tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post5488375744888071628..comments2024-03-26T22:48:55.424-07:00Comments on Flying Totems: UnwritingBenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-71754658879163858392012-05-18T10:27:50.968-07:002012-05-18T10:27:50.968-07:00I can believe that there was Mark Twain did have t...I can believe that there was Mark Twain did have to fight some resistance on his own part. He was much more complex, I think, than most people realize.<br /><br />That's a formidable list of authors. Salinger is mentioned in the book I was talking about. (The narrator makes a dubious claim about seeing him in New York.) Hammett definitely drank too much, and may not have been prepared for the literary fame that happened to him.<br /><br />"But I wouldn’t want to put on noble airs, and I would be in no hurry whatever." That is a lovely quote. It sounds like Walser had some dog in him. :)<br /><br />And thank you deeply for the birthday wishes. Wouldn't have made it this far without you.Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-22310888468249042892012-05-16T19:38:14.579-07:002012-05-16T19:38:14.579-07:00I think it was Mark Twain who used to say somethin...I think it was Mark Twain who used to say something to the effect of the hardest part about writing being the difficulty of overcoming his resistance to getting his backside into the chair every day. Being Mark Twain, he said it better than I just did. I also suspect he was compelled to write. <br /><br />Books have been written about why successful authors like Harper Lee, E.M. Forster, J.D. Salinger, and Dashiel Hammett quit writing. I'd never heard of Robert Walser previously but he sounds to have been an exquisitely sensitive man. I can't help but wonder if he found the happiness he imagined in the passage quoted in the article about being rich:<br /><br />If I were rich, I wouldn’t travel around the world. To be sure, that would not be so bad. But I can see nothing wildly exciting about getting a fugitive acquaintance with foreign places. In general I would decline to educate myself, as they say, any further. I would be attracted by deep things and by the soul, rather than by distances and things far off. . . . And I wouldn’t buy anything either. I would make no acquisitions. . . . I would walk about on foot, just as usual, with the consciously secret intention of not letting people notice very much how regally rich I am. . . . It would never occur to me to take a cab. Only people who are in a hurry or want to put on noble airs do that. But I wouldn’t want to put on noble airs, and I would be in no hurry whatever. <br /><br />While he was unable to achieve success in the world he did find a safe harbor where he apparently did continue to write. Those were gentler times.<br /><br /><br />Happy Birthday ♡susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16747450215034568033noreply@blogger.com