Lo-fi immortality



So this is what it comes to.

So much beauty and grace that, like a candle lit too long, she burned out and vanished from our sight, reduced to smoke, filtering into the unattainable elements in the air. We do our best to breathe in the particles, trying in vain to capture, in some crude way, what once was, what we remember, the curve of her neck as she danced and sang in a Parisian jazz club, the Holly Golightly glasses, the gutter trash dressed up to be monochromic society angel at the racetrack. And in the end, with this merger offering, we still fail, as we fail everyday to try to replicate her, that willow who was a gentle humanitarian, that gossamer human who floated across putty gray screens 30 feet high, which barely contained her poise and charisma as is. How can a stamp, this insignificant refuse of a portrait, do any justice?

Today's Word: Floor

From One Word

The favorite resting place of dead bodies in noir stories.

Literary minefields do not appear on the map

Story here. Snip below.

"The Da Vinci Code," a thriller by a relatively unknown author, is the top-selling novel in the country.

It has boosted the profile of author Dan Brown -- and it has brought him his first literary challenge.

Author Lewis Perdue says that Brown's story, which explores codes hidden in Leonardo da Vinci's artwork and a closely guarded secret involving the Roman Catholic Church, has similarities to Perdue's "Daughter of God," published in 2000.

Last week, Perdue sent a letter to Doubleday, Brown's publisher. While religious themes, secrets and conspiracies aren't newcomers to popular fiction, Perdue said he was seeing too many of his own ideas in "The Da Vinci Code," Brown's fourth novel.


While my wife would tell me that there is nothing new under the sun, this is something that just has to give authors everywhere a case of the heebie-jeebies. You write a book that's a critical and public success. You get some good buzz, appear on Charlie Rose or get an article on you in one of the mainstream news magazines...who knows, maybe there's a movie deal in the works and Brad Pitt's in talks to be the lead. (Don't laugh, just ask Chuck Palahniuk)

And then, poof...something comes up from the ocean floor. Another writer says that your novel sounds like his. You shrug and swear you never heard of the guy, you never read his book. You get antsy as everyone begins to look at you, thinking you pulled the literary version of a smash-and-grab, taking something that never belonged to you and claiming it as your own.

But...but, you stammer...you have the rough drafts to prove you came up with the idea. You had it all along. See, in the second draft, page 183, second graph...all there, some Deux Ex Machina you came up with to resolve some puzzle or to set the stage for a mid-story twist.

And you can hold your own for a couple coincidences. You're fast and sharp, clever enough to work people's good nature. When you are a success, people like you, and they'll cut you a little bit of a break. "Besides," someone will joke with you over drinks at some publishing party, "it's not like sci-fi writers had to stop writing about aliens and space travel after 'Star Trek', right?"

But you wonder...maybe you didn't read the book you're accused of ripping off...maybe your girlfriend did. Maybe your research assistant did? Maybe you heard of it at another party, or through word of mouth in your publisher's office. Maybe, in the course of research, you stumbled across a synopsis of it and absorbed it?

And then you panic, wondering how much you've been corrupted by other people's writings? Do you have any other plagiarism bombs sitting in your gray matter, waiting to go off the next time you get in a jam? Deep breath time. As a kid, you were told to read other people's works in order to be a great writer...see how it was done. Get a feel for language. Little did you know, your mind was absorbing dialogue and plot points, conflicts and resolutions, themes and tricks. Now, you can't purge it and your publisher is nudging you on the shoulder to get writing on your next book. Will you repeat the same mistakes? "What's the next one about?" the talk show host with impossible hair asks you, and you check yourself, trying not to say something that sounds like someone else's work.

And then you're screwed, because you have to come up with something groundbreaking for the next book. Otherwise, everyone thinks you are a rip-off. So, into the breach you go, hoping your skill is faster than the shadows chasing you. On the other side is either ruin, or a better book.

Your move.