this is a left-handed (wrong-handed) sketch of a baghdad gate i did this past winter. it’s far from my favorite image, but it got me thinking about the writing i was trying to do earlier today, which felt rigid and all too able-handed. i’m wondering how one might apply an equivalent restraint to writing (aside from writing in a second language). thoughts? other fun writing or drawing exercises?
also, what might be a written version of the blind contour drawing? i’ve just been struggling to write anything even remotely decent recently, and i’m desperate for a fresh approach of some sort, even if it is gimmicky.
May 2nd, 2007 | #
“a long and systematic derangement of the senses”–Rimbaud
But that can be rough on your body, if you have to get all fucked up before you write. I like it.
(I actually just finished a five page essay that I wrote one-handed, the other on my junk. It was pretty fun, and interestingly enough i can now type pretty fast with one hand)
May 2nd, 2007 | #
God, I hate blogger. I write out a whole comment and then it by mistakely gets deleted and makes me not want to write it all out again.
Possible writing trick: write in scribbles, write a lot and quickly, a bit illegibly (easy for those of us who already have bad handwriting). Go back and reread periodically, and if you look at a word and for a moment wonder what it says, and a different word pops into your head, change it. For example, I recently switched ‘moral’ for ‘model,’ and then started talking about models instead of morals. The process makes for a little spontaneity, opens up new tracks and destinations, allows you to loosen the thought and permits fixation to focus transversally.
Check out the chapter on the literature of delire in ‘Philosophy through the looking glass’ by Jacques Lacercle. It’s about a bunch of writers who developed whole styles out of similar gimmicks.
May 2nd, 2007 | #