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Down In Moab
Jun. 7th, 2009 12:14 pmWell, well. Looks like pretentious twit Terry Tempest Williams has written a lushly illustrated picture book.
The Illuminated Desert is a desert alphabet—an A-Z of Things You Find Around The Colorado Plateau, each Thing embellished with a few random sentence fragments that sound all shiny. I would have passed it by completely, except that the illustrations, by Chloe Hedden, are amazing. I could not put the book down for staring breathlessly at the illustrations. The book could've been much improved if they'd gotten rid of Terry altogether and just given all the credit to Chloe. The creativity the American Southwest inspires seems better served in visual arts than in writing.
Granted, that’s not stopping me, but I learned long ago to suppress the near-overwhelming urge to write self-indulgent instrospective bullshit in first-person present tense about the Deep Meaningful Meaning of this place.* My plan is to sit on the porch on the banks of the Colorado river, watching the rabbits frolic in the shadow of the rusty red mesas and totally ignore the bugs (blasphemy!) while I contemplate the culture of buglike aliens and just generally frantically worldbuild. I have Plans for this trip. There will be Hitchhiker’s Guides, cross-referencing cultures, historical background, conlanging, and even goddamn spreadsheets. Then there will be writing and typing up what I’ve written. Periodically in order to stretch I will go down next to the Colorado River and practice some taegeuk poomsae or the elusive koryo form.
I’ve never managed to put a finger on just why this place inspires so much creativity, but I’m going to use it for good, by god.
*“I drain the last of my lukewarm beer and give some thought to peeling off my hiking boots, but the grit in my socks reminds me of the places I’ve been, and I find I prefer to carry these places with me a while longer. I gaze out the window at the sunset over the mesas. A solitary fly throws itself against the window in a last desperate attempt to reach the outside world.** I know how it feels.”
**There’s a whole lot of contemplation of bugs in this sort of writing.
The Illuminated Desert is a desert alphabet—an A-Z of Things You Find Around The Colorado Plateau, each Thing embellished with a few random sentence fragments that sound all shiny. I would have passed it by completely, except that the illustrations, by Chloe Hedden, are amazing. I could not put the book down for staring breathlessly at the illustrations. The book could've been much improved if they'd gotten rid of Terry altogether and just given all the credit to Chloe. The creativity the American Southwest inspires seems better served in visual arts than in writing.
Granted, that’s not stopping me, but I learned long ago to suppress the near-overwhelming urge to write self-indulgent instrospective bullshit in first-person present tense about the Deep Meaningful Meaning of this place.* My plan is to sit on the porch on the banks of the Colorado river, watching the rabbits frolic in the shadow of the rusty red mesas and totally ignore the bugs (blasphemy!) while I contemplate the culture of buglike aliens and just generally frantically worldbuild. I have Plans for this trip. There will be Hitchhiker’s Guides, cross-referencing cultures, historical background, conlanging, and even goddamn spreadsheets. Then there will be writing and typing up what I’ve written. Periodically in order to stretch I will go down next to the Colorado River and practice some taegeuk poomsae or the elusive koryo form.
I’ve never managed to put a finger on just why this place inspires so much creativity, but I’m going to use it for good, by god.
*“I drain the last of my lukewarm beer and give some thought to peeling off my hiking boots, but the grit in my socks reminds me of the places I’ve been, and I find I prefer to carry these places with me a while longer. I gaze out the window at the sunset over the mesas. A solitary fly throws itself against the window in a last desperate attempt to reach the outside world.** I know how it feels.”
**There’s a whole lot of contemplation of bugs in this sort of writing.
