I received this quote challenge a few days ago from Intentergy.
OK, that was a deja vu opening line but one has to name drop friends blogs as a matter of social netiquette…especially if they drop one in it and make the grey matter tick over looking for prompts.
If anybody read yesterday’s musings with the genius Einstein featuring as the main protagonist then you will already be aware I’ve called upon a theme for this very challenge as a way to tackle it
Genius to Insanity
The next to contribute quotes is the macabre mind of the literary critic, poet and short story specialist Edgar Allan Poe. In keeping with my blog it is only right that we move toward a more in keeping authoresque feel. Middle ground here methinks…genius touched with a mind that, post the death of his wife, grew ever more; shall we say, …erratic… The fine line between genius and insanity…not sure which comes first in the literary world 🤔
Quote number one
I write, or try to. It’s not for me to say good or bad, that’s for you the reader to ponder and draw conclusions; if such is considered good let me know. Conversely if it’s not don’t…it causes insufferable self doubt and withering unless, the caveat, you say why. In which case it’s like water reversing the wither (not to be confused with a Minecraft beast of the same name, so say my kids) and allowing the mind plant to regrow and sprout new growth taking onboard the criticisms.
Dreaming, I digressed, all the time in a mind palace of Sherlock Holmes (new incarnation) fame…although the concept is much older. The place I go to avoid reality and invest time with the creatures that infest it. Call it an alternate reality if you like, but to my characters it’s very real – as Rose will tell you if her book ever graces some form of publishing…and breathe…moving on…
It is quite quite possible in this fast paced modern world that day dreaming has found itself replaced by the zone out zombie mind full of catastrophising and lost clarity of the child mind that was. Might be that’s just growing up too. Either which way I think Poe has a point. The mind needs to dream to create and problem solve…at least mine does…until it stopped for a bit and everything paused…another story that one and indexes into the theme rather well 🙃
Quote number two
There is not a lot to add to this quote apart from a question in the form of a perspective thing. Which is which?
Rather akin to the failing eyesight habituation in the first post of this challenge…if one normalises on insanity how does one know they are insane? From that perspective sanity appears insane…so add a new question. How do you know you are sane?
This ponderance moves neatly into…
