it was repetitive. Each time I tried to read the second paragraph, which was basically the same as the first except one tiny detail changed, my brain said 'Read that, skip to the end.' And I just couldn't override it. It is one of only 2 primary texts that I didn't finish at uni, and at the time I wrote a play about it where she was an evil zombie coming at me for vengeance, after I burnt her book. It was called 'The Gertruder'.
So, if I came across her reanimated self, I'd make her act in my play.
Just for fun.
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