I thought all day on Wednesday about the quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald that we saw on the Writers Almanac: "All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath." What do you think he meant? Was he referring to the writer or the reader? Are we going to need to make a trip to the pool to figure it out?
Seriously - what was his point?
In the last post, Kris addressed one of the Essential Questions. What do you think about what she said?
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Hold your breath.....
Posted by Mr. Z at 9:31 PM
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3 Comments:
"All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath." is a very nice quote. However, it’s hard to explain what it means. Let’s represent stories as fish, and catching a fish is writing a story. Anyone can catch a small fish for a poor story. You have to work harder to get the big fish that are lurking deep in the water. Every lake has at least one good catch. The challenge is trying to get it. The best, longest, most interesting stories take a while to get, like catching a huge fish.
As for the second question, there is a possibility that someone is dead. However, I think that the entire Regan family is still alive. First off, I am beginning to think that Hollis was alone when there was the car crash. It seems like Steven would be smart enough to drive if Hollis was in the car, going up the mountain. Second, I think that the author would just not feel right. I remember when reading Al Capone does my Clothes, the author said that she could feel her characters with her. It would feel sad to have someone leave, especially if you could stop them from leaving.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered one of the greatest writers in American fiction. “The Great Gatsby”, published in 1925 is his most popular work.
I thought it was interesting the Fitzgerald did not say that “All good writing is LIKE swimming..” but is stead said directly “All good writing IS swimming under water and holding your breath.”
When I think about swimming under water and holding my breath I get an uncomfortable feeling. Your body wants to return to the surface, so you have to work to stay under. As oxygen runs out, your body becomes more desperate to rise.
Is he saying that good writing comes from an uncomfortable place? Is he saying that it comes when you fight against instincts? Is he saying something else altogether? After a day of thinking about it I am still not sure.
As for Hollis – she seems to be her own worst enemy. She certainly is having a difficult time forgiving herself and has made some bad choices as a result – with maybe the worst being to leave the Regans in the first place. I wonder if some of the things she has done lately have just been to reinforce the perceptions she has of herself and thinks that others have of her. She seems to find comfort in taking care of Josie, though I hope that she will not soon find out how unprepared she is to do that.
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