September 30, 2005

  •                                "To Write the Great American Novel"


    My brother once asked me why I don't write a book.  I explained why I didn't.


    To write a book, particularly a fictional story, you have to be one of those in-door types that would rather write about life than LIVE it.  At the time of our conversation, I was living in Korea.  Rather than be cooped up at home all day, living in a fictional world and typing away on Microsoft Word (which actually was sort of an enticing image in its own way), I was aching to be outside in the real world; there were too many things to see, too many people to meet, too many alcoholic beverages to drink, too many girls to...


    I forget its title, but there is a book by Thomas Mann about a young man in the late 1800s.  The young man loves a young woman, but they live conservatively and for the most part have a friendly, platonic relationship.  Maybe she liked him, too.  The two of them have a third friend, another guy about the same age.


    The young man's life leads him down a path whereby he becomes a writer of noted repute and hangs out with the intellectual crowd, which may have led to his losing touch with his two friends for a time.  Meanwhile, the girl he loves and the other young guy get closer, evetually get married, and live life together happily.  He gradually loses touch with them forever.


    Years have gone by.  The now much older man is quite a successful writer.  But he is all alone.  He is walking by a pub or restaurant.  He looks inside and sees a couple around his age.  They could very well be his two friends from his younger days (even though they aren't actually).  He watches them and remembers...


    Then with a sigh, the writer turns away to return to HIS life.


    Or here's a fictional story about an artist in a similar situation.  This so depressed the sh*t out of me that I wondered what good it would do to successfully write a novel.


    Okay, any wonder why I DON'T want to write a novel?  or why I CAN'T?  I got LIFE I want to live!!!!  Won't I miss out on life as it is today if I spend years writing the novel, and worse yet, LIVING it as it is being written?!?


     


    Side note:  Holy damn!  Has it really been 11 years since Reality Bites was released?  Is Gen X just a bunch of old fogies now?  I remember thinking back in 1994 that as long as Wynona Ryder was considered to be cool and hip and as long as chicks were drawn to Brad Pitt, Gen X would rule.  One of two ain't TOO bad, I guess.