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Required viewing, guys! It's only 15 minutes, Oscar-nominated, and I hope it wins! Just what my tattered spirit needed at this very time:

http://neondust.tumblr.com/pos...in-equal-measures-by

"Awwwwwwww…esome!

Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, 'Morris Lessmore' is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor.

(via Nerdcore)"
 
Posts: 7299 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Dandy, this is truly a "marvelous" piece of animation! You made my day!

"Everyone one on the board... now, pay attention class! Take fifteen minutes out of your busy day and enjoy this - from start to finish. You will be very pleased that you have treated yourself to this work of art. No distractions or interruptions allowed. It has all of your old friends, since your childhood, cast in roles that speak clearly and maybe even emotionally. You'll see."
Enjoy!!

(I will be sharing this with everyone I care about and with whom I taught over the years! It's a classic! Right from the spirit of all that RB has taught us. The main character is, indeed, and an ironically appropriate lead, Dandelion! This must win the Oscar!!)
 
Posts: 2803 | Location: Basement of a NNY Library | Registered: 07 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Beautiful! Something tells me Ray would like this.


- Phil

Deputy Moderator | Visit my Bradbury website: www.bradburymedia.co.uk | Visit the Center for RB Studies: www.tinyurl.com/RBCenter
 
Posts: 5029 | Location: UK | Registered: 07 April 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Wonderful! Thanks so much for telling us about that, Dandy.
 
Posts: 699 | Location: Cape Town, South Africa | Registered: 29 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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phil, I immediately sent a message to his daughter. She happened to be visiting her dad at the time, it seemed. She was going to set up a computer to assist Mr. B's viewing of the video!

I have sent this to countless friends and have received numerous appreciative replies already! How Nice.
 
Posts: 2803 | Location: Basement of a NNY Library | Registered: 07 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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That's awesome that Ray is going to see this, and even more awesome that he learned of it because I heard of it through my interest in Buster! This may just restore me to my October 9 - to December 9 level! (Fingers crossed!)
 
Posts: 7299 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Most of the people I know and encounter are not book people. So enjoyed this and can relate. Thanks dandelion.
 
Posts: 861 | Location: Tuscaloosa, Alabama | Registered: 06 July 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by fjp451:

(It's a classic! Right from the spirit of all that RB has taught us. The main character is, indeed, and an ironically appropriate lead, Dandelion! This must win the Oscar!!)


Yeah, I really envy the name and felt I should have thought of it, especially as I have two uncles named Leslie. Plus, the story is great, and to link Keaton with books, and now of all times! Of course my book would be far from the first on Keaton, but still people have made him out as less of a reader than he probably even was and above almost anyone he knew the power of story. It helps to see this story told in so many different and even new forms, it feels, as the review said, old and cutting-edge, exactly as I want my book to be. This is all I found on the creator, http://www.williamjoyce.com/ it has some information but apparently no contact. There are interviews with him various places around the web, which is how I found out about other things like the storybook. I don't need to tell you above all things this is what I needed to see at this time. I found out about it on one Keaton Facebook group and a couple of days later the other group posted it, so I'd known about it for some time but was just too upset to watch. Same with my Keaton DVDs, I'm getting back into them gradually but still dragging a lot of baggage. Keaton viewers pointed out that the name reminded them of Lester Snapwell, a character Keaton played in a promotional film for Kodak about the history of photography I found fascinating. Sadly, here is the latest history: http://www.blogto.com/city/200...th_of_kodak_heights/ Keaton fans also thought of his style of acting, "less is more."

Morris Lessmore was a great film and it helped, but I don't know if it by itself will help me find what I need here. I will try getting in touch with Zee to learn what Ray thought of it and see if she passed on that I was the one to find it, plus other well wishes I sent to Ray. Although Ray is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences I understand he doesn't usually bother voting but maybe this will convince him to vote on short subjects at least.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dandelion,
 
Posts: 7299 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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"To love is to recognize yourself in another."

