Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Erasings Days
In response to an earlier post from Barry, I though I should expand a little on the theme of the anthology and how it came about.
Over the course of the past few years, I have found a little time on my hands and as such found myself reading about people on Wikipedia. It was there I discovered a man by the name of Hugh Everett, a physicist who brought a theory about parallel worlds and universes to the world. Cascaded and frowned upon after he wrote it, Everett moved away from Academia and worked for the US government in various roles up until his untimely death early in his fifties.
Everett's theory has since been accepted as a ground-breaking work in the years since he wrote it. Everett was an alcoholic and could be a little eccentric. His family life laid him bare as a cold being, his wife died young as did his daughter, who committed suicide soon after her father's death. His son Mark is the lead singer with the group Eels.
If you want to find out more about Everett's life, I suggest you watch a documentary called Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, if for no other reason than to learn a little more about this extraordinary story.
His theory speaks to me somewhat. Though it is difficult to comprehend, it does open up another line of thinking when it comes to thought about who we are and what existence is all about. From that and in an effort to try and come up with a loosely based theme for the anthology, I thought I'd ask the participating writers to explore a theme surrounding 'if there was one day in life they could erase'.
I told everybody that they could draw from that what they please, but I felt it was important to at least attempt to have a running theme through all the short stories and that's what I came up with.
Though my own story has nothing to do with scientific theory, or is in no way aligned with Hugh Everett's thinking, two events from his life brought me to that theme. The first was his death of a heart attach at just 51. Stemming from that was his request for his ashes to be thrown out with the trash. Maybe they were two days he would have liked to erase, but then again perhaps not.
Everett believed in a many worlds theory where absolutely everything was possible, good or bad. Since science can't argue with him, even to this day, it is a wonderful thought when you think of the good. It was something I kept in mind when i wrote It's What You leave Behind and I felt it worked well. I hope the theme provides interesting angles for all the writers involved in this, be they good or bad.
Over the course of the past few years, I have found a little time on my hands and as such found myself reading about people on Wikipedia. It was there I discovered a man by the name of Hugh Everett, a physicist who brought a theory about parallel worlds and universes to the world. Cascaded and frowned upon after he wrote it, Everett moved away from Academia and worked for the US government in various roles up until his untimely death early in his fifties.
Everett's theory has since been accepted as a ground-breaking work in the years since he wrote it. Everett was an alcoholic and could be a little eccentric. His family life laid him bare as a cold being, his wife died young as did his daughter, who committed suicide soon after her father's death. His son Mark is the lead singer with the group Eels.
If you want to find out more about Everett's life, I suggest you watch a documentary called Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, if for no other reason than to learn a little more about this extraordinary story.
His theory speaks to me somewhat. Though it is difficult to comprehend, it does open up another line of thinking when it comes to thought about who we are and what existence is all about. From that and in an effort to try and come up with a loosely based theme for the anthology, I thought I'd ask the participating writers to explore a theme surrounding 'if there was one day in life they could erase'.
I told everybody that they could draw from that what they please, but I felt it was important to at least attempt to have a running theme through all the short stories and that's what I came up with.
Though my own story has nothing to do with scientific theory, or is in no way aligned with Hugh Everett's thinking, two events from his life brought me to that theme. The first was his death of a heart attach at just 51. Stemming from that was his request for his ashes to be thrown out with the trash. Maybe they were two days he would have liked to erase, but then again perhaps not.
Everett believed in a many worlds theory where absolutely everything was possible, good or bad. Since science can't argue with him, even to this day, it is a wonderful thought when you think of the good. It was something I kept in mind when i wrote It's What You leave Behind and I felt it worked well. I hope the theme provides interesting angles for all the writers involved in this, be they good or bad.
Theme And The Me.
I suffer from a bad case of second guessing. A large part of my writing life is always questioning my ability, my product, my work ethic. Am I wrong in doubting myself? Probably. but having completed a first draft and working now on a second - or first rewrite if you prefer - I keep coming back to the theme. I'll not give the game away just yet, as I've noticed no-one has advertised the theme of the anthology yet, but ...
When I was first informed of the theme for the book I had just finished watching a recently released movie with my older son and thought WOW! This guys psychic. That's just the same as the movie I just watched. Since then, I've sent my first draft to my favourite editor and her first comment referred me to another movie - totally different - that worked along the lines of my story. There's a love story that's mixed in that, and it's a seriously hard movie to watch, but thematically it's the same. Then (there's always a then) I'm asked by one of my readers if I was comfortable ripping off one of my favourite writers, Philip K Dick.
So now, out come all those petty insecurities that just wait to explode out of my mind. Have a committed the crime of ripping off a great writer with my own poor efforts? Will people think back to a hard to watch movie and go gee, he certainly liked THAT idea. Is my writing fresh enough, individual enough, GOOD enough?
On second read-thru, following exhaustive soul-searching (didn't find one) and fighting the misgivings of taking food from the mouths of writers I admire (yes' he's gone on to that next great adventure, but you know what I mean) I have decided that yes, I write very goodly, I am fresh and innovative and I will give the theme a new voice through my work.
I think.
More as it comes to hand. Blog.
Whatever.
Intercontinental Ink. The only ink I use now.
When I was first informed of the theme for the book I had just finished watching a recently released movie with my older son and thought WOW! This guys psychic. That's just the same as the movie I just watched. Since then, I've sent my first draft to my favourite editor and her first comment referred me to another movie - totally different - that worked along the lines of my story. There's a love story that's mixed in that, and it's a seriously hard movie to watch, but thematically it's the same. Then (there's always a then) I'm asked by one of my readers if I was comfortable ripping off one of my favourite writers, Philip K Dick.
So now, out come all those petty insecurities that just wait to explode out of my mind. Have a committed the crime of ripping off a great writer with my own poor efforts? Will people think back to a hard to watch movie and go gee, he certainly liked THAT idea. Is my writing fresh enough, individual enough, GOOD enough?
On second read-thru, following exhaustive soul-searching (didn't find one) and fighting the misgivings of taking food from the mouths of writers I admire (yes' he's gone on to that next great adventure, but you know what I mean) I have decided that yes, I write very goodly, I am fresh and innovative and I will give the theme a new voice through my work.
I think.
More as it comes to hand. Blog.
Whatever.
Intercontinental Ink. The only ink I use now.
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