Weekend Update (Friday Edition):
Claqué
Yesterday, the weekend’s legacy of fatigue finally materialized. I was writing about last Friday’s movie, Faubourg 36 (which I saw on Monday, actually), when I realized that the eighth or ninth paragraph was in fact my “lead,” and that the entire piece would have to be rearranged, if not rewritten. Lordy.
This sort of thing doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, I try to deal with it manfully. That was beyond me yesterday. I felt the way you do when you’ve just lost a ten-page paper, and you’ve got to reconstruct all the fantastic lines that came so easily the first time around but that become teasing, evanescent ghosts when you’ve got to will them back into being.
So I took the rest of the day off. I know; I know: I said that I was going to take Monday off. I watched the BBC adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst’s great novel about the Eighties, The Line of Beauty. “Is that what you should be watching?” Kathleen asked, knowing how low I get when I’m exhausted. She had a point — I felt awful for about an hour after it was over. But by then I was deep into the novel on the cover of this week’s Book Review.
The Week at Portico: Although I drafted a few new pages this week, only one of them was beaten into presentable shape, this week’s Book Review review.
We have someone at home who is just beginning to read. No, they are not in the first grade but rather
in the last of the eighth and beginning to read in a real way. Recently, our novice reader was given a
copy of Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer, which was found a bit dense, and likely will
continue to be found dense for awhile; but our reader presses on with me now through The Great Gatsby,
and the Douglas Adams Hitchhiker’s Guide series, all their own choices. Reading your Always On My Mind
this morning in Charleston I was drawn for some reason to the “About” section of this feature.
It might just be time to bring our fifteen year old into the fold here at DB; and start with About Better Living Through Better Writing.
Has kind of a ring to it doesn’t it, wonder if it ‘s been used before. Or perhaps even better:
Damn! I’d like that to sound more modern but I’ve not got the skill to do it, yet. Important word, “yet”.
Here’s hoping you are feeling much better. George forgot something above: Rest well!
But how was the adaptation? I didn’t like the book, but seeing Nick – portrayed on TV – might change all that.