(no subject)

[sihayadesigns]

Artistic inspiration strikes at the oddest times.

I've finally decided how to fill the small, green leather journal Mike got me for Christmas. I'm going to fill it with notions about the city, fictions and memories, poems and textures. Specifically about South Baltimore, my home, my favorite place to be. I kind of want to achieve a Francesca Lia Block-esque feel-- I want to romanticize the city, to make it quaint and slanted, to see it through eyes searching for magic. This is not going to be a gritty collection, but one that speaks of an unseen world just below the pavement. I've already recorded one memory-section, a lovesong to the city. My poem about Sundays on Federal Hill goes in next.

But then I got to thinking. What do I do when the book is filled up with my thoughts?

I've always loved the mass format. Yes, as in Catholic mass. Does that surprise you? I love the ritual of it, the transition of emotion from joyous effusion to solemn benediction, from sorrow to hope. And the mass-template has been applied to both nontraditional religious works (like Brahms' German requiem, which utilizes nonstandard biblical text for the mass movements, text that plays on emotions. I love the requiem dearly) and secular works. So I decided to apply it to literature. I'm going to write a secular mass-format collection about the city. My lovesong does have an invocational, Kyrie quality to it, but it does end on a bittersweet note-- I'm thinking that it has the qualities that a secular Agnus Dei should have. And I have a poem that captures the spirit of a Sanctus. I was at first thinking of writing it as a Requiem, as it would give a greater number of selections and emotional options, but it would ultimately end up a more somber work. I suppose I shall see where my output takes me. But I have a goal now, and two separate things I'm working on.

My YA fairytale, based on the Irish folktale of Tam Lin, has been in stasis for years now. I just haven't had the time. But spring is coming, and I feel it stirring up. Something about the past week has reminded me of the weeks spent in my room years ago, longing for fresh air as frost still covered the soft hills of Riverside park. It's time to get more on paper, maybe start from scratch. The characters aren't the same to me as they were two years ago. They need to mature, and yet still be applicable to a YA age group... I'm thinking 14+. I just need to find the time for it. I need to maintain this level of passion.

Comments

[astaria51.livejournal.com]

This is only related in the vaguest way to your post -- my brain is spazzing. But I had to comment on your YA Tam Lin fairytale -- because I've had a Tam Lin - based story sitting around forever!
Crazy, what that story will do: I've always loved that ballad (and it's many ensundry forms).

But now you've inspired me to go back and figure out what's going on with Tam. *smiles*

Also, your secular mass for the city sounds absolutely beautiful. What a great idea! First the idea of just filling a notebook with thoughts on a single place (and that kind of style, fantastical and romanticized, FLB-ish, eee*love*), but then expanding on it that way -- wow.
I'd love to see it when you're done (or even bits of it as it goes).

I'm so glad you're so inspired! It's really great to see. Makes me smile. And it seems to be contagious, as now I'm thinking about all my fairy and magical-type writing. (Hmm, need to work on that Tam one, and the Red Riding Hood update in-the-style-of-FLB-that-kind-of-turned-into-my-own-halfway-through...*laughs* You're a muse!)

~faye~

[bathsweaver.livejournal.com]

Oh, my lord. Tam Lin. LOVE that ballad. Memorized it back during Sophomore year, wrote to Pamela Dean an pestered her till she finally hunted through her attic for a copy of her novelized version of it to send to me (it had gone out of print)...Tam Lin was going to be my user name, but it was taken. So was TamLin, Tam_Lim, and ever other permutation I could think of at the time. Same goes for Fair Janet.

I took a class on children's book publishing on winter, and the instructor kept hammering that the characters in your novel should be at least few years older than your target group. Which is pretty cool, since a 14+ audience would place your Tam and Janet around 16; a very passionate and turbulent age. Weren't Romeo and Juliet around 16? And Janet is like Juliet with the benefit of the Vote and a few Women's Lit and Women+Gender Studies classes under her belt.

You sound like you're in an excellent green place right now--I'm so happy for you. Long may it continue! :D

{{HUGS}}

[midknight978.livejournal.com]

Bring Tam Lin back! As being possibly one of the few out there who actually was privy to the work as it progressed, I would love to see it develop more.

[dagger-garnet.livejournal.com]

You're very talented and I wish you the best of luck! =)