Collaborations

[mallorys_camera]

I suppose because therobertpaul and BB brought him up, I’ve been thinking a lot about Vladimir Nabokov. In particular about his method of composition. Which was a lot like Alfred Hitchcock’s method of composition.

Hitchcock had that rare figurative intelligence that was able to recognize stories in single images.

And he collected those images. I’m not sure exactly sure how. Whether verbally through notes or in sketches. Hitchcock started his career as a set designer, so presumably he could draw.

Anyway, when Hitchcock had collected enough images, he then went about composing a narrative to contain them. A linear plotline that became the shooting script. He didn’t really care about that plotline, hence Hitchcock’s plots tend toward the flimsy. The much vaunted suspense elements in Hitchcock’s films all arise from juxtapositions in single scenes (i.e. single images.) He cared so little about the actual plots themselves that he devised the conceit of the McGuffin, a central device in a story that triggers all the action but which in and of itself is meaningless.

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Nabokov wrote on index cards. On one index card, he might write a vividly descriptive phrase, and the allusions this phrase suggested. On another index card, he might write a history of a particular totem object. On a third, he might write bits of dialogue – much of Dolores Haze’s slang and schoolgirl conversations in Lolita, for example, came from eavesdropping on those idle bus rides Nabokov took when he lived in Ithaca and had to travel to and from Cornell where he taught.

When he’d compiled enough of these index cards, he would commence the laborious task of rearranging them into a linear narrative.

I don’t know what role chance played in his compilations. Whether late at night, with a gin and tonic close at hand – carefully positioned on a coaster so as not to leave a ring on the rented furniture (I don’t know why one does not envision Nabokov drinking vodka, but one does not) – he set about composing a deliberate narrative or whether he shuffled them like a Tarot deck and let chance write the story.

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Philip K. Dick collaborated with his own version of chance. He used the I Ching at every crucial plot juncture in The Man in the High Castle to determine the subsequent action. And, of course, the I Ching is also a central device in the narrative.

I’m not sure the extent to which Dick may or may not have used the I Ching to write other novels.

In various interviews, he said not. But I’m not sure that I believe him.

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This communication with random happenstance is a regular part of the writing process for many, many writers. Michael Chabon calls it being “porous.”

Chabon writes about how late one night in Irvine – a Southern Californian city that only exists because in the 1960s, urban planners needed a new grid to stuff people into since the University of California was hell bent upon developing a campus there – he was stuck on a piece of writing that was at that time his masters thesis. It later became the novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.

Chabon was pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at afore-mentioned U.C. Irvine. The novel was daring for its time in its descriptions of two (count ‘em) love affairs packed into a slim 300 pages: one with a female, one with a male. The novel’s bisexual protagonist is male, and though the affair with the male objet du desir is decidedly more passionate, I seem to recall reading an interview with Chabon where he maintained that he was strictly hetero.

Late one night, he found himself having to write the scene where his protagonist has sex with his male lover for the first time.

And, of course, Chabon understood the actual mechanics of the act or acts, but did not think literature would necessarily be served by describing them graphically.

He didn’t know what to write.

And so, in a state of intense creative frustration, he went for a walk.

On his walk, he passed a young man with a nose bleed. And realized this was a perfect metaphor for the taking of virginity, recalling, as it did, the blood stains on a traditional bridal bed. Chance had proven to be a perfect collaborator, had provided him with the perfect serendipity – because if you knew what an awful, soulless grid Irvine is, you’d also know that no one ever walks there late at night.

Of course, if Chabon had not willed himself to be porous, he might have walked right by that young man without noticing him.

Or the young man might not have appeared at all.

But maybe that's all that talent is. The ability to recognize significant details when serendipity throws them your way.

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All this stuff is on my mind because I’m planning a creative reboot.

I’ve been more-or-less aimless about my own writing for the last few months. And I’ve been perfectly happy being aimless, too. Maybe even happier than when my life is oriented with a creative objective in mind. The pressure is off.

But the stories in my mind are growing vivid again. Clammering for escape.

And life seems to be ready to collaborate with me once more.

Comments

[robby.livejournal.com]

The .45 Colt Model 1911 was first. It's said to have been used the fight the Moros in the Philippines. This version is the smaller 'pocket pistol" model.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Tell that to Nabokov! Or Nabokov's ghost.

That's his index card.

[bb-lurks.livejournal.com]

Milton being blind required amanuensises. He would work all night composing in his head. He would then need to be "milked" Leave it to Milton to come up
with vivid and earthy images. Perhaps you need now to "milk" yourself.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

That is a truly horrifying image, which I will now try to forget. :-)

[dinahprincedaly.livejournal.com]

i love this entry... my daughter is applying to grad school and has to examine how she creates... she made a short haunting film in college inspired by the Nabokov image of sunglasses on a beach... she too apparently will sometimes work off a single image. its fascinating what launches us into creativity. its also interesting though maybe less so, what sustains and detains us in our creativity

what part of the world are you living in now?

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Which daughter? The Blue Bloods daughter? (One of my favorite shows, by the way -- I want Tom Selleck to adopt me so that I can have Sunday dinner with the Reagans!) Or the dog trainer daughter? :-)

I'm in the Hudson Valley these days. On one of yr trips to CT, stop by and visit! We'll have lunch at the Culinary Institute! :-)