A song about writing

Ira Glass praises writers and producers for hating their early works. We should feel gratitude for our good taste. And work to improve the quality of our creative endeavors.

Many writers think the way to a writerly existence is to attend as many writer workshops and writing courses as finances will allow.

I disagree. Read books and watch movies. Think about dialogue that works and words that enthrall you. Notice the small details. If you want to practice, I suggest you pay the $2.99 Amazon Prime rental fee for Song of Lunch. For less than the price of a pumpkin flavored hot beverage of your choosing you can learn something you will never see in a book about writing.

The Song of Lunch (movie) is an adaptation of a poem by Christopher Reid. A somewhat bitter book publisher is meeting an old love in one of their neighborhood haunts. It has been a debatable 12 or 15 years since they last met and the dialogue is as intoxicating as the bottle(s) of chianti marinating painful recollections and lost opportunities.

When asked about his day, the reply from the book editor hints at where the afternoon might be headed.

It’s an ordinary day
in a publishing house
of ill repute.

Another moronic manuscript
comes crashing down the chute
to be turned into art.

This morning it was Wayne Wanker’s
latest dog’s dinner
of sex, teenage philosophy
and writing-course prose.

Abracadabra, kick it up the arse –
and out it goes
to be Book of the Week
or some other bollocks.
What a fraud. What a farce.

And tomorrow: who knows
which of our geniuses
will escape from the zoo
and head straight for us
with a new masterpiece
lifeless in his jaws.
That’s about the size of it.

What about you?

I probably should mention that the melancholy ex-lovers are played by Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson. You can almost squint and pretend they are at least a decade down the road from the Joni Mitchell CD left behind in Love Actually. But from what I can surmise this is not intentional and would be fantastical thinking.

Once you watch the movie you will want the book. A short little publication of the poem can be found in either its original form or after a little editing to align with the retelling.

Farewell to long lunches and other boozy pursuits! Hail to the new age
of the desk potato,

strict hours of imprisonment
and eyesight tortured
by an impassive electronic screen!