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| The Author Outlines |  | |  | | | A Letter of Apology to His Twin, Eaten in the Womb | |
by Richard Weems | | |
- Header
- salutation: "Hi"? "Dear Sir"? "To Whom It May Concern"?
- note: consider sympathy cards
- suggestion: blank or simple
- addendum: no Bible quote!!
- Opening
- beg for sympathy?
- suggestion for opening: avoid certainty — a sure approach might suggest previous drafts or other experience at subject, thus abating appearance of emotional spontaneity.
- examples of certainty:
- What can I tell you of what you've missed so far?
- Yesterday, I imagined you this time on a boardwalk bench, offering me a hot dog.
- I envy where you are. The climate must be nice. How's the food?
- suggestion: best not start too uncertain, either, with false stammering — even the infant dead may hold certain intuitive powers.
- uncertainty:
- I've been debating the appropriateness of this letter for months now.
- suggestion: RESEARCH
- option 1: William Kennedy; Dangerous Liaisons; any other epistolary fiction involving spurned lovers, intendeds, etc.
- option 2: authors who write about experiences with bad families:
- Raymond Carver
- Tobias Wolff
- Joseph Heller
- Sylvia Plath
- Oscar Hijuelos
- Kenzaburo Oe.
- suggestion: disregard II. B.3.b.
- Body
- DON"T DILLY-DALLY! GET RIGHT TO IT!! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!!!
- note: pauses or lack of directness will decrease likeliness of empathy (sympathy?) from addressee
- note: straightforwardness an asset with respects to literary endeavor
- example:
- . . .
- addendum: research for example
- remind addressee what you did and why
- suggestion for previous emphasis: details: avoid emotional expression and metaphor
- examples:
- The Natural Order of Things: Mom did not eat that day, and you merely took the advantage of the situation before it became a mutual struggle that could have terminated you both
- addendum: also suggests a certain altruism on your part: a two-fold extinction of fetal matter that was you and your brother would have more quickly rendered your mother void of all desire for existence
- blurred vision: womb fluid clouded your eyesight — your brother could have been anything!
- i.e., a litchi, a crawdad, a pear soaked in red wine. . .
- genetic fate ("My heredity made me do it.")
- addendum: an excellent avoidance of blame!
- tell him what he's missing
- suggestion: see III.B.1. — intent thus only derivable through analysis
- the bright colors of a fall morning
- chewing
- winding a grandfather clock
- an insuck of breath
- content (i.e., sub-text): an air of growth, of overcoming trauma, of moving on
- research: last chapters: The Prince of Tides; Henderson the Rain King
- addendum: refer to no self-help literature
- check on legitimacy of using term "literature" in such a context
- addendum: avoid Shakespearean method — too many echoes of deus ex machina
- note: make sure catharsis appears true and not literary
- research: is there a difference?
- suggestion: avoid negative expression — keep to language of affirmation
- addendum: avoid overly positive expression that may suggest unresolved or unconscious sadness
- suggestion: use language that is acknowledgedly sad, but accepting inherent sadness to produce a certain positive melancholy (existential? or typical artistic nature?)
- example: "About as good a day today as one can hope for, realistically..."
- research: St. Augustine; Albert Camus; Samuel Beckett; Anne Sexton (??)
- addendum to St. Augustine suggestion: one must always refer back to the masters
- why?: I quote: "All writers are more or less faithful amanuenses of the spirit, translators and annotators of pre-existing archetypes."
- research: who said that?
- suggestion: must keep going . . . keep going
- suggestion.
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Richard Weems still teaches in Philadelphia. There are many reputable gyro
stands that can back this information up. He is teaching once again this MLK
weekend at the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway
in Cape May, New Jersey.
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