Comments on: Writing vs. blogging vs. life

by: Jason W

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:22:09 +0000

11/10

by: Neddy

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:45:34 +0000

Of course it made me a bit sad, too. A few years ago I had to pack up all my things from childhood and teen years from my parents’ house. Most of it I threw away, which made me sad at the time. I am going through what was kept now, and throwing most of it away. I often think that my daughters will want my clothes, because I wanted my mum’s when I was growing up. But it’s just too hard for me to hang on to anything now! Passing it on to my friends is the next best thing I think.
x

by: melgregg

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:52:05 +0000

Tell me about it! So strange.

You aren’t the only one to say this post made them sad - I wonder why?

by: Michelle

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:50:53 +0000

I think I see writing not as an alibi to get me out of things, but as an alibi to get me INTO things. For me, as a kid, it was amazing to think I might end up going anywhere, except in my head.

So, while you sat on your island imagining Kylie Minogue, I sat on a mountain and imagined celebrities, too. I even wrote a letter to one, once, when I was probably far too old for it. It was exciting just to send a letter to a different country. Imagine my joy when a reply came, and an 8×10 publicity shot! I knew that there was another world out there, but I was not at all sure that I could participate in it.

Don’t know what I’m trying to say here. This post made me sad and happy all at once, like dusk, and REM. I guess that’s it.

Oh, and bugger about the Exclusive Brethren thing.

by: Jean

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:34:43 +0000

Good call by Ted Hughes. That’s just what Colin Thiele said when he came to my primary school and told us we could all be writers - evidently I forgot the “as long as you remember what it’s like to be a child” part. Although, while I’d like to keep the clarity of my Year 4 writing I’m not so sure about the moral certainty. And then again (see?) if somebody *did* actually present me with a magic saddle that would grant me all my wishes as long as I was grateful and polished it every day, and then I didn’t fulfil my part of the bargain, I reckon it would be fair enough if my pony was taken away.

by: melgregg

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:17:52 +0000

Hi Jean, thanks! I was listening to the radio yesterday and heard an old interview with Ted Hughes when he was out for the Adelaide Festival in the 70s. He was saying that poets should imagine they are writing for children; once we get older things become too complicated - which I think means we try too hard to sound smart, and that we pick up a lot of bad habits along the way. Maybe all PhD courses should include some Hughes.

Kiley: my books are in a pile with my brother’s and my mum’s schoolbooks. I remember when I was little how much I loved anything that was my mum’s at school, and I was amazed that she didn’t keep things like her school uniform for me to dress up in. Oh dear, my sad geeky life! But it is important to me that all these things stay in one place for whoever else might come along…

by: kiley

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:41:11 +0000

I loved this post too mel.

I hoard my children’s stuff and realize I map my own adult life through their childhood creativity–love letters, drawings that chart my size from gargantuan to human. Partly I suppose because my father burnt all our photos and memorabilia when my mother fled with us but also because my head is so full of what increasingly feels like useless theoretical knowledge that their presence feels like it is slipping through the cracks.

How I Met Kylie Minogue–I smell a New Idea editor in the making…

by: Jean

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:03:41 +0000

Wow, beautiful post Mel.

Problematic identity or not, as we can all see here, you do writing as a practice really very well.

I also spent some time going through my early works recently, after rescuing a box (of the stuff I have lugged from house to house for decades) from the flood. I was stunned by how much clearer my writing was when I was 8 or 9, and how assured the narratives were, and how satisfying it is to arrive at a conclusion with such certainty. And hey, I love nostalgia, generally.