Guys, this is profound! I think we all learned from Morris Lessmore (or should have) that the 15-minute short doesn't try to be the two-hour epic but can have as much or more to say and as great or greater effect on the spirit. I hope we also learned that Morris fits just fine into a world encompassing all the influences forming his origins and even similar concepts such as Deegie whether or not he heard of them. This particular thought, though, didn't strike me till I saw it on Facebook just now (uncredited; don't know who said it.)

It put me in mind of that scene in The Martian Chronicles when the Captain thinks of Spender, "and he couldn't kill me because I was himself under a slightly different condition." I remember being in tears over this line, but I am possibly just beginning to get it. Because people can get other people so wrong, you know.

I read once that people who think "All the world is me" are locked up bouncing off the walls of a rubber room somewhere, and people who think "all the world is just like me" are not much better, but I've been guilty of going perhaps too far the other way. Of course, people exist outside of and separately from yourself, and trying to look at them as too much like yourself you may as well be looking in a mirror, than at them, because you are not looking outside yourself enough. But perhaps, just possibly, it is not only all right but even desirable to identify with certain people and certain works and even very closely to the point where they may reveal you to yourself which is what the best of art does. People take certain stories into their hearts and incorporate them into their lives although they themselves didn't write them. Is this making any sense?

Buster is the first person no longer living I have loved in this way. So he's not here to speak for himself. I would probably have taken the word of Eleanor or his sons, if I could have met them, but they are also not here. So I placed some hopes in the society which were cruelly dashed. I did have enough regard for my own feelings to still want to love Buster, which I can't exactly help anyway, but I want it to be really officially all right. But even if it were a delusion, would it still be all right because it is my OWN delusion? This is what I am wondering. (Kind of getting into Don Quixote territory, I guess.)

What I'm saying is I've expended a good deal of time and energy trying to justify my existence purely through recognizing I am actually "not" who and what I admire and trying to become "good" enough to live up to that and feeling awful if I don't reach my ideals magnificently and quickly enough. I feel I am actually not that far off from real achievement, but something in my approach is still not what it should be.

So, what do you guys think?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dandelion,
 
Posts: 7299 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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This explains a hell of a lot. Ray Bradbury and Ernest Hemingway have said similar things, but Ira Glass has perhaps put it best. A lot of my problems come from exhaustion at beating myself over the head for not having what it takes, coupled with warnings of the disaster which will befall me if I don't get what it takes:

 
Posts: 7299 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by dandelion:
"To love is to recognize yourself in another."

I like it. I think I'll use it.


"Live Forever!"
 
Posts: 6909 | Location: 11 South Saint James Street, Green Town, Illinois | Registered: 02 October 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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By now everyone has probably seen I tend to get rather emotionally involved and intense over what I like. If you hadn't guessed, what's going on with my standards for myself as opposed to most other people is most of them have jobs or some other means of support. That's where the life-or-death perfectionism comes in. That's also why it's perfectly okay for them to like books, music, movies, art or anything else, in whatever way and on whatever level they like it--the only time I would begrudge them is when they are nasty people who don't really have the right to like anything good, and even then I can't do anything about it--whereas for me it better inspire me to create something just as good, or at least good enough, or else. And if it doesn't, something is wrong, and that something would very much seem to be with me and not what is inspiring me if for no other reason than that other people like it, too, and claim to like it as much and better than I do. At younger ages I thought I was up to this, and it was very likely because of my great taste, because as stated above, I know, and recognize if I can't exactly define, what goes to that level of being extra good and I have every indication that instinct is real and not an illusion on my part. It's applying those standards to my own work that drives me nuts!

Anyhow, as I suspected all along, even in my most doubtful moments, there is nothing wrong here with "input" (my own perceptions)--it's "output"--something lost in my attempts at expressing my impressions, even perfectly to myself let alone other people.

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Posts: 7299 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Dandelion - thank you for telling me about this movie! Yep. I need to get it. I'd love to find it as a digital download, buy it and keep it on my hard drive, shelved the way I keep all my Terry Pratchett books.

Sir Terry has been my other love, my other companion for dark nights of the soul. He's always good for reminding me to live too. I've got that shelf of the Life books and they keep expanding every time someone alive like Terry or Ray adds to the collection.

It's good to have as many Anti-Suicide books and films as possible, so they can be rotated. When life gets hard, the more of them, the merrier. I would have loved that Buster Keaton movie and now I need to see it and if possible, own it.

