24 October 2011

Sentiment



I won something! Yey! I went on Elle Strauss' blog, and left a comment, and got a prize! It's a copy of a book called "Pride & Popularity", a re-write of the world's greatest romance in an American high school setting. Apparently Jenni James originally didn't even set out to write a version of Austen, it just sort of happened. Should be interesting to read.

I imagine that for a writer of romances, a sure-fire way to garner a greater readership is to refer to Jane Austen somewhere in their writing. I wouldn't know, I've never tried writing romance. I don't think I could; I'd be too embarrassed. (You should have seen Steve's face when I suggested it. Well, yes, it looked exactly like it always does - he is a stuffed bear, after all. But I'm sure if synthetic fur could change colour, there would have been a decidedly pinkish tinge to it then.) I have the same issue whenever I have to write, or say, anything really deep or meaningful - I just can't do it. It's not that I don't feel the things, I just have a hard time saying them. Like with writing birthday cards. What I really mean is "You're such an incredibly wonderful person who has touched my heart deeply, and I wish you every conceivable happiness in which all your wishes come true and all your deepest desires are fulfilled!" but what comes out is "Happy, umm, birthday?"

I read somewhere that the English are so stiff-upper-lip because really, they're frightfully sentimental, so they have to be extra stiff to keep it under control (come to think of it, that sounds like something Lord Peter Wimsey would say; might well have been from one of those books). I think the same goes for Germans: we come across as hard-nosed because we're really just big marshmallows inside. It's not that we don't feel things, it's that we feel them too much. It's no accident that Germany produced Bach, Beethoven, Handel and Holbein: if your feelings are too strong to talk about, you need to give them sound or colour in some other way.

But that's not to say that every straight-faced person is frightfully sentimental inside; some are just unemotional blocks of ice. And some are teddy bears who really are stuffed with fluff. It's probably a good thing Steve can't blush - pink plush would clash with my favourite orange sweater.

Life, the Universe, and Romance. It is a truth universally acknowledged.

8 comments:

  1. Oh, you should write a novel. Your blog is so much fun.
    Nanowrimo is coming up. (google it) I completed it two years ago and I'm a terrible writer.

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  2. You finished a NaNo? Wow! I'm impressed.

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  3. it's funny because I find it MUCH easier to write sentiment than actually say it. I tend to get all digressionary... What was I saying?

    Oh, Congrats! :o)

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  4. Oh, I can't *say* it either- actually, writing it is marginally easier than saying it out loud, because you're not looking people in the face when you write it. :)

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  5. Congrats! It's cool to win stuff! I think you are a damn fine writer (pardon the "swear" word) and I think you put tons of emotion in your writing...maybe not the sexy, mushy kind...but I bet you could!! Keep writing!
    And yes every Brit or German that I know (I know lots being related to them LOL) are really mush balls inside!

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  6. Thanks! Well, the romantic writing I'd have trouble with is the kind like:
    "He looked deeply and without blinking into her purple-rimmed eyes. She swallowed hard, and felt a frisson of excitement, tingling up and down her spine. Sensuously she licked her cherry-red lips, and opened her mouth to exclaim: 'AAAaah, there's a bug running up my back!'" See what I mean? EMBARRASSING!

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  7. Double bonus is the book comes with a coffee visit!

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  8. More yey! Double bonus indeed.

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