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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

What It Is by Lynda Barry

61 6OwlIB3L._SL160_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-dp,TopRight,12,-18_SH30_OU01_AA160_ The cover of this book caught my eye as I was processing a book return. The cover resembled a school art project so I decided to check it out. I began reading it and was immediately confused. It was a collage of images and random words and I could not figure out the subject or meaning of any of it. It asked philosophical questions such as “Can you have thoughts without language?” and “What is the past made of?”. Interspersed throughout the book are pages which chronicle the author’s lifelong realization of their art and writing skills but even these pages are collages of words and images. As I continued to read, I became aware of the book’s purpose which is to teach creative writing skills. This made me realize that the first part of the book is designed to force you out of the box when it comes to thinking about writing. The last part of the book is a series of writing exercises which consists of basically making a list of something such as family cars you remember riding in throughout your life, picking one and answering a series of questions about it, pick another car, repeat. It also explains how to work through writer’s block in a very creative way which I would have thought would make writing more difficult but what do I know since I can barely come up with ideas for this blog. I would recommend this book to anyone, not just aspiring writers. It is beautifully illustrated and very rewarding to the reader who can persevere through the hodge-podge of images and words to make it to the end.

 

 

While writing this, I was listening to "The Understanding" from "Experience Music: A TuneCore Alternative Sampler" by Jones Street Station

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