November 2013: Colm Tóibín: The Testament of Mary

[Meadow337]

Interesting bits from the article:

- "I felt that I was Mary."

After his father died - "And my father, I can't think that his name was mentioned, and there was no photograph of him on the wall or anything like that." And for Mary there are also no names, just an empty chair, but no names.

also - "that distance between what you are thinking about and what you are saying — and the silence that lingered all the time around serious emotion." and from the book - "I lived mostly in silence"

 

[Peder]

Interesting bits from the article:

- "I felt that I was Mary."

Well! That is certainly eye-catching! Enough to get me to read the link.

Edit:
/reads the link./
Yes, supports the idea that it is more than a little autobiographical with the points you make..
But, oh so prosaic with respect to authorial technique for creating a story.
And the comments!
Oh so well worth missing.

 

[Meadow337]

yes well I completely ignored the comments I don't know whether to applaud you or shake my head in disbelief that you actually read them.

Yes, supports the idea that it is more than a little autobiographical with the points you make..

I found it after I came up with the idea so I was like YEAH! lol ...

But, oh so prosaic with respect to authorial technique for creating a story.

it sounded more than a little bit like a form of mortification - expression as punishment / expurgation of sins.

 

[Peder]

Become the character.
See the world through their eyes.
Write in detail.

Well, duh?

As for the comments. thank you, thank you, BAR BOTM and yourself for your lively and intelligent discussion(s).

The Tintoretto will be worth a look.

Edit: Yes. All manner of people doing all sorts of things.

 

[Meadow337]

Become the character.
See the world through their eyes.
Write in detail.

Well, duh?

Ohhh maybe it was another article where it described how he wrote. He writes in long hand in a notebook while sitting in a deliberately very uncomfortable upright wooden chair. Sounded positively medieval.

As for the comments. thank you, thank you, BAR BOTM and yourself for your lively and intelligent discussion(s).

LOL the pleasure is mutual.

The Tintoretto will be worth a look.

Edit: Yes. All manner of people doing all sorts of things

 

[Peder]

That book turned out better than I expected. Even with the potential for divisiveness.
Interesting book. Good discussion.
I'm on to the next.

 

[Elizabeth Harrington]

Colm Toibin is a consistently strong writer.

 

[Meadow337]

Colm Toibin is a consistently strong writer.

Do you have anything further you would like to add to the discussion about the book?