Themes
This Christmas will hereafter be called the Christmas of the Great Slide Project. My parents have THOUSANDS of old slides and my Significant Other bought me a slide converter. All day long, my mother pries the old slides from their metal case, and I load them into the converter and make JPEGs. The top picture is my first birthday in our old apartment in Yonkers. Middle picture includes my great-grandparents and bottom picture my grandparents (and me in the bottom left).It is weird to revisit the past around the holidays. I am consistently struck by how poor we were, and by how HAPPY we were. Which makes me wonder if "getting ahead" is all it's cracked up to be. But more than that . . . .
The theme of my work-in-progress is memory as a repository of the soul. Without our memories, we are nothing. Memories are the stuff of existence, and yet they reside solely within each person, utterly unique. And here I am floating around in memories for days on end.
It isn't the first time my life seems to echo my themes. Maybe I gravitate toward the themes that mean something to me. Maybe the themes choose me. I don't know. But I find the circumstances of this holiday eerily reminiscent of my main character and her documentary films.
So how about you? Do you ever find your real life has decided to veer into the oncoming path of your novel?
23 comments:
Yes, often. How could I write without experience?
I spent forever converting my husband's family slides into .jpegs too. It made me sad because I didn't get the slides until after his parents deaths.
I take pictures all the time and when the memories are fresh it's fun to go through them. When they're old I feel sad as if something is lost forever. Maybe it's my memory and if it weren't for the photos I would have forgotten.
I would LOVE to do that project! I could spend days looking at old family photos (and have).
I came up with another shiny new idea last week inspired by something in my life, so my current idea does reflect my real life.
Hi Richmond:
I was surprised at the little details that came back--toys I specifically remember well and so on.
E
Melanie:
I thought my Shiny New Idea had no bearing on my life, but I find, even though a huge portion of it is set in 2018, that the themes have a great deal to do with my life.
E
I want details about the slide converter. My Dad was a photographer and I inherited over 10,000 slides (no kidding) when he died. My sister claims she wants them, but she has no idea how many there actually are.
Here's what I wrote a few minutes ago:
“Your face, man. It’s all healed up. It’s a miracle.”
That got his attention. He whipped the blanket off and started kneading his cheeks with his fingers.
“I’m healed! I’m healed!”
Virgil had never seen anyone so excited. Billy jumped up and danced in a circle, whopping and hollering and carrying on like a lunatic.
Then, seemingly unaware that he was thirty feet from the ground, he did a celebratory cartwheel right out the treehouse door.
Mike and Virgil dove toward him, but it was too late. Billy was on the way down, plummeting headfirst, clawing with his hands and pedaling with his feet as if trying to climb an inverted ladder.
“Billy!” Virgil cried.
Mike opened his hands, pursed his lips, and concentrated. His physical surroundings blurred to a tunnel of swirling colors. He saw only Billy, falling in slow motion now, teeth clenched and eyes bulging...
So, you know, I hope my real life doesn't veer into the path of this novel. ;)
The path we all take is guided by a road map of our memories. I have a friend who is facing his mortality through the eyes of ALS and spends much of his time waiting for friends to bop by the computer. Much of what I see as important today was molded by the experiences I had with him in my youth. Even reaching this blog was a result of searching out old memories about a trip to Mexico.
So, yes. Blame Melanie.
Do you ever find your real life has decided to veer into the oncoming path of your novel?
Always. Even when I think they are worlds apart, there's some core there that's important to me at the time I'm writing. I haven't figured out yet if I'm infusing my life themes into my work or if themes in my work are becoming important in my life due to writerly obsession... either way, it makes for deeper writing :-)
Omg, I want one! We have a million slides, LOL! And, okay, that's a scary thought, considering how few memories I have. Gosh, I swear before I was sick, I had a good memory. Now, it's pitiful. I was filling out an application, and had to note my volunteer work, and I couldn't remember one thing. Not one thing, not even from just a few months ago. I had to call my best friend, and the conversation went like this, "I do volunteer work, right? I thought I did. I mean, I feel it's my duty, right? Isn't this part of who I am? And yet I've done NOTHING my entire adult life?"
But once I remembered that I taught piano for fifteen years, it triggered more of my memories, and the identity crisis was averted, LOL.
Oh boy. I need to keep playing piano just to keep my brain working.
I'm "poorer" than I've ever been, and I'm a thousand times more blissfully happy than I've ever been in my life.
And in the first picture, you look like you already! AND I can see Demon Baby in you! He looks like you! :-)
Mark:
It's called Memor-Ease. It costs about $100 (you can find it on sale at Costco). It's EASY to run and it also converts negatives.
My only suggestion, now that I am using it, would be to order extra converter trays for the slides, so you can have an assistant loading them up while you are capturing them.
E
Jude:
Yeah. Considering my novel is about a pandemic, I'd like to avoid most of it. LOL!
Allen:
My hero. :-) Thanks for everything . . . and Melanie is a pretty terrific person to blame.
:-)
E
Merry:
Definitely. I am immersed in my theme and it's definitely making the experience deeper.
E
Natasha:
I have some pictures where he looks like my clone.
E
Trinidad is caught between two worlds (literally and figuratively) and not really fitting in anywhere. I've felt that way my whole life, but never more than in the past six months, so yeah, I'm reflecting my theme, or it's reflecting me or something.
I love old pictures but I'd never have the patience for such a project. I don't even scrapbook. But I admire you for doing it, and for doing it with your mom, because I'm sure you're getting all the old stories and faces fixed in your head. Wonderful!
No hero here. Just an old dog face looking for some redemptive good will. Things go well?
I guess I'll take the blame if it's a good thing...
I think it's cool that yo have so many old slides to work with.
As someone who wears their entire heart on her sleeve, my current life themes always find their way into my writing.
More often than not, it's a good thing but sometimes if I'm sad, it finds a way into the writing and I have trouble editing those scenes cause it takes me back to that emotion.
Starbucks:
I have had more laughs doing this . . . :-)
E
Allen:
Yes . . . as well as a funeral could go. It was comforting.
E
Travis:
We still have a suitcase full.
E
P.S. And happy belated birthday!
Nadine:
My heart is on mine too. :-)
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