STATE LIBRARY VISIT #2

Well I didn't get to note this down, but about four days ago, on the 28th of January, I went to the State Library again to get some more research done.

As well as actually getting to photocopy some pages (which are also included in this journal), I got some solid thinking and planning done, and by the end of the day I had figured myself out a rough plan to follow, in terms of both structures and content.

MEDIUM: A suite of three short stories, each one exploring a different take on isolation. Preferably, all of these stories would be joined together (not that the characters are aware) by a single item. I have yet to decide what this item will be, but I brainstormed some things I could possibly do and here is what came up:
- A photograph

- A newspaper article

- Maybe not something so simply material

Story 1: I'm thinking of some sort of historical-based work (though obviously not to the point where the history overtakes the English aspect), based on some sort of famous (or not so famous) incident involving isolation - probably social. After brainstorming, here are some things that came up:
- The samurai after the Meiji Restoration, who lost their prestige (probably not this)

- Segregation within America (Probably set within the civil war. Has this been done before? Rhetorical question, it most probably has, so I'll need to take a look for some MWs that have explored this)

- Apartheid, as suggested by Ben Soo.

Story 2: The second story would focus on the isolation of an individual from society (as opposed to the historical one, where an entire group would be isolated). I'd probably take inspiration from the various texts I've checked out that explore this kind of thing, like An Imaginary Life by David Malouf, or the Monos and Daimonos text by Bulwer. I would most probably be basing drafts of my character for this story on Jane (whose biography is also in this folder), the character from my previous writing exercises.

Story 3: The third and final story would focus on isolation within oneself, by which I mean, most probably due to some sort of mental condition, even though I know this has probably been done about like a thousand billion times already. I brainstormed a bit and thought I should probably take a look into:
- Autism

- Schizophrenia

- Dementia? Maybe?

I've yet to read anything about any of these yet, but I know I'm bound to find some sort of other illness that will better suit my cause when I'm researching.

I've also been considering some sort of overarching message about isolation to convey in all three texts. So far, I've only come up with simplistic things like "Isolation is neither completely positive or completely negative" and "People need isolation and privacy at times to stop and take a look at their lives and what they want to do next."

Speaking of privacy, there's a bit that I photocopied on privacy, but I'm not so sure how useful it'll be in the long run.

COURTESY OF SABRINA

Maybe I should check out And The Ass Saw The Angel, since it'd probably help with the whole 'writing with a silent atmosphere' type thing.

IDEA

Just earlier I was reading the Wikipedia article on Catcher in the Rye in an attempt to find any related books, so that I could find more portrayals of social isolation. When I read the vague synopsis of 'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath, an idea on isolation that I had not previously considered was brought up: mental illness. I know this should've come up when I read Catcher, but for some reason, it didn't. I'm not sure if I'll take up the idea of mental illness, but I thought it'd be good to note down.

MONOS AND DAIMONOS

Well today I read the 5 pages of Monos and Daimonos.

... and just one other thing

I'm not sure if I've previously stated this in my journal, but I'm pretty sure I haven't: David Malouf's "An Imaginary Life" is another story that explores isolation, that I intend to re-read for this. I will also think more about the storyline over the next few days, as I'm sure I can draw some influence for my own story structures.

Just one more thing..

As soon as I published my last post in this journal, I came to the realisation that the storyline I described is very similar to one of the short pieces I wrote as practice for homework, written from the perspective of Jane, who feels like she must escape her life, but in the end, chooses not to.

As with the story of Jane, I intend to flitter back and forth between the present and the past within the story, perhaps more so than the story of Jane.

I feel better now that I've got something solid to work from.

IDEAS.

I just did some background reading on Conrad's "The Secret Sharer" and "Monos and Daimonos" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (I found out about these two texts when I was at the State Library, I mentioned this earlier).

While I haven't managed to get a copy of The Secret Sharer, based on the plot, I don't think it will be OVERLY useful in my research of ideas on isolation; apparently, the only exploration of isolation is through the main character, a Captain of a ship who feels isolated as he is not familiar with his crew. I don't know largely this isolation features in the novella, so I'll put this book's priority on the backburner for a while.

As for Monos and Daimonos, I managed to find a .pdf of it after Googling the title, and though I haven't yet read it (and I plan to, because it's only five pages long), the opening lines have introduced to me a new idea about a factor in isolation that I had not thought of before: the effect of the loss of family ("I had neither brothers nor sisters; my mother died when I was in the cradle...").

Also, in the couple minutes since my last update in this journal, I came up with a very simplistic storyline to think about, so at the very least, I'd have a basic skeleton story structure to work with, as opposed to nothing; mainly, I thought about the idea of hating society yet simply not being able to remove oneself from it, and decided to base one story around a character who despises his surroundings, yet is torn between staying and leaving. The conclusion of the story will be either his staying or leaving. It feels like a really simplistic storyline to me, so I'll ask around to see what other people think; I feel like the stories I have in this suite should not be so simple and straightforward.

FRESH IDEA.

Upon further contemplation of the things I copied down from the State Library, I've decided to base each of the stories in my suite around each of the ideas I copied down - or, if not a short story for each idea presented, then stories based around the key ideas, with the other ideas incorporated (For example, a story set in a Victorian context, with the idea of hating society yet not wanting to leave being incorporated. If possible).

I have also come to the realisation that, despite having a theme of isolation, writing each story from the view of the isolated person is not necessary (and might probably even be a bad idea), and instead, my stories several personas will include not only the isolated, but of various individuals related to the isolated to provide a larger scope - or even a story where there is no POV from the isolated.

I'm still unsure of the actual storylines, though.

INSPIRATION

Lately I've been thinking about the writing style of Wrack by James Bradley - in particular, the way in which there are no quotation marks throughout the entire story, and instead, whoever is speaking is made clear through his clever use of character voices. I think I'll do something similar to this, though obviously my stories won't contain as much dialog as Wrack, due to the nature of my theme (isolation). I also think that the lack of quotations in my story (for however little dialog there might be) will be a sort of reflection of isolation - the story will seem more "quiet." I'll have to work on this a bit more.

EDIT [13/01/09]: I think the sense of "quietness" throughout the story will be more fitting to the theme of isolation. Just clarifying.

UPDATE

I haven't done as much work as I'd have liked to for the past week or two, but this is a run-down of everything I've done since the last update:
1. Yesterday, I began reading through The Writing Book by Kate Grenville. I haven't tried any of the writing exercises yet, but I skimmed through some of the ideas presented about writing.

2. Lately I've done a little bit of thinking about the actual storylines of the short stories I intend to write. I still haven't decided.