carla asked,
So did you get any questions when you were on the panel?
an older gentlemen asked about Bob Dylan's pilfering of Henry Timrod as plagiarism. I responded that technically, "yes" his "lifting of lines" would constitute a charge; however, Dylan was probably doing something bigger than just trying to fill space on an album. Lyrically... he was doing what we've all been doing musically... reinterpreting Chuck Berry.
Did an audience ask the questions or were they pre-written?
Most of the questions came from Erik Deatherage of WTMD. He had pre-written the questions and asked them specifically of some panelists and other questions were for anyone and everyone to answer. Good questions... the impact of reading on our music... what is the link between author's and inspiration... what is the common key to good writing in fiction and in song...
Did anything interesting get said by people other than you?
Yes, there were some good things being said... Jason Tinney of Donegal Express talked about Larry Brown and kinship between him and Alejandro Escevedo.
Do musicians influence authors or do only authors influence musicians?
Both... Stephen King has been putting lyrics from songs he'd been listening to into his books... although Stephen King may not be literary academia so to speak. But certainly it was my perspective that author's have influenced my writing in terms of creating mood or a characters voice... making something real... Raymond Carver comes to mind for me.
Did the parking suck?
We got lucky. I don't think Sunday was as packed as the previous days...
This is the second post I've attempted with blogspot... on this topic... first one was lost...
Yikes...
Photos are by Tim Heaney... he's great!
6 comments:
I thought Tinney's follow-up to the plagiarism question was good too. In Irish music it's completely normal to change the words to a song or add another verse or combine two or more songs.
Thanks for decribing the event. I was curious about what it was like but to lazy to venture out.
Musical influence does not have to imply plagerism, lyrical or melodical. That question would be for a panel of lawyers anyway.
So Raymond Chandler is a musical influence? His work is the most depressing I have ever read and he is no Dostoyevski, a runner up.
I walked out on the movie Short Cuts and blamed the horribleness on Robert Altman. But later on I saw Nashville (musicians influencing movie directors) and that suceeded by being funny as well as critical. The problem was Raymond Chandler. He really didn't like his own species. I would hope he wouldn't influence anyone.
I am surprised a person who is under the influence of such a dismal neagative writer would willingly participate in a polite social event.
Carla,
while that's true... Carver's work to me stands out as not depressing but pure snapshots of a moment... in a literary sense. I think the economy of words and allowing the reader to connect the dots for him/herself is pretty good. Incidentally... his later work was much more optimistic... for example, "Cathedral" what a text... holy cow. What I like about Carver's stuff is the realness, the feel of the language... Short Cuts was a good idea... and I didn't mind it. I just thought it didn't translate as well as the stories did. They're meant to be intense and personal... both quiet and deliberate.
As for Carver's dislike of his own species... I think we all get tired of our peoples... but he was writing from his own experiences... for the most part... scary and bright...
btw, most of his positive fiction happened after he quit drinking... go figure... a short while later he was diagnosed with lung cancer... here's his last poem...
Late Fragment
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
I am no authority of Raymond Carver, but I do understand he is writing from his own perspective. All his characters are morally vacant, I am assuming, because that is how he sees the world.
And while it is touching to read that all he wants from this world is to be loved, that is also childish. Grownups makes their circumstance and take reponsibility for the world around them. They understand that for there to be love they need to give it, not yearn for it to come to them.
So he gets redeemed/nicer toward the end of his life. Aren't there other authors who have have spent more of their career, more of their writing, sharing a positive message for humanity.(in a bright, intimate way)
I will look at Cathedral again.
PS I wrote Raymond Chandler instead of Raymond Carver in the previous comment. I don't know where that came from, except I was reading the movie case for Double Indemnity recently.
Carla,
I hear you about the brighter side of humanity being expressed by artists and authors. However, the reality of living is taking in consideration that where ever you may find bright light... there has to be a shadow somewhere. I'm kind of drawn to those types of writers anyhow... and I do think that's reflected by my choices in songwriting. I've been following James Baldwin's cue from "Sonny's Blues"
"...while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness."
Raymond Chandler was a big influence on Lou Reed.... haven't read much by Chandler... but I will put it on the list.
Grimm
Well if Lou Reed likes Raymond Chandler then...
I did attempt to read Raymond Carver's Cathedral, again. But again, I had to stop. Where is the brigter side for this guy?
I think the particularly insiduous component of his writing is that instead of fully developing characters and plots as in a novel, he rewrites over and over the same beginning with the same unhappy, disgruntled protagonist getting screwed by some evil adversary. He just changes minor descriptive details. But it leaves the reader with the impression that the whole average world is messed up, instead of just his one story, or to be more exact, his one average self. I hate that.
I also read the Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. He is a very insightful,descriptive writer, but he has a weird opinion of women. I liked it because it was a different genre then I have ever read and it was uniquely his story. It was like a male version of a romance novel. But with this weird woman hating twist.
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