I try to
listen to Writer’s Almanac every morning. Today’s program was filled
with treats. Garrison Keillor reminded me that today is the birthday of Truman
Capote. First, after the usual biographical information, he quoted a passage from
In Cold Blood—it was a section from the passage I read aloud for
last week’s Banned Books night at the Rock Island Library. It was all about the normal
sounds of that November morning being punctuated by shotgun blasts that changed
so many lives. I had chosen well.
Secondly, Keillor
added two quotes from Capote on writing:
“To me,
the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music
that words make.”
“Writing
has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If
you are born know them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to
suit yourself.”
Good advice
for a visual learner.
Finally, learning
how George Perkins Marsh delivered the first address on climate change on this
date in 1847 was surprising. His observations and conclusions from 172 years
ago ring true today in his musical analogy about man as a “disturbing agent”:
“Wherever
he plants his foot, the harmonies of nature are turned to discords. The
proportions and accommodations which insured the stability of existing arrangements
are overthrown. ..."
Such a nice
way to start the day.
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