Zen in the Art of Writing

I wasn't expecting the tone I got in this Ray Bradbury collection of essays. I'd read Farenheit 451, certainly, a tale of a distopian future, and I'd heard an anecdote from this one comic writer who had met Bradbury telling of his espoused "1000 words a day" which sounded a little severe (even though, when you actually think about it, that's not so great a number... But I liked the Hemingway goal of 250 GOOD words a day. But these guys have VERY different philosophies)

Finally, there was Bradbury's push against the digital book players.

All together, I expected a very harsh taskmaster in this book on writing.

Not so!

If the goofily smiling, cat holding man pictured on the books jacket wasn't indication enough of a warmer spirit, then how about.. you know what? I bet dollars to donuts the first line of the book will be revelatory (fingers crossed, let's take a look). Okay, how about the title of the first essay:

HOW TO CLIMB THE TREE OF LIFE, THROW ROCKS AT YOURSELF, AND GET DOWN AGAIN WITHOUT BREAKING YOUR BONES OR YOUR SPIRIT

A PREFACE WITH A TITLE NOT MUCH LONGER THAN THE BOOK

What I found in these pages is a man of joyful exuberance, who made sure to note the beauty in the world. The essays here, while often covering similar ground, no less made me want to run, literally and figuratively, and dance and play with words and actually create.

His weekly (if not more often) journey from word associated concept, to analysis, to story, is fascinating, especially to a guy that falters at that last part. Story's are conflict resolved, something wants to be something else. I always get stuck there.

WORK! RELAXATION! DON'T THINK! are his big rules from the actual "Zen in the Art of Writing" essay, and I quite like them. Let your work be fun, is the general sense of it, as well as the classic quote that Bradbury isn't intentionally referencing, but I couldn't help but have it come to mind.

"Don't think. Feel."

I think that was some fictional martial arts teacher that said that to Bruce Lee in Year of the Dragon or some such movie. I was thinking how, because there's the character Chie from Persona 4 that uses the phrase, that there's a useful lens for understanding... I mean it reminded me how there'd be Bruce Lee's interpretation of that line, there'd be Chie's interpretation of that line, and there'd be mine. Though it's a pretty basic concept, every person would inevitably invoke it in some way ultimately unique to each individual.

That may have been a bit off topic.

Don't think! Feel!