Comments on: a fear of commitment http://blog.icbins.com/2009/08/03/a-fear-of-commitment/ Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:40:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: I Can't Believe It's Not Shakespeare http://blog.icbins.com/2009/08/03/a-fear-of-commitment/#comment-120 I Can't Believe It's Not Shakespeare Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:03:15 +0000 http://blog.icbins.com/?p=578#comment-120 [...] Takes a Husband at Stella Adler, and what a tremendous relief it is to unburden myself of the play that caused me so much grief during its incubation and watch the characters come to life in the hands of the actors.  This is [...] [...] Takes a Husband at Stella Adler, and what a tremendous relief it is to unburden myself of the play that caused me so much grief during its incubation and watch the characters come to life in the hands of the actors.  This is [...]

]]> By: making the play « I Can't Believe It's Not Shakespeare http://blog.icbins.com/2009/08/03/a-fear-of-commitment/#comment-119 making the play « I Can't Believe It's Not Shakespeare Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:54:11 +0000 http://blog.icbins.com/?p=578#comment-119 [...] Takes a Husband at Stella Adler, and what a tremendous relief it is to unburden myself of the play that caused me so much grief during its incubation and watch the characters come to life in the hands of the actors.  This is [...] [...] Takes a Husband at Stella Adler, and what a tremendous relief it is to unburden myself of the play that caused me so much grief during its incubation and watch the characters come to life in the hands of the actors.  This is [...]

]]> By: jraemaldonado http://blog.icbins.com/2009/08/03/a-fear-of-commitment/#comment-86 jraemaldonado Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:01:03 +0000 http://blog.icbins.com/?p=578#comment-86 Well, you can call it "lack of progress" if the big consuming thing isn't worth while - which is the pandora's box no writer wants to open. "Is it actually good?" What a scary question. Well, you can call it “lack of progress” if the big consuming thing isn’t worth while – which is the pandora’s box no writer wants to open. “Is it actually good?” What a scary question.

]]> By: fionn999 http://blog.icbins.com/2009/08/03/a-fear-of-commitment/#comment-85 fionn999 Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:59:17 +0000 http://blog.icbins.com/?p=578#comment-85 <em> I figure probably 95 per cent of why I have been discouraged with my progress on this piece has nothing to do with not feeling productive – but rather that I am disturbed that this piece has been the sole, primary focus of my heart and mind for nearly a year. Where does that come from? I got the idea somewhere along the line that as a young person I should be a certain kind of writer. I have the enormous expectation of having dozens of projects, one after the other… simultaneously — dozens and dozens of projects until damn, you can’t believe I’ve got so many projects because really – that’s a lot of projects. But this year – my first year out in the real world as a real writer – that just hasn’t been the case. </em> I think it’s a uniquely American tendency to reward multi-tasking, rapidly shifting attention, and constant business (busy-ness). There’s a growing learned instinct, I’ve noticed, particularly in people of our generation, to always be doing, always moving from one place to another, to have a hand in everything, and most of all, to produce. The rest of America wants to consume what we produce, right, so the more we make, the more can be taken in. It reminds me of a twisted and degenerate idealization of the old persona of the polyglot–the Renaissance man, who did (and mastered) just about whatever he turned his mind to. Perhaps now we have got it into our heads that we should all be polyglots, otherwise we are only limited. Save a few short stories made for classes, my novel has consumed my heart and mind for nearly five years now. Does that make me limited? Perhaps imperfect (since I’ve started over this thing three times, and soon will start it again), but I think that what I am limiting to myself is Something Big, perhaps even beyond me. And that may be what the polyglots were really after: something so big they could only understand it in a thousand different ways. Can you call it lack of progress if what you’re working on is bigger than you? Can you call your view limited if you want to try and understand what you can see through only one way? I figure probably 95 per cent of why I have been discouraged with my progress on this piece has nothing to do with not feeling productive – but rather that I am disturbed that this piece has been the sole, primary focus of my heart and mind for nearly a year. Where does that come from? I got the idea somewhere along the line that as a young person I should be a certain kind of writer. I have the enormous expectation of having dozens of projects, one after the other… simultaneously — dozens and dozens of projects until damn, you can’t believe I’ve got so many projects because really – that’s a lot of projects. But this year – my first year out in the real world as a real writer – that just hasn’t been the case.

I think it’s a uniquely American tendency to reward multi-tasking, rapidly shifting attention, and constant business (busy-ness). There’s a growing learned instinct, I’ve noticed, particularly in people of our generation, to always be doing, always moving from one place to another, to have a hand in everything, and most of all, to produce. The rest of America wants to consume what we produce, right, so the more we make, the more can be taken in.

It reminds me of a twisted and degenerate idealization of the old persona of the polyglot–the Renaissance man, who did (and mastered) just about whatever he turned his mind to. Perhaps now we have got it into our heads that we should all be polyglots, otherwise we are only limited.

Save a few short stories made for classes, my novel has consumed my heart and mind for nearly five years now. Does that make me limited? Perhaps imperfect (since I’ve started over this thing three times, and soon will start it again), but I think that what I am limiting to myself is Something Big, perhaps even beyond me. And that may be what the polyglots were really after: something so big they could only understand it in a thousand different ways.

Can you call it lack of progress if what you’re working on is bigger than you? Can you call your view limited if you want to try and understand what you can see through only one way?

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