"It's a Wonderful Life" was flawed for me in that regard because it was all about "Give up on your dream and just live for other people. Do what's right and make a pointless sacrifice that they don't appreciate because to them what you do for them, you meant it, and you would do it the same even if you did follow your dream." The big gap in "It's A Wonderful Life" is that it was the Depression and the man could have hired someone to run the Savings and Loan and gone off to be a National Geographic photographer. He could've done both if he'd let himself see it and not thrown away his dream. Maybe not stay out in the field all year long, or if that's his life bring the kids and family along like Jacques Cousteau did. The point in "It's A Wonderful Life" is also that what other people think of you is more important than what you do.

Which falls flat if no one around you wants to admit they're related and you don't have friends. There have been lonely times in my life. Many times I look back and see the reasons - I became homeless, local friends did what they could till I fell off the edge of the map but at that point what happened to me was so scary they couldn't face the fact they were one paycheck away from it. Or one car accident. And that's in New York, it's different in different parts of the country. Some places getting Food Stamps will get people acting like you have a social disease. Others, like where I live now in San Francisco, all the cool people have Food Stamps and would be happy to help you apply if you don't know how because it's foolish not to get something you qualify for.

Now there's my point of disagreement about your view of your own work.

How do you know you're not somebody's Ray Bradbury?

Just what is Genius anyway? Is it number of readers? Is it the money? Is it the critics? Is it the critics that come along a hundred years after you're dead? They don't count, you might as well believe they will adore you and discover you and put your life story under a microscope.

Whether it's one or hundreds of thousands or millions, you have Core Readers who think you're better than Ray Bradbury. Your work is their flavor. Exactly. My ex liked Harlan Ellison better. Personal taste comes into it.

They don't read it the way you do. They read it the way they do and it fits their lives and minds and personal symbolism better than anyone else's. Once it can actually be called a competent work, there will be at least a few of those Core Readers. The better you get at it, the more of them find your work and stick with it, recognize it easier.

There's a big lie as bad as the one that kept me from getting the medical care I needed, the one that said "It's all in your head, you're whining about nothing" because I was too stoic about physical pain and thought everyone else in life had as much trouble doing normal things as I did. I just thought they complained less.

It's the one that goes "All or Nothing," and makes a superstar career the only one worth having. As opposed to just earning a good living in a time when a lot of people have trouble getting a job at all.

I met Leigh Brackett and Ed Hamilton at a science fiction convention. I got into the Pro Room as an artist and spent the whole weekend listening to Leigh. She taught me a lot about the craft and half of it was about how to get paid and what to look for in a contract. She and Ed each put out five or six titles a year and during the Great Depression they "Did all right, things were tight but it was nowhere near as bad as it was for most people."

Would it be a bad life if I wound up like that? If I never won the Literary Lottery but did write full time and have a job I could do without having to take the bus to get there, or stay on my feet too long, or show up on my all-too-many sick days? I'll be somebody's Ray Bradbury or Buster Keaton.

The one history likes the best might not be my favorite of what I've written. Or it might be and I'll get the last laugh like Stephen King, who had to fight tooth and nail to get the Dark Tower series into print and won. Because even when I look at my work to pick my favorites that's personal. Something that was a tangent to me may reach other people more. Something I did for a gag on the spur of the moment turned into my second pro short story sale. I submitted it out of habit and the acceptance surprised me.

You can only know what you think of it. Do the best you can every time you sit down to it and keep improving. I write better than I used to and not as well as I did. As long as I can stand on that any successes tell me that I can do it again, better and easier. Any failed trials just tell me something about the market.

I will be somebody's Ray Bradbury, and so will you, and so will all of us that get out and do it. To your core readers you're that genius who looked inside them and told the right story, the one that was on the mark.

I write for mine, anyone else will just get a different flavor of pizza and enjoy it. I'll be happy with enough money to live well. When it gets big enough that I have more than I want, I'll put the rest where it does the most good.

I'm just happy that the only job I ever wanted is also the most practical one given all of my disabilities and abilities.

