Capt. Beefheart played at Goddard, the last summer I was around there, and although memory is inexplicably foggy about goings-on in Vermont in the late 60’s, it may have been the alternative media festival held there in 1970. Somewhere online you can probably find some of young Robert Altman’s photos of the event.
Meanwhile, I’m tempted to revisit The Third Policeman, which was originally lent me by Jerry Jarvis. I have it around here somewhere, with his other works (Flan’s, not Jerry’s or Capt. B.’s).
Oh, I guess I do have a little Capt. B. in the archives of doodah.
Have you read Mervyn Peake? His only noted work is the nearly-finished (and ne’er to be, as Mr Peake is dead) trilogy of Ghormenghast. An exercise in splendiferous (yes, literally) purple prosody, in which the entire many-hundreds of pages of Book One span about a week (the birth) of Titus Groan, 77th Earl. It’s a strange and monumental piece of work, but so extraordinarily eloquent and over the top that you might enjoy it even though it lacks certain conventionally esteemed literary qualities.
Wait. Who am I talking to? This happens a lot.
An Author’s Statement
In the last decade I’ve been writing mostly “fiction.” By that I mean not “non-fiction.” But genres are tricky, aren’t they? To write well, I advocate giving up all genres, and ignoring all the rules and admonitions (like this one), and allowing oneself to submerge in the flow of ideas, images, experiences, memories, and imagination. Later, edit furiously; trim and prune ruthlessly. Or not. Only the writer knows the real purpose of each word; the writer is the only fully qualified editor. Other editors, of course, eventually get their hands on the work, but hopefully they understand their role. We’d never expect a gallery curator to trim off pieces of a painting, or apply a little more green just there, would we?
To achieve real excellence in writing requires more than a passing acquaintance with excellent writing. When I meet writers who are already competent and experienced, but who want to ascend to the next level, by far the most powerful tool available is to read the works of great authors, authors who inspire, and to understand what these writers are doing.
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