The first snow is magic so I took that picture above. It is the view from my bedroom window!
You will observe that yes, our screens are still on our windows. But still. I do enjoy the first snow, I have to say that. It makes you feel like a kid. You pad downstairs in your pajamas and something about the light is different and then, oh! There is snow outside! It is exciting! That is the way you feel when you are 8 and I am sorry, when I see the first snow now I feel the same way.
On the other hand I am feeling very adult today because of this book I am reading about Igor Stravinsky. It is called "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky." It is by this author Chris Greenhalgh.
"She responds to the accents of the music, feeling them chime with her insides."
"Stirred by the faint strains of the piano, she has been drawn like a somnambulist toward their source."
"Seeing Igor's hands ripple across the piano, she experiences a slow inflammation of her senses."
Goodness!
What if I were to write my book about Leonard Pennario like that?
I think it is best I do not!
This book on Stravinsky, this guy is a good writer but there is too much good writing. It is like chocolate cake. You need so-so sentences once in a while or it gets to be too much, you know? It is fun to read but after a while reading whole paragraphs like this...
Igor becomes abruptly aware of her presence, sensing her nearness like an animal. He stops playing, but does not turn around, remaining frozen in midgesture, his fingers tense and arrested above the keys. Coco moves like heat behind him. Two deft hands steal over his eyes.
... you get feeling like this:
"Slats of light from the shutters extend in bars across her body, improvising a keyboard the length of her naked back."
Ha, ha! Who knew that Stravinsky...
... led such a life?
OK, back to the bright snowy world.
Step away from the book on Stravinsky!
5 comments:
A good writer? Well...controversy now opens its eyes. Harold Ross, the founder of the New Yorker, might well have called the posted prose example "writer conscious" and scribbled "just showing off here" on a proof. Sounds overheated to me and tells more about primal mating instincts than the genius of Chanel and Stravinsky.
I've known people who write who have condemned the New Yorker for suffocating creativity with picky editing. You've never written about your ideas of good writing on this weblog as far as I know. Want to tell us what they are?
Hmmm, I have heard that Leonard was quite popular with the ladies. Maybe... nah.
Anyway, how can you live in Buffalo and still get excited about the snow. You guys get more snow in one minute than we get here in Norfolk all winter! The feeling you describe happens to me whenever I see a flake. Two flakes = a blizzard!
Oh yeah, yesterday, I forgot to say, be sure to put your snow tires on the car. :)
Prof. G, you are so nice to me! I have never really thought what I think makes good writing but I am so flattered to be asked about that. Your word "overheated" is so good. That book is overheated and yes, although I think the writer has a good command of language maybe I did speak too fast in saying he is a good writer.
Larry, the snow tires never did come off my car! Ahahahahaha
Yes, I remember that, Mary, and was just kidding with you. Now, I realize that it does snow an awful lot in Buffalo but really, it is OK to take off the snow tires during the summer. Unless, of course, you need the extra practice? :) It has been rumored that the snow tires last longer that way too. On the other hand, there is nothing like being prepared.
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