Sunday, January 14, 2007

Thesis Watch -- Saturday at 9:30

So, with some writing done and the BAG in the hotel room watching Dr. Phil and other TV atrocities, I had a chance to pop open the last piece of important works that Kim wrote – well, that is the last piece that I received. It’s a book of short stories entitled and it coincidentally contains the first story of Kim’s that I ever read, “They Won’t Crack it Open.

The stories are short, elegant, and punch well above their apparent weight. The stories are all of small but heartbreaking losses and my lad was writing at his best when he did these. This morning (coffee, crackers and cheese, mmmm!) I read his last story and in it he overdoes all his traditional themes to the point that the story is obvious and overwrought. Interesting since he had been in the US for quite a long time when he wrote it and I think that shows.. the subtlety is gone … the Asian desire not to judge (publicly) and reduce “face” is gone from his writing and that reduces its charm substantially..

5,157
3340
6,503 to go..

and that means just less that 2,000 words done in this bout of hotel medicine. Currently that means I need to do about 384 words a day, but if they next two days are productive that should drop substantially…

If I do another round of hotel medicine this long weekend I should hit my goal of 10K before the week begins…

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Write some stuff about how he dressed and what his sense of style was like. You know, important things.

That always works for the chattering classes.....

yer sis