Two Notes on Writing

1)
Read some W G Sebald again today. I forgot how amazing his writing is. I can't place my finger on exactly what makes his writing so great, but it has to do with providing us, his readers, within the experience of his consciousness, not his epistemological experience per se. He references his place in time and space, as well as a relationship to history and a series of ironies of the classical sort, rather than the hip'n'flip post-modern sort that quickly becomes tiresome. I always feel like I'm in the presence of wisdom when reading him, perhaps because it's a higher sort of experience we gain from reading him. If you haven't already, check out The Emigrants. It's a book I relish re-reading sometime in the not-to-distant future.

2)
"One of my all-time favorite jazz pianists is Thelonious Monk. Once, when someone asked him how he managed to get a certain special sound out of the piano, Monk pointed to the keyboard and said: “It can’t be any new note. When you look at the keyboard, all the notes are there already. But if you mean a note enough, it will sound different. You got to pick the notes you really mean!”

"I often recall these words when I am writing, and I think to myself, “It’s true. There aren’t any new words. Our job is to give new meanings and special overtones to absolutely ordinary words.” I find the thought reassuring. It means that vast, unknown stretches still lie before us, fertile territories just waiting for us to cultivate them."

--from a recent New York Times essay by Haruki Murikami

I really like what he says here about intentionality. It gives us all room to create meaning, whether it by in writing or in life, for ourselves, provided we take our opportunities.