PS (this is the edit)

Now I need to go back and read the whole thread. I love that Ira Glass quote. It's about central to my attitude. I have fifty trunk novels in Various Edit Stages, an acceptable-for-a-first-novel self published and two pro sales that came along through getting into a Collect The Most Rejection Slips contest.

It took over 20 years to finish Raven Dance from idea to its current state. It took five more finished novels to actually like my writing. I can of course improve on it because killer taste gets refined with all that practice too.

The cool thing is that unlike a drawing you can't overwork it. The virtual paper doesn't wear out from too many changes. When it's done to my satisfaction it'll go to print, where and how is a decision at the time.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Robert A. Sloan,


Robert A. Sloan
Author of Raven Dance
WIP: Sabertooth
lives with his shaggy Siamese muse, Ari, who sheds Cat Hairs of Inspiration on you!
 
Posts: 5 | Location: United States | Registered: 07 February 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
Dandelion - thank you for telling me about this movie! Yep. I need to get it. I'd love to find it as a digital download, buy it and keep it on my hard drive, shelved the way I keep all my Terry Pratchett books.


Oh, wow, now which movie can you mean? The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore should be available on iTunes. It is not about suicide, but works as a good anti-suicide movie as it's about inspiration and overcoming discouragement.

The Buster Keaton movies which reference suicide are Daydreams, Hard Luck, The Electric House, and Cops, all of which have great lessons. Daydreams is the one I highly recommend above all others. It is still missing a lot of chunks of footage--every once in awhile another shows up--but the story is there. It says so much about expectations vs. reality and the cruel treatment of even the tenderest soul who fails to "make good" in what is termed "success" in civilized Western culture.

Hard Luck is the most openly suicidal and has the most improbable upbeat ending, only recently rediscovered, so only certain editions of it will show the ending. The Electric House, although on the surface perfectly ridiculous, shows Keaton's gadgets at their best--he really did use electric trains for food delivery--and has a very important message in his character's feeling unlovable due to passing himself off as something he is not--the commonly-felt "impostor syndrome"--done even better in Battling Butler, in which he says he'd rather be killed than tell the truth.

Cops is a mostly lighthearted though dark-humored vehicle. The suicide element is very quick and you really have to look for it, right at the end. This was in response to the gross injustice being done to his good friend Roscoe Arbuckle at the time.

Please check out this forum http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php which offers a wealth of resources for writers.

quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
"It's a Wonderful Life" was flawed for me in that regard because it was all about "Give up on your dream and just live for other people. Do what's right and make a pointless sacrifice that they don't appreciate because to them what you do for them, you meant it, and you would do it the same even if you did follow your dream."

The point in "It's A Wonderful Life" is also that what other people think of you is more important than what you do.


An ex-friend of mine said she had to give up on watching It's a Wonderful Life because it depressed her so. She couldn't remember exactly why, but others have written of it as being "a dark, depressing film" and talking about Mary holding George's dream back (just as Buster Keaton's first wife and family managed to just about destroy his in the name of their own self-interests and pretended interest for him.)

If you ever listen to Prairie Home Companion, they did a great sketch on a funeral done all wrong--someone chose a horrible unflattering picture of the deceased, music he didn't like, and when they went to eulogize him they saw him only in terms of themselves. This is very much what George's friends do at the end of the movie--"George, I wouldn't have a roof over my head if it wasn't for you," etc.

The most distressing thing about it was a lot of it was about George's own loss of identity as he saw himself and how that was replaced by what others saw. Luckily what others saw was a kind and generous benefactor. Others will often see a person somewhat better than they see themselves, as I've discovered recently, unless of course they happen to be your family, on which more below, but the loss of self-definition is very sad and not to be underestimated. Buster Keaton's parting shot at MGM was, "You warped my character."

As far as pointless sacrifice they don't appreciate--or even recognize--that is dead on. I'm sorry to have to speak against my family when they've done so much for me, but there it is. From the get-go (I date this specifically to when my sisters were brought home from the hospital in 1963) I was the designated defective--scapegoat, always in the wrong, etc. Their attitude was always "Who are you to be acting like you're somebody?" (One of my brothers-in-law has this down to such an art I avoid him at all costs.) The threat was always, "If you don't do all we say, we won't help you when you (inevitably) need it." Doing what they say of course meant giving up writing and being forced into a bunch of unsuitable jobs where (surprise, surprise) I was told how much I sucked, which wasted huge amounts of time and did nothing for my spirits.

