No Memory

I've forgotten.

Earlier today I thougth of a pretty good sig line for those message boards where everyone has them, but all I remember is having to decide if "does too" should be written "does to" or "does too"

No biggee. I can't think of any message boards I visit where I need one, anyway. I can't recall the last time I posted anything, anywhere.

The only thing I do recall is something I wanted to say about writing, so that's in the "more" section.


My reading history starts with me as a small boy. My mom read me stories before I could read, but the only ones I remember are Winnie the Pooh and Charlotte's Web. No, I don't remember much of the stories.

I read through Jr and High School, again remembering 1984, Animal Farm, Catcher in the Rye, A Wrinkle in Time and some Brains Benton and Hardy Boy books. Not any of the stories, mind you, but the books. Oh, Toby Tyler, too. I'm sure I read more.

In college, thanks to Dr Mobley (she of the "it's great, but isn't any good" enlightenment), I lifted my nose at American writers and read twentieth century English authors. Nothing very literary or heavy, but I did like Huxley and Greene, Amis and Dreisser, and read some Grass, and a smattering of classics. Also, lots of sci fi and Tolkien. The next major genre was famous generals, battles, and strategy. Then, mysteries (I preferred Ngaio Marsh and Dorothy Sayers) and continued dabbling in this and that until I started taking writing classes and re-discovered short stories.

About a couple years into my creative writing classes a classmate and I went to see a movie and ended up seeing DareDevil. The comic came out quite a bit after I was done reading comics (tho in college years I fell in love with R Crumb and later became a fan of Asterix, I think his name was) so I had no idea about this DareDevil guy. Also, he was a Stan Lee creation, and I never was much into any of his characters.

Reading Daniel's remarks about formula fiction recalled that DareDevil experience. Throughout the movie, and afterwards, when we talked briefly about it, I remember thinking "I could write this crap." This was quickly followed by the more rational part of my mind saying "no you can't," and that part is right.

It's the same with music. When I hear a song or passage, I can retro-actively imagine coming up with the melody or whatever, but I could never create it. The same with mainstream movies. I don't have what it takes to write that way, I'm not creative enough in the form, I couldn't create a spellbinding story if my life depended on it, not using those elements.

Not that I'd want to, either, but a couple hundred thou would come in handy. The thing is, nothing in my past has remotely qualified me to write that way, and while it looks simple to me, I'd fail miserably. I'd like to think I can't "dial down" enough to get there, but that's not true: It's a skill set I just don't have. It's easy to dismiss, especially when I can't compete!