Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Sanibel day four: Phillip K Dick

I'm 120 pages deep into Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and I prefer the book to Blade Runner. I consider Blade Runner a brilliant cinematic work.

I'm spinning a bit on how my own books, many of them half or a quarter or even less begun, will emerge. I want to--must do these and I've let these strange children vacillate in the fridge for so long.

I feel that I'm at the height of my powers (so far) and if ever I was going to, it's now. Simultaneously, I have some doubts (plenty, really) on how I'll weave together a proper storyline. My imagination, verbal rendering ability and pluck are firing. My story structure needs some work. (and where to begin?)

One thing I've realized is that, no matter when I start working on a story or what good ideas I've forgotten, it's okay that some stories are lost. For every Uly, there were millions of other possible children, all wonderful, lovable and joys in their own right.

But they don't exist. He does. The same is true of artistic and literary work. The possibles could have been great, too. But only a few make it through and become Velveteen.

The constant in the works is me, and that's okay in and of itself.

We'll be passing back through Gainesville on the way home. I plan to stop there as I did in that dream that was part of the MLK story I'm developing.

David True - if you read this, thank you for giving me VALIS! (another PK Dick book and the first I had heard of this author.)

- Steve

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Steve,
I just read your blog. Your bike trip sounds amazing. Your grandma told me that you biked to and from Colombus in a day and I thought that it seemed impossible,if not highly dangerous. I'm glad she was mistaken. When you get a chance call me. I'd like to hear about Sanibel and how Uly liked the gulf. The best times to call are during the day until 8 o'clock, p.m. After that i'm a couch potato sitting with my laptop and watching (actually listening to the boob tube). I know what you're thinking but it's my life. I hope when you're 67 yrs.old you're able to do more active things but I bet you'll be sitting somewhere vegging out,too. Kiss Uly for me.

Mary