Several Musings

When I was reading through the second half of the book, I kept forgetting that each number came from a different source and they kept blending together and I had to keep reminding myself of that. It made me wonder how Shields decided to put the whole book together, because it certainly could not have been random, but it seems random, but it makes sense? I guess? Maybe not. I don’t know.
Another thing that I was considering is that I think with this book, you kind of have to read it in one big gulp the way we did to really take it all in and let it mesh together all at once and float around. If someone sat down to read it over a longer period of time, I think it would get jumbled and they would forget things and it would lose a lot of its merits.

All of that aside, I really connected with much of the latter half of the book, because I, myself, am more interested in the essayist and nonfiction side of writing. (SHUN!) I have my own reasons for that, but that’s not up for discussion because I feel like I will be attacked, (not really, but most of you seem to be passionate about your love of fiction, so…).

Like Jess, I also liked the collage section. I actually highlighted numbers 324 and 339, too. The first exercise even said that we weren’t to be so concerned about plot, so it made me think of that. I think given that freedom, we are more able to explore our creativity and feel less restricted in a way. We don’t have to think about standard conventions. That’s not to say we can do things willy-nilly entirely, but we still have a bit more breathing room and it gives us the opportunity to look at things in a different way.

One last thing - section/chapter V, number 538 says "I find myself saying briefly and prosaically that it is much more important to be oneself than anything else." I find that to be ironic.