Don’t Hand Me A Yellow Volkswagen

ByHeather

The Writers Almanac tells a story about Frank Conroy today. 

Once, while directing the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Conroy scolded a student for using irrelevant details in her short story. He said…

The author makes a tacit deal with the reader. You hand them a backpack. You ask them to place certain things in it — to remember, to keep in mind — as they make their way up the hill. If you hand them a yellow Volkswagen and they have to haul this to the top of the mountain — to the end of the story — and they find that this Volkswagen has nothing whatsoever to do with your story, you’re going to have a very irritated reader on your hands.

This is the reason I have never rushed to pick up anything by George R. R. Martin. From everything I have heard, including an interview with the author himself, Martin has a propensity for handing yellow Volkswagens to his readers. 

Similar Posts

  • Rainy Sunday Afternoons

    ByHeather

    Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

    — Susan Ertz, Anger in the Sky

    I have to admit that I am puzzled by people who claim to be easily bored. I can’t recall ever being bored. Granted, I am an introvert, which may explain why I have not lived an over-active life. I have always had a long queue of interests that manage to keep my mind occupied. I grew up in the country. The vast countryside was my backyard and my siblings and I always had something to do. As I grew older I discovered books and the world of ideas. Again, no shortage of things to do on a Sunday afternoon.

  • More Steinbeck on Writing

    ByHeather

    Sometimes in a man or a woman an awareness takes place — not very often and always inexplainable. There are no words for it because there is no one ever to tell. This is a secret not kept a secret, but locked in wordlessness. The craft or art of writing is the clumsy attempt to find symbols for the wordlessness. In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplainable. And sometimes if he is very fortunate and if the time is right, a very little of what he is trying to do trickles through.

    — John Steinbeck, Journals of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters

    This is another installment from Steinbeck’s journals written as he was giving birth to East of Eden. It has echos from my Julian Schnabel quote when he said “That is true about all art. The conflict is to try and take what is inside of you and put it inside somebody else.”

  • We Pay For What’s Important

    ByHeather

    On Wednesday, in his NY Times editorial, Nicholas Kristof cited an article by the American Journal of Public Health stating that 45,000 uninsured people die annually as a consequence of not having insurance.

    We accept that life is unfair, that some people will live in cramped apartments and others in sprawling mansions. But our existing insurance system is not simply inequitable but also lethal: a very recent, peer-reviewed article in the American Journal of Public Health finds that nearly 45,000 uninsured people die annually as a consequence of not having insurance. That’s one needless death every 12 minutes.

    Today Paul Krugman has an editorial on the demise of American education.

  • Here’s To The Crazy Ones

    ByHeather

    Here’s to the crazy ones.
    The misfits.
    The rebels.
    The troublemakers.
    The round pegs in the square holes.
    The ones who see things differently.
    They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.

    You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward.

    And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

    This is from an Apple ad shortly after Steve Jobs returned to Apple in the mid 90’s. It always brings a tear to my eye. Adweek has paid homage by adding Steve Jobs to his rightful place amongst these crazy ones.

    Here’s the updated ad:

  • David Byrne On The Music Business

    ByHeather

    David Byrne has an excellent article on the music business over at Wired. He offers this brilliant insight into music business today:

    What is called the music business today, however, is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that’s not bad news for music, and it’s certainly not bad news for musicians. Indeed, with all the ways to reach an audience, there have never been more opportunities for artists.

    A very good read.

  • You ask me why I spend my life writing

    ByHeather

    You ask me why I spend my life writing?
    Do I find entertainment?
    Is it worthwhile?
    Above all, does it pay?
    If not, then, is there a reason? …

    I write only because there is a voice within me that will not be still.

    — Sylvia Plath

    For ten years during my late twenties and early thirties I kept a journal. I started writing modestly in college and it eventually grew into such a compulsion that I would often write for hours a day. The pen seemed to have a mind of its own. Sometimes I would start a sentence not knowing where it was going, only to be amazed at the journey that it would launch. Even as computers started to enter my life, I wrote everything longhand. There was something magic about the connection between my thoughts and the paper, linked through the pen clasped in my fingertips.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.