<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I know is that at a very ear\u00adly stage of the nov\u00adel\u00ad\u2019s devel\u00adop\u00adment I get this urge to gar\u00adner bits of straw and fluff, and eat peb\u00adbles. Nobody will ever dis\u00adcov\u00ader how clear\u00adly a bird visu\u00adal\u00adizes, or if it visu\u00adal\u00adizes at all, the future nest and the eggs in it.\u201d \u2014 V. Nabokov, Play\u00adboy<\/em> inter\u00adview<\/a>, 1964<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For weeks\u2014no, make that months<\/em>\u2014I\u2019ve been col\u00adlect\u00ading some weird-ass twigs, mud and oth\u00ader junk to build a new nest, or nov\u00adel, of my own, but I have no idea what the dis\u00adparate items mean in terms of what the \u201cfuture nest and the eggs in it\u201d will look like.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d like to share this list with you in the hopes that some\u00adbody will email me<\/a> a cogent the\u00ado\u00adry on the sto\u00adry my sub\u00adcon\u00adscious is work\u00ading on.<\/p>\n
So, fol\u00adlow\u00ading are the \u201cbits of straw and fluff\u201d I\u2019ve been gath\u00ader\u00ading, in the form of books read, sub\u00adjects inves\u00adti\u00adgat\u00aded, old mem\u00ado\u00adries remem\u00adbered, ques\u00adtions asked, and top\u00adics debat\u00aded. I look for\u00adward to your the\u00ado\u00adries. Good luck.<\/p>\n
\n\n
- Sto\u00adries by Russ\u00adian & French authors about duels (yes, duels<\/em>): Chekov\u2019s \u201cThe Duel\u201d; Nabokov\u2019s \u201cAn Affair of Hon\u00adour\u201d; Pushk\u00adin\u2019s \u201cThe Shot\u201d; Ler\u00admon\u00adtov\u2019s \u201cA Hero of Our Time\u201d; and Mau\u00adpas\u00adsan\u00adt\u2019s \u201cA Duel\u201d.<\/li>\n
- A New York\u00ader<\/em> arti\u00adcle<\/a> on the his\u00adto\u00adry of duelling.<\/li>\n
- A mem\u00ado\u00adry from when I was a news\u00adpa\u00adper reporter and, rogue that I was, dat\u00aded my edi\u00adtor\u2019s girl\u00adfriend; I only asked her out because she did the announce\u00adments at a now-defunct depart\u00adment store that I hap\u00adpened to be in, and she had a pro\u00adfound\u00adly sexy Mar\u00adi\u00adlyn Mon\u00adroe-like voice, and I decid\u00aded then and there that I want\u00aded to hear that voice whis\u00adper\u00ading sweet noth\u00adings in my ear\u2014not to men\u00adtion I won\u00addered what kind of kiss\u00ader a girl with such a voice would be like; to this day, I have to call her \u201cCal\u00addor Girl\u201d because I can\u2019t remem\u00adber her name.<\/li>\n
- McCan\u00adn\u2019s steel-cut oat\u00admeal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n\n
- How good can a pen\u00adcil be if it isn\u2019t made any\u00admore (the Eber\u00adhard Faber Black\u00adwing 602<\/a>) yet peo\u00adple are will\u00ading to shell out $250 and up for a box of twelve of them?<\/li>\n
- Mod\u00adel train \u201clay\u00adouts\u201d and the idea of what goes on there when you\u2019re not around.<\/li>\n
- Why the F\u2013K did they can\u00adcel my favorite TV show, Boston Legal<\/em>?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n\n
- Should I give the check\u00aders at our local gro\u00adcery store a Christ\u00admas tip? And if so, what about the UPS guy? The wait\u00adress\u00ades at the din\u00ader? Where does it end? What\u2019s the eti\u00adquette here?<\/li>\n
- Is fic\u00adtion, as James Joyce once said, \u201cimag\u00adined auto\u00adbi\u00adog\u00adra\u00adphy\u201d? Or was he just drunk when he said this?<\/li>\n
- Should I go out to Boston soon to vis\u00adit my old professor\/mentor, and when I do, should I take the train, and if I take the train, how will the expe\u00adri\u00adence tie into my mus\u00adings on mod\u00adel trains?<\/li>\n
- Charles Ingalls as a role mod\u00adel for young men.<\/li>\n
- Is it pos\u00adsi\u00adble to anthro\u00adpo\u00admor\u00adphize the quin\u00adtes\u00adsen\u00adtial inan\u00adi\u00admate object, a pen\u00adcil<\/a>, to the extent that when its lit\u00adtle sto\u00adry is done (or the pen\u00adcil \u201cdies\u201d), read\u00aders or \u201cfol\u00adlow\u00aders\u201d feel a sense of loss?<\/li>\n
- Why do I keep expe\u00adri\u00adenc\u00ading phan\u00adtom smells? Over the past few years, they\u2019ve been smells of gas, garbage, sewage and now smoke. Are they caused by nose polyps as the ENT guy recent\u00adly sug\u00adgest\u00aded, my his\u00adto\u00adry of migraines, or are we talk\u00ading some\u00adthing more dis\u00adturb\u00ading here like tem\u00adpo\u00adral lobe seizures or a tumor? And, is there some way I could give this trait to a char\u00adac\u00adter?<\/li>\n
- Old-fash\u00adioned glass milk bottles\u2014they were great; why\u2019d they get rid of them?<\/li>\n
- The lack of integri\u00adty of most peo\u00adple, like my land\u00adlord, and know\u00ading how the Russ\u00adian writ\u00aders lam\u00adpooned guys like him.<\/li>\n
- Kashi Heart-to-Heart Apples and Cin\u00adna\u00admon Instant Oatmeal\u2014yummy.<\/li>\n
- Why Alexas despis\u00ades oat\u00admeal; what trau\u00admat\u00adic event hap\u00adpened to her at camp as a kid?<\/li>\n
- The unbe\u00adliev\u00adable assort\u00adment of CRAP you find in dol\u00adlar stores; yet, at the same time, how you serendip\u00adi\u00adtous\u00adly stum\u00adble upon good books there, includ\u00ading this lit\u00ader\u00adary gem<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cAll I know is that at a very ear\u00adly stage of the nov\u00adel\u00ad\u2019s devel\u00adop\u00adment I get this urge to gar\u00adner bits of straw and\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-writingexperiences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2670,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions\/2670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}