Alan Garner chat transcript

[altariel]

Thank you to the wondrous katlinel for directing me to this transcript of a webchat with Alan Garner, in which land, language, writing and history are discussed, and the phrase "Mabinogiongoing plans" is coined.

communicator, this remark may interest you, about not-writing:

"I look on the 'down' as an imposed period of hibernation that allows the unconscious and creative mind to overcome the rational intellect."

Comments

[manna]

I really liked:

I never talk about something new until it's finished. It's much easier to talk than to do, and, in the kitchen, it's not wise to lift the lid on a pressure cooker. Also, I don't know much about what the thing is yet; only that I'm pregnant. The foetus has to grow freely, and to say anything about it would be to put a corset around it and risk stunting the development.

Corseted fetus. Dude. Now there's an image that'll linger.


Also this one:

Objectively, I know that something complex is going on, but subjectively I'm a spectator, relaying what I see and hear. I don't lay much claim to being a writer; but I am a fairly high-grade piece of conductive copper.

And in anwer to the question 'What is your idea of postmodernism in contemporary literature, and what is your opinion of the postmodernist novel?':

Writers have no concern with this kind of question. And, since the theorists are still arguing about the terminology and meaning, until there is more light than heat I can answer only that it is a load of deconstructed bollocks.

Ahahahahaaaaa!


{in passing smacks the morons using the internet to whine about the ugliness of the modern world}

[temeres.livejournal.com]

"I look on the 'down' as an imposed period of hibernation that allows the unconscious and creative mind to overcome the rational intellect."

I can certainly relate to that. Virtually all of the writing I do these days is in the fantasy worldbuilding vein, and I find I have to set the world aside for a few months now and again because my creativity simply runs dry.

I seem to recall a piece in the Guardian (by Karen Armstrong?) some months ago making much the same point.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

>Mabinogiongoing

Brilliance!


I have never read Alan Garner before. I shall have to. Thank you for bringing him and his former Mabinogiongoing to my attention!
:)

[executrix.livejournal.com]

As in Not Stupid, Not Expendable, Mabinogiongoing Plans?

*is a little embarrassed*

[pretty-poodle.livejournal.com]

Hey, Una! Could you do me the biggest favor in the world?

My friend reilyn_no_yumme is working on a report for class exploring different careers, and she was wondering about professional writing. If you have a little spare time could you tell her a bit about it, please? I would be *so* grateful. (We're trying to get all the information first hand!)

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a chance to read that yet, but I wanted to just say thanks for that link. He refuses to use Lithium to control his bipolar disorder. I don't know whether he's right to make that decision or not, but it must be linked to his idea of depression as fallow/mulching period.