If Anyone Wants Me I'll Be On The Golf Course

[poliphilo]

Guess what? I seem to be running out of opinions. When I started this LJ I was bubbling over with things I needed to say , now I'm reduced to writing about football and rabbits.

I've made my position clear on the leading issues of the day:

Bush- hate him
Blair- hate him
God- doesn't exist
Jacobean revenge drama- cool 

And I hate to repeat myself.

I'm not going away- and I'm certainly not deleting- but I may not be putting in an appearance here quite as often as I used to.

On a positive note, I've been beavering away at Purchas #3 and expect to start posting it at purchas in a week or two.

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

If you can't muster up a thousand words, a picture is always appreciated!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm feeling something similar with my picture taking. Like I've done what I can do with this particular camera and I'm repeating the same effects again and again.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[queen-in-autumn.livejournal.com]

I'm finding I have less of substance to say these days as well, both in comments and in my own journal. I'm hoping that when I return to seminary in the fall I'll have more of general interest to post. I think it's normal to go in cycles.

In the meantime: Hooray for more Purchas!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's not necessarily a bad thing.

There's a French phrase that comes to mind- my French is dodgy so I'll give it in translation- "to step back so you can jump better".

[kinderheldin.livejournal.com]

The novel you're writing is quite good.

I intend to respond to your discussion of Dubliners when I get the chance. I'm hoping you'll read A Portrait ... (as I feel it's his best work, even better than Ulysses).

Your political opinions can't be said enough.

I sort of wax and wane with LJ. I think it's important to keep a journal, though, to record one's history and ideas.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I mean to read Portrait Of The Artist next.

I kept a hand-written journal for about ten years. It sort of fizzled out in the end. Then I discovered LJ. I guess I'm beginning to feel those sensations of fizzle again.

I'll concentrate on the novel. Maybe when I've finished with it I'll have a renewed appetite for journalling.

[treehavn.livejournal.com]

LJ lethargy comes to all of us at some time or another. Take your time and if you feel like posting, I for one am always interested to read what you have to say.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I've tried to post something every day. From now on I propose to post only when I've got something I really need to say.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Your previous commenters have already said all the sensible things I might have said myself about posting to your journal. I'm kind of quiet on my own LJ these days - I guess it's just slipped down my priority list a little, but that's OK, and it's still here to write in when I want to.

Anyway, I look forward very much to the next installment of Purchas.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I feel I need a rest.

The new Purchas novel is about 40,000 words long- and counting. I want to finish the first draft before I begin posting.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Am I right in thinking that makes it the longest so far? I think you're right about the first draft policy, anyway.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Actually no- at least, not yet. The first is just over 50,000 and the second just under.

The first was a white knuckle ride. I don't think I could do that again.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Tony, I've been crashed on my computer for three days, and you were the first person I came to visit this morning.

Your everyday life is a pleasant undercurrent in my own now; I don't care about your opinions, but I like so much having glimpses into yours--and Ailz' and bunnies'--days...

I've found that my effortful days on LJ--when I was writing "pieces" almost every day--have, partly due to my busy, transitional life lately, morphed into quick diary entries about my life. I began to worry that all my LJ friends would desert me if I didn't have interesting things to say, but that hasn't happened, thank Goodness.

I come over to see what's up with you and your family every day, whether or not I comment, and I always feel a little happier after checking in.

Your friend Jackie

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

So that's where you've been.

I think I'm suffering a kind of burn out. Like yours my posts have been getting simpler and less literary. And I've been commenting less. But, just because I don't say anything about a post doesn't mean I haven't read it....

If it weren't for my friends- and you in the forefront- I might now walk away from LJ. But I don't want to lose touch with this community.

Maybe I'll find it easier to post if I relieve myself of the burden of having to turn out something bright and opinionated every day....

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Your writing style is so pleasant to read that I don't really care what you're talking about--it's always interesting and readable.

(And I've noticed something in my own posts, that I tend to get more comments and interest in my quick, rattled-off entries than comments on my more carefully constructed essay-posts. I think it's surely because this is a community of friends who really are interested in our everyday lives, as we are in theirs!)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think you're right.

Though I do love your more elaborate entries.

But perhaps the more complete and finished and nicely dovetailed a post is, the less there is to say about it. The writer has said everything that needs to be said and all the reader needs do is nod in assent.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

i've been feeling much the same way.

(at least you can say you're been working on a novel-- i have nothing interesting to post about anymore, and i'm having trouble with the poetry as well...)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Poetry comes and goes. I've had periods when I've written a poem a day. Right now it's more like a poem a year. But that's not to say it won't come back.

[methodius.livejournal.com]

I've now forgotten why I added you as an LJ friend. We don't have many common interests (Alan Garner and Bob Dylan -- I just looked) and you've not posted about them either, at least not since I've been reading your LJ.

So maybe we've got some unspoken interests in common, or maybe it's just something else. But one doesn't have to talk all the time. Sometimes one can just sit and be companionable.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I have written about Dylan, but I guess it was before you found me.

And I think I wrote something about Thursbitch- or did I?

But, anyway, I don't think shared interests are terribly important. Tone of voice matters more.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

Burn out is sad - don't be an entire stranger. I like reading about bunnies!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think what I'm really doing is giving myself permission not to post if I don't have anything I need to say.