{"id":4778,"date":"2009-06-12T06:45:59","date_gmt":"2009-06-12T10:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=4778"},"modified":"2009-08-28T15:32:25","modified_gmt":"2009-08-28T19:32:25","slug":"breaking-it-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/breaking-it-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking It Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>From whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The states of mind or feelings that art can excite have been helpfully distinguished in Sanskrit aesthetics, where they are called rasas<\/em>, from a word meaning “juice” or “essence”. A fully achieved work of art should flow with all nine of them: their names might be transposed into English as wonder, joy, sexual pleasure, pity, anguish, anger, terror, disgust and laughter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Marina Warner, Monsters of Our Own Making<\/em> [source<\/a>]<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Naming of Parts<\/strong><\/p>\n

To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
\nWe had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
\nWe shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
\nTo-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
\nGlistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
\nAnd to-day we have naming of parts.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the lower sling swivel. And this
\nIs the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
\nWhen you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
\nWhich in your case you have not got. The branches
\nHold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
\nWhich in our case we have not got.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the safety-catch, which is always released
\nWith an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
\nSee anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
\nIf you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
\nAre fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
\nAny of them using their finger.<\/span><\/p>\n

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
\nIs to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
\nRapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
\nEasing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
\nThe early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
\nThey call it easing the Spring.<\/span><\/p>\n

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
\nIf you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
\nAnd the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
\nWhich in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
\nSilent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and
\nforwards,<\/span>
\nFor to-day we have naming of parts.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Henry Reed, from Lessons of the War<\/em> [source<\/a>]<\/em>; see an excellent film interpretation of the poem here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And…: Somehow I’d never come across this on my own. But thanks to Eudaemonia<\/a>, I have now — Vonnegut’s rules for writing successful fiction:<\/p>\n

Now lend me your ears. Here is Creative Writing 101:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Use the time of total strangers in such a way he or she will not feel the time was wasted.<\/li>\n
  2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.<\/li>\n
  3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.<\/li>\n
  4. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.<\/li>\n
  5. Start as close to the end as possible.<\/li>\n
  6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.<\/li>\n
  7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.<\/li>\n
  8. Give your reader as much information as possible as soon as possible. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    And finally, we move on to this, per Wikipedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    In bluegrass music, a break is a short instrumental solo played between sections of a song and is conventionally a variation on the song’s melody. A breakdown is an instrumental form that features a series of breaks, each played by a different instrument.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    A notable example of the bluegrass breakdown has been summed up thusly (also from Wikipedia<\/a>):<\/p>\n

    [Earl] Scruggs won a Grammy award in 2002 for the 2001 recording of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” which featured among others, actor and comedian Steve Martin on 2nd banjo, Albert Lee and Vince Gill on guitars, Marty Stuart on mandolin, and Paul Shaffer on piano.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    As you can see below, the summation may leave something to be desired. This video of Scruggs & Co. performing “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” is from the David Letterman show, at around the time that Grammy came to roost:<\/p>\n

    <\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    From whiskey river: The states of mind or feelings that art can excite have been helpfully distinguished in Sanskrit aesthetics, where they are called rasas, from a word meaning “juice” or “essence”. A fully achieved work of art should flow with all nine of them: their names might be transposed into English as wonder, joy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,426,74,196,251,372],"tags":[178,1273,1274,1275,1276,1277,1278,1279,1280,1281],"class_list":{"0":"post-4778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-celebrities","9":"category-music","10":"category-television","11":"category-poetry-writing_cat","12":"category-style-and-craft","13":"tag-whiskey-river","14":"tag-breaking-it-down","15":"tag-rasas","16":"tag-naming-of-parts","17":"tag-vonnegut","18":"tag-eudaemonia","19":"tag-creative-writing-101","20":"tag-bluegrass-breakdown","21":"tag-earl-scruggs","22":"tag-foggy-mountain-breakdown","23":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-1f4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4778"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4970,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778\/revisions\/4970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}