obliterate what you started

[gurdonark]

I see that the on-line novel I've been following page by page appears to have deleted after a few pages.
That's cool. I start novels all the time, and then I lose my limited vision and have to abbreviate them. I then call them "poems". Not so heavy on images, but lots of good turgid plotting. But note to future novelists: (a) if you are starting an on line novel, please let me know; and (b) if you get bored of it, please write a quick ending anyway.
The End. Post script: I love on line novel journals that are friends only--heaven forbid that actual third parties *read one's work*, isn't that so?

Comments

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

"turgid" is a marvelous word. In fact, it's my friend michenry's favorite word. Whenever he uses it capriciously I have to counter him with "flaccid".

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

flaccid (grin). Turgid and flaccid are both over-used, but still a pleasure to use.

did you know...

[nacowafer.livejournal.com]

that my first livejournal, altered, was/is an experimental novel? I haven't worked on it in a while (almost a year!), but I hope to return to it someday. Perhaps I should post a "will eventually return" message?

Re: did you know...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

How fun! I didn't know about this work of art. I went and glanced at it, but clearly I must start at the beginning and go forward.
Yes, you should put a note "be back soon". I have a more radical suggestion, though--why not write a few more pages, and post them?
I have a history lesson for you: Date on which nacowafer's current "blue funk" began = roughly one year ago. Date on which nacowafer last posted to altered, roughly one year ago. And who said the novel has no healing power? :)

[jupitergarden.livejournal.com]

i'm writing a novel, alas not an on-line one. but i will be sure to post it chapter by chapter once completed (in the next few months)...

please share!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I remember you mentioning your novel. Please give it a proper lj user name and post it when you are ready. Everyone always wonders if anyone will read their novel. Well, someone will read yours. :)

Re: please share!

[jupitergarden.livejournal.com]

i've almost finished part 1, and it's 4 parts total. i'll hopefully finish it over the summer - i'll post it chapter by chapter when i come back from europe (late august).
i'll look forward to your comments :)

Re: did you know...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I read a bit...is it just me, or do I detect a bit of Charles Williams influence?

I love that final passage of "Descent into Hell".
Now *that's* writing.

Re: please share!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I'm a'waitin'...write liberally and without restraint!

Re: did you know...

[nacowafer.livejournal.com]

I think I will return to it this week. It's really quite therapeutic to work on. You did read that it's an altered book, right?

Re: did you know...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Now here's where I should jump on google, run look up what an "altered" book means, and then pretend I knew all along. But I'm at work, and rarely afraid of being perceived as an idiot, so I'll instead just admit that (a) I see the term "altered book" on LJ, and have even visited their community, but have no idea what an "altered book" is...I thought it was where you take an old book that you don't like and
make something cool out of it, sort of like origami, or writing "yes, very true" in the margins; and
(b) I had no idea your book was altered, even though its username is "altered".
Please help thou me in my unbelief and ignorance.
I will gladly repay you on Tuesday.

Re: did you know...

[nacowafer.livejournal.com]

Did you know that I was fascinated by Charles Williams? You mentioned him a few weeks ago, and I meant to respond, but I must have been distracted. I've never met anyone else who even knows who he is. I recently lent Descent Into Hell to a friend, but I don't think she likes it much!

more than an Inkling

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I worried when I made the reference that you had not heard of him, so it was amusing to look at your interests on the "altered" journal and see him there.
Have you read the bio Charles Williams, Poet of Theology? Wonderful stuff. I haven't yet read the more recent bio which delves and dwelves and dwells on his personal idiosyncrasies with women, but Poet of Theology, trying to understand him as a visionary, is very good.

Outsider art, within the OUP itself.
Fascinating guy.....

Re: did you know...

[nacowafer.livejournal.com]

You're basically right about "taking a book (you don't have to dislike it!) and making something cool out of it." Most altered books I've seen use the existing book as a canvas to work on top of, without incorporating much of the text. So, I thought it would be neat to "re-write" a novel...and try to do the whole thing. So I'm taking the original author's words, in their original order, and making new sentences and a new story. By crossing out the words I don't want to use. I made a little website to go along with the book, as I was hoping it would eventually have a visual component as well, but I was consummed by the "writing." But if you click on the "mad you?" link in the altered journal, you can see what I've been doing. A lot of people have done similar things, so it's not terribly original, but I was really getting into my little story. It's a fun dada experiment, anyway.

Re: did you know...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Very cool. I thought I did click on your website, and got a page that just said see your page.
There must have been another hyperlink there was disguised so that only dada people could find it.
I'll check again.

I remember reading an Addams family novel (some tie-in with the original show) in which the Addams cousin who was a great poet pointed out she had been misread, and you only could understand her by crossing out words other than 1,7,13, etc., such that a passage that would appear to be a nature pastorale would in fact be a simple phrase like "I want to die and help you die with my axe".

So is it a secret what is the source material, or did I just fail to read carefully enough?

I still think it's like a Charles Williams..the one with the lion and the odd, but likable, girl named Damaris.

now I've joined the arcane order...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

The website did indeed have a secret handshake hyperlink. It read "to view" and "click here".
It's not Charles Williams at all, but a charming something else.

This is all very cool...heady stuff.
How could you put it aside for a year?
(he asks, as if nudging to action)

Or, to say it in altered form:

website secret handshake
Charles Williams charming something
put it aside
nudging to action

Re: did you know...

[nacowafer.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is another hyperlink. Where it says "View images of the atlered book here," click "here." Only the images are less than mesmerizing. It's more about the method to the madness--so far. If you want to see some really lovely altered books (quite different from what I'm trying to do) see moderngypsy's website (linked from her journal).

And I love that about the Addams family cousin. What was her name? Brilliant!

Oh, and there's a picture of the original cover. It's a gothic romance by Mary Stewart called Madam, Will You Talk?. The new title is, of course, Mad, You?, about a girl and her troubles. I have a huge pile of these "Gothics," aquired when I worked at a used bookstore. Eventually they got down to 10 cents a piece, and I liked the covers so I brought a bunch home! Altered books all round! I have another one I started and wanted to make into a round-robin that needs to go back out in the post! That one's called Alibi for Isabel, and I had a total marketing blitz planned for participants in that one! It can still be realized...perhaps I'll send it out again soon.

Palace of the Lion!!!

I'm dying to get the (in)famous Crispin Glover altered books...just need to cough up the cash.

Okay, I'll leave you alone now. See, my own over-exuberance is showing itself!

Re: did you know...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I'll have to see if I can find that book about the Addams with the poet cousin when next I'm at my parents home in a couple of weeks. If it's around, I'll send it to you as a book altering inspiration.

Of course, your idea of "cutting and pasting" larger text into smaller text had never occurred to me before (grin).

I have friends who are reasonably well Inklings read,
so you're not quite the first Charles Williams fan I've met, but our numbers are no longer legion.
Most folks get hung up on the sentence construction, the heterodoxy, and all that darn imagery.
I don't know if you've read Lewis' That Hideous Strength, but it's the Charles Williams novel that CW didn't write. It's quite a different work from either
the Narnias or Till We Have Faces...

But don't worry about over enthusiam. It's always fun to hear your take on things.