As far as life being all about what other people think about you, that's the single thing I get yelled at for most online which was the single main thing about my upbringing. It was all about getting on "their" good side--nothing about what was good for me.

Also what you said about your family not loving you, but someone you could never be, really hit home. They were always "going" to approve of me once I measured up to their standards which were impossible and wrong. The first two things I did wrong, by my dad's estimation, were not being born a boy (if you do read the whole thread you'll see some on that earlier) and not being born an identical twin (oddly, my mom says that's the best thing I did--neither complimentary, nor anything I could do a thing about.) I used to think when I was a tyke by the time I was an adult they'd have a way to just transfer me into a male body, but obviously even in the 21st Century there are a lot of flaws, plus my family would have been even more against that than against my not being born a boy in the first place, so luckily after adolescence I was never seriously inclined that way!

quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
Which falls flat if no one around you wants to admit they're related and you don't have friends.


Not quite, and certainly I never had it as bad as you did, but close enough! I should have dumped the aforementioned friend long before I did if ever I was friends at all, but held onto her because I wanted to prove how "loyal" I was (other people would generally give up on me before I did on them--it took being angry and insulted past bearing for me to finally dump her--) and, really, the internet was not invented at this time (1985-1989) and she was all I had left! Everyone else my age was off starting their great families and their great careers! I understand she eventually got a job, marriage, and a child, a little after most others, which is a good deal more than I got, and it was always made known to me that I was "defective" for not attracting desirable members of the opposite sex or for dealing well with kids. (One kind thing in life, I never wanted kids so it's great I didn't get them!) So I was naturally more than a little sensitive when a bunch of juvenile delinquents came on here recently and told me to give up on what I love and start frequenting online dating services! I could tell horror stories going back years, but I forbear.

Well, I had a job because my dad started a business. That's the main if not only thing which enabled me to write my first and so far only full-length serious book. The business had computers--11 times faster than my typewriter--I learned to use, and, horrible as my boss was, he wasn't as bad as my dad. Dad never said I couldn't write--one of the few positive things he ever said to me was, "You can write!" which he said more than once. He would just always reinforce how "impossible" it was to make a living as a writer, until it looked as if I might have something marketable. Then he would actually help me, then want to disown me when it was rejected just as I needed some encouragement.

My dad didn't just flat-out disown me when my sisters came home in 1963, or when I showed signs of turning out "different," starting in 1972. There was always this hope he "might" claim me if I, as was so often stated in Keaton's films, "made good." He wasn't quite so blunt as the women in those films (the same appears in Keaton's most famous film, The General, where his love interest calls him a liar when he tells her he tried to enlist and was turned down, and says she won't speak to him until he is in uniform.) My dad just kept making it known that I wouldn't be acceptable until I was married or had a great job, or both, and kept trying to steer me towards jobs for which I had neither inclination or interest. So a lot of life became about hiding from my family and many of my friends how bad things really were so I wouldn't be forced into something worse.

And, of course, I can't commit suicide now because I've become the go-to person whenever anything is needed in the family. For years they twisted my arm with guilt "if you were nice you'd do this," and of course if I needed them to do anything for me, my dad in particular twisted my arm with guilt over what a "waste of his time and resources" it all was. Their attitude for years was, "Well, it's not as if you are or are going to do anything worthwhile anyway, so you might as well do this," never mind what plans I might have. They've become better about this of late. My sisters were instrumental in arranging for me to be paid for my work taking care of Dad while he was sick, which my mom expected me to do all for free and have a regular job besides. For the last six years they've actually been helpful and treated me pretty well.

I, also, had an undiagnosed condition until I was 45 years old. I've known about it for about six years but only came out here about two pages ago about having Asperger's Syndrome. Once it was discovered, well it was too late going into it with my dad, who was elderly and bedridden at the time, but my sisters eased up considerably with the whole trip about everything wrong in life being all my fault because I "deliberately" didn't play along when I "knew" what was right. I've been surprised to learn how positive and helpful my sisters can be, especially the doctor of whom I would not have suspected it, which has been one really great thing about it all.

