Short writing piece - opinions please

Member

Here's something I threw together last night, originally as part of a letter. I've since changed a little bit in the first paragraph to make it not directed as a single person. I'd like opinions (brutally honest only of course)... what did you like about it, what didn't you like, was it interesting, etc. If you don't feel comfortable throwing heaps of negative comments in public view, please PM me. I'd like to hear it.

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My idea is nothing new. But for some reason, perhaps my own aversion to analysis of the mundane (mundane to me at least – or more accurately, maybe, dislike for observing that which does not impact my life, something that is there regardless of other influences, essentially unchanging), I never drew the connection until tonight. Most recently I thought as I was pocketing the scrap of basswood I carved at a friend’s house that the carving process would be much easier if the starting shape was not a block, flat on six sides. If somehow I was shipped a highly irregularly shaped or even flawed piece of wood, it would take shape much more easily. A protrusion could become a flipper, a flaw in the wood could demand to be removed, thus exposing what the wood was meant to be. Anything to make it irregular, somewhere to start.

As a tangent, during my psychological testing at the student Mental Health Services, I described myself as not very creative. After the conclusion of my sessions, I received the report on my testing. One line was to the effect of the following: “Eric says that he is not creative, yet had no difficulty coming up with several images for each Rorschach card (inkblot).” My retort is that she (the test giver) cannot realize the disparity between creativity and imagination. Identifying the irregular shape as an object from experience is simple imagination; creating an object from nothing, drawing the antelope on a blank page is creativity. Picturing the antelope in an irregular shape, knowing what to carve after being handed a chunk of wood with protrusions and knots, this is imagination. Carving from a perfectly dimensioned cube is creativity.

Now, back to my parallel that I wish to expound upon. I cannot decide to do anything with my life because I have no direction. I have no protrusion in the wood to guide me, saying that this aspect of my life needs to be just so in order to fit appropriately. I am lost because I have a solid, flawless block with no starting point. I can’t help but want a knot to work around, some flaw that is not a flaw at all but a guidepost. I am not creative, I will say so many times over – I cannot see what my block is to become. The solution, both for life and carving (when given the blank slate), is to try different things – sooner or later something will appear that makes sense. The depressing thing is how many times nothing comes to me and the block becomes smaller and smaller until nothing but a toothpick and shavings remain. This is my life, slowly being whittled down until I die and become bones – the toothpick in the center of the block.

Bounty Hunter

It gave me a headache.... Neutral

the kilted one

I couldn't get beyond the "protrusions" Embarassed

Member

I'm not sure what the audience of the piece will be, so I'll hold off on critiquing form and function -- it's certainly there, just not sure who it's for.

Reading into this I find some interesting conflict. Creativity vs imagination - but is it something else? Perhaps insecurity? Perhaps logic?

The whittling of a "perfectly dimensioned cube" into a "toothpick" rather than an "antelope" can infer many things. Toothpicks are symmetrical, just like a cube, and perhaps this is a transformation of perfection from one form into another.

And why not an antelope? Fear of not maintaining the perfection? This is the side that I fall to, as the narrator seems intent on finding an imperfection to get started. Finding an imperfection may set him/her free, since if it ends up not being perfect, that's just fine 'cause it wasn't perfect to begin with -- so the narrator is safe from criticism, even if it's positive. And it seems like that's what the narrator wants -- positive encouragement, and being told that it's okay to venture forth and make some mistakes.

But instead, going it alone is scary, and the end result of a toothpick maintains the simple and safe symmetry that he/she started out with.

An interesting piece.

Or I could just be full of it. Just be thankful that I didn't bring Oedipus into this. Razz

Member

I rather like it.

My spin to add would be, your block of wood is not the lone place in life to whittle at. Finding a good fit career/job is another block to whittle at that organization. Finding a mate and the two of you whittling your blocks in unison is another. Volunteering in your community is another way to make some small clinks in others' blocks. Indeed, you alone don't completely whittle your own block. "It take a community" is overcooked, but sometimes just the right corner to be carved comes from the least expected person.

Member

The first paragraph didn't really make any sense to me. The rest picked up. Sorry mech sounds like you're unsatisfied with life thus far. I can relate, I never "wanted" to be anything. There has never been a dream I was after. It sucks, but I try not to think about it.

Pyromaniac

Oompa Loofah

I think it is well written, and I grasped exactly what you are trying to say.

And to you I say: don't be afraid to start whittling that flawless block of wood. You may not get another block, but, rather than ending up with toothpicks at the end, you will have started to add your own protrusions and "defects" which will actually allow you to begin whittling a shape that is pleasing to you.

Canadian Bacon

Member

Thanks for the comments. I am mostly looking for opinions on the writing itself, style, readability, etc, moreso than the topic.

Jrjo, I see it as the block is life completed, the community is a facet to that block. Everything you do carves it in a particular way.

Cdn, to me the perfectly dimensioned block isn't perfect. It is ugly and worthless - nothing has been done to it, there is no satisfaction to gain by leaving it "perfect." So I did not intend to have the insecurity be questioned. To crash your party further, the toothpick wasn't selected as symmetry, but more from personal experience with the original audience of the letter.

What I have determined is that it was too geared to a specific, solitary audience. I liked how it was so I left the vast majority unaltered, but I realize that it is too vague, and because my original intended audience thinks very much like me, I left some clarity unsaid because it didn't need to be said. With a mixed audience, the groundwork should be much more defined than what I presented.

Thanks again.

The Pinball

guess i'm too late, but i like the writing style and the analogy. however,

i feel like a piece of old driftwood after reading it.

Short writing piece - opinions please

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