Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Writing, a consideration.

There may come a day when the following genres are no longer a part of my active written repertoire:
  • the letter of recommendation;
  • the agenda;
  • the notes on a discussion topic for further discussion;
  • the addenda and corrections to minutes;
  • the proposed language for inclusion in the Academic Guide;
  • the policy draft;
  • the memorandum.
Perhaps on that day, I will be dead. Perhaps on that day, I will merely be old. Perhaps I will have written myself out at that point. I may have no more clicks of the keyboard in me.

Is this writing? This is writing. Or, perhaps, "writing."

On the other hand, I might have a new poem coming along, about dust and mice. Mice could write some of the things I'm writing these days. I think a mouse would be the exactly appropriate author of "Addenda & Corrections to Minutes." A mouse, writing in the medium of dust.

I, on the other hand, surely was meant to write loftier things. Such as blog posts and checks to Target. And the answers to the clues to the crossword puzzle, nestled snugly into their little boxes. And sassy agendas. And elegant policy drafts.

TAGS: genre, loftier

4 comments:

  1. How is it--or should the question be 'why is it'--that the things we love the most get pushed the furthest away. So many words rolling around my head waiting for my hands to have time to type them...

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  2. The thing is (such a pompous opening . . . starting again . . .) Maybe your problem (no, also presumptuous . . .) Do you, I wonder, have difficulty letting the mundane genres remain mundane? My guess is that, in your hands, through your fingertips, the addenda, the policy drafts, still manage to shine somehow, reach hitherto unknown heights of style and je ne sais quoiness. So then the staid and dusty and mousy committee members and administrators see that the Academic Guide language is actually readable, the minutes now enjoyably read back at the next meeting, so, hey, get that plucky girl back in here. She's a keeper!
    So my point--and I do have one--is that you save the full measure of your brilliance for these posts, these pearls you cast before us. And for the dusty mouse looking over your shoulder as you type. Can't wait to hear more about him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I do wonder the same as radagast - whether your policy drafts become small jewels of wordy delight? I mean, you've already got internal rhyme modulating to slant going on: the agenda . . . the addenda . . . the memorandum which final word echoes the first line's recommendation.

    Not to mention the hardly hidden glee in the rythm of the proposed language for inclusion inthe Academic Guide - Scary!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Lisa B.
    The words of your blog and of the commentators on your blog are too advanced for me. I'm down to bullet points. Internal rhyme, assonance, clever phrasing are all beyond me right now but I would like to say that I'd read an agenda written by you any day.

    ReplyDelete

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