This eased some of the guilt but increased the anxiety, wondering, is what I took all these years for misunderstood genius merely a severe defect not implying any ability or talent? If I'm really so different, do I have anything at all to offer normal people? As usual Ray was my mainstay in this as, face it, he is pretty odd. I haven't told him about the AS, either. I'm pretty sure he'd react with scorn and dismissiveness and fall back on his usual, "Just do your work."

quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
Now there's my point of disagreement about your view of your own work.

How do you know you're not somebody's Ray Bradbury?


Point in fact: I don't. I was profoundly disappointed at having to self-publish my book after it wasn't picked up by a major publisher. I was again disappointed after I sold out my first print run and again tried to sell the book, this time with much wonderful reader feedback, and after over 300 submissions still nobody would take it. The telling thing about these rejections were not one of them reflected badly on the quality of the work! They were all about it not fitting some publishing criteria or political agenda! And as for format, I would have made some compromises, just no one was interested enough to ask!

As for how kids I know treat me, very well indeed. A number know me from church, my participation in community theater, going to school with my niece, or having read my book which I guess is required reading in the local school. Response to the book has been overwhelmingly appreciative from all ages of readers so I like to think it made some positive difference.

quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
Just what is Genius anyway? Is it number of readers? Is it the money? Is it the critics? Is it the critics that come along a hundred years after you're dead? They don't count, you might as well believe they will adore you and discover you and put your life story under a microscope.


Well, Keaton said Chaplin was ruined once he read his own press and started to act like a genius rather than a comedian. Melville and Van Gogh were appreciated after they were dead. Didn't do them any good while alive but makes a good case in point that you shouldn't refrain from doing things important to you just because they aren't appreciated at the time.

quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
Once it can actually be called a competent work, there will be at least a few of those Core Readers. The better you get at it, the more of them find your work and stick with it, recognize it easier.


Years ago I was scared by a Writer's Digest article saying all new authors were expected to hit a bestseller right off the bat because if their first book sold only a modest number of copies, only that number of copies would be printed of their subsequent books no matter how they built readership along the way. That may have been oversimplified or changed since.

quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
There's a big lie as bad as the one that kept me from getting the medical care I needed, the one that said "It's all in your head, you're whining about nothing" because I was too stoic about physical pain and thought everyone else in life had as much trouble doing normal things as I did. I just thought they complained less.


Yeah, for years I thought people were playing some massive prank on me, plus I didn't see how they did the things they did or how they expected me to do the things they expected. I had to keep away from people as much as possible and answer to them as little as possible or the comparisons would have made me completely suicidal.

quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
It's the one that goes "All or Nothing," and makes a superstar career the only one worth having. As opposed to just earning a good living in a time when a lot of people have trouble getting a job at all.


That's the western culture way of life, the American most of all, and the Hollywood most above all. And Hollywood has been dictating American culture since motion picture film was invented. Sad, but true, we are controlled by it.

quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
Would it be a bad life if I wound up like that? If I never won the Literary Lottery but did write full time and have a job I could do without having to take the bus to get there, or stay on my feet too long, or show up on my all-too-many sick days? I'll be somebody's Ray Bradbury or Buster Keaton.


No, that wouldn't be bad, and I said something of the kind above.

quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
The one history likes the best might not be my favorite of what I've written. Or it might be and I'll get the last laugh like Stephen King, who had to fight tooth and nail to get the Dark Tower series into print and won. Because even when I look at my work to pick my favorites that's personal. Something that was a tangent to me may reach other people more. Something I did for a gag on the spur of the moment turned into my second pro short story sale. I submitted it out of habit and the acceptance surprised me.


Sometimes the fan favorites are the exact opposite of the creator's, as with George Lucas. Sometimes a person takes decades reconciling with a work of their own they didn't care for at first, as with Keaton and Seven Chances. Sometimes a work of genius takes decades to be recognized as with The General.

quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
You can only know what you think of it. Do the best you can every time you sit down to it and keep improving. I write better than I used to and not as well as I did. As long as I can stand on that any successes tell me that I can do it again, better and easier. Any failed trials just tell me something about the market.

I will be somebody's Ray Bradbury, and so will you, and so will all of us that get out and do it. To your core readers you're that genius who looked inside them and told the right story, the one that was on the mark.

I write for mine, anyone else will just get a different flavor of pizza and enjoy it. I'll be happy with enough money to live well. When it gets big enough that I have more than I want, I'll put the rest where it does the most good.

I'm just happy that the only job I ever wanted is also the most practical one given all of my disabilities and abilities.


That's a great attitude. Being on this forum http://forums.abebooks.com/abecom/start/ has helped me see there are almost as many books as readers and made me aware of some must-reads I'd never have happened across.

quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
Now I need to go back and read the whole thread.


It has a long and interesting history. I had rarely posted anything personal here, and certainly nothing negative. I made a huge exception by going both off-topic and personal because Buster was so worth it. Even when the Keaton Society began chewing on me, I kept it short and to the point and didn't go into loads of negative detail until after they said I wasn't good enough for their crummy little group no matter how hard I tried or how much I loved Keaton, both of which I did exceedingly. It was too much. Even then I held back to some extent as what I posted here went into less gory detail than on Facebook.

Even so, I was considering going back and doing some editing when the juvenile delinquents swarmed us. There is nothing about them on this thread as I had to lock it while they were here. I pretty much said everything that can be said in public on this thread https://raybradburyboard.com/ev...1083901/m/8427018216 and a good deal worse in private correspondence to my fellow moderator and a couple of other members. You can see in this thread how oblivious the teacher was to the pain her students inflicted which wouldn't have been welcome at any time but came at a particularly horrible time for me. I had to see my doctor and am now on increased medication. We'll see what effect, if any, that has. Anyhow, I was still thinking of editing my posts starting from the end of December (before that, what is must be and people can just deal with it but now that you have been so open, honest, and forthcoming in your posts starting with the life history in your first I will just leave it. I read your initial post in chill horror and was tempted to delete it for your own protection lest the little monsters come back, but it was just so honest and true I thought, screw it, just let people deal with it. It was the same sort of effect as Ray's story "All Summer in a Day"--makes people uncomfortable but they never forget it.

Another thing I sent to those members with whom I was corresponding and said I wouldn't post here as this thread was already way too personal, but what the heck, here is an abbreviated version. It's all about baggage. Most of my life I've stumbled around in a litter of past baggage, but since I am generally at ground level I can't fall too far. When I happen on a subject I think is really great, the baggage all starts getting stacked. If I succeed, I get to push the stack in the opposite direction and maybe even float up as high as it was piled. If I fail, it all falls back on me, and I have to deal with not only the current failure, but with every bad thing said about me in the past. If I could just be free of the baggage I could have room to work. I could, and probably should, write about it...I'm wondering if I should do a blog, since the last thing I want is to try to structure my own autobiography while writing other works, but just to get everything down so things don't get to me so much...I dunno.

I certainly do want to feel that accomplishment at having written something instead of all the guilt and uncertainty about everything I'm not. That's where the killer taste comes in and I gotta let it not become overwhelming.

quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
I love that Ira Glass quote. It's about central to my attitude. I have fifty trunk novels in Various Edit Stages, an acceptable-for-a-first-novel self published and two pro sales that came along through getting into a Collect The Most Rejection Slips contest.

It took over 20 years to finish Raven Dance from idea to its current state. It took five more finished novels to actually like my writing. I can of course improve on it because killer taste gets refined with all that practice too.

The cool thing is that unlike a drawing you can't overwork it. The virtual paper doesn't wear out from too many changes. When it's done to my satisfaction it'll go to print, where and how is a decision at the time.


Congratulations on your writing accomplishments and your awesome attitude.

quote:
Originally posted by Robert A. Sloan:
lives with his shaggy Siamese muse, Ari, who sheds Cat Hairs of Inspiration on you!


So glad you have a kitty. My mom and uncle treat me all right but Buster Kitten is my real consolation.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dandelion,
 
Posts: 7299 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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