I forgot to mention that last week's post was my first ever blog post. There is much advice out there that writers should have a blog to connect with readers. Every writer wants to have a connection with their readers, and blogging seems a good way of doing it. But the main connection between a writer and their readers is their primary writing - the novel, poetry or whichever. Part of the reason I didn’t start a blog earlier is that I didn't know what it should be about. Writing commentaries on books that l read or politics would be very time consuming. Such writing needs careful consideration, which implies a lot of thinking time. I'd prefer to spend the time on writing the next novel. I hope that doesn't sound selfish, but I have a full-time job other than writing.
Of course, a writer's blog could be, or possibly should be, about them. A portrait of ‘me’. This is not easy to achieve in an engaging way. I'm not a naturally confessional person. Why should I even think the minutiae of my life is of interest to others? More to the point, A P McGrath is a pen name, so there is no such person as A P McGrath. How possible is it to write about him? For the time being I will make the blog about my thoughts on developing the story and character elements of the next instalment of Solon of Pergamon 's life - without spoilers! A lot of these thoughts will be about the philosophy and psychology of characters and events. This is the stuff that would come under the heading 'tell' in the phrase 'show not tell'. ln other words 'flesh out' the explanations into character and action with minimal expositional dialogue. Forget the philosophy.
I’m working on a character, a blacksmith who makes metal statues. He also makes wheels, ploughs and pulleys. He has a forge in a cave. There are echoes of the god Hephaestus who was the god of metalworking. By some accounts Hephaestus was often thought of as the god who took the ideas of Zeus and fashioned them into the world. Zeus had the idea, Hephaestus made it happen. Hephaestus is an intermediary between the absolutely divine and our earth. The blacksmith in my story, however, is a very ordinary person, with a tincture of mystery.
His life has been deeply affected by a prophecy from the Oracle. He believes it to be true. Few contemporary novels would use the device of a prophecy. We believe the future has not yet happened, though Einstein's theory of block-time suggests everything that has ever happened and will in the future happen is happening now. There is a corresponding notion in ancient logic for block-time; 'aion', from where we get the word 'eon', which roughly translates as 'always-in-being'. We think of the word ‘eon' to mean 'a very long period of time' - usually millions of years. But in aion there is no time. It doesn't exist. Time is part of the material world, not the eternal. For many of the Greek philosophers, this is implied in the logic of language and its use. This is where they found it.
If a changeless stillness, where everything IS is the true state of the universe, then the future is already happening. It is impossible to envisage this. We can say the words, but I find it impossible to picture it. But the ancients had a very strong sense of this. Plato believed that time was a moving image of the eternally still. This is the opposite of the way a photograph 'freezes' time. Instead, time, space and motion unfreezes the eternal. Time is the movie adaptation of the eternal. The older l get, the more I feel this could be true and in the stillness there seems to be a contentment.
The prophecy in the blacksmith's story is cruel. By trying to prevent it from happening, the blacksmith causes the prophecy to happen. Or does he? It’s impossible to know. I'm not particularly interested in whether the cosmology of aion is true, only the emotional effect on the characters and the reader, and its ability to generate story. In a sense, if the characters and readers go with the idea, then it is true.
Of course, a writer's blog could be, or possibly should be, about them. A portrait of ‘me’. This is not easy to achieve in an engaging way. I'm not a naturally confessional person. Why should I even think the minutiae of my life is of interest to others? More to the point, A P McGrath is a pen name, so there is no such person as A P McGrath. How possible is it to write about him? For the time being I will make the blog about my thoughts on developing the story and character elements of the next instalment of Solon of Pergamon 's life - without spoilers! A lot of these thoughts will be about the philosophy and psychology of characters and events. This is the stuff that would come under the heading 'tell' in the phrase 'show not tell'. ln other words 'flesh out' the explanations into character and action with minimal expositional dialogue. Forget the philosophy.
I’m working on a character, a blacksmith who makes metal statues. He also makes wheels, ploughs and pulleys. He has a forge in a cave. There are echoes of the god Hephaestus who was the god of metalworking. By some accounts Hephaestus was often thought of as the god who took the ideas of Zeus and fashioned them into the world. Zeus had the idea, Hephaestus made it happen. Hephaestus is an intermediary between the absolutely divine and our earth. The blacksmith in my story, however, is a very ordinary person, with a tincture of mystery.
His life has been deeply affected by a prophecy from the Oracle. He believes it to be true. Few contemporary novels would use the device of a prophecy. We believe the future has not yet happened, though Einstein's theory of block-time suggests everything that has ever happened and will in the future happen is happening now. There is a corresponding notion in ancient logic for block-time; 'aion', from where we get the word 'eon', which roughly translates as 'always-in-being'. We think of the word ‘eon' to mean 'a very long period of time' - usually millions of years. But in aion there is no time. It doesn't exist. Time is part of the material world, not the eternal. For many of the Greek philosophers, this is implied in the logic of language and its use. This is where they found it.
If a changeless stillness, where everything IS is the true state of the universe, then the future is already happening. It is impossible to envisage this. We can say the words, but I find it impossible to picture it. But the ancients had a very strong sense of this. Plato believed that time was a moving image of the eternally still. This is the opposite of the way a photograph 'freezes' time. Instead, time, space and motion unfreezes the eternal. Time is the movie adaptation of the eternal. The older l get, the more I feel this could be true and in the stillness there seems to be a contentment.
The prophecy in the blacksmith's story is cruel. By trying to prevent it from happening, the blacksmith causes the prophecy to happen. Or does he? It’s impossible to know. I'm not particularly interested in whether the cosmology of aion is true, only the emotional effect on the characters and the reader, and its ability to generate story. In a sense, if the characters and readers go with the idea, then it is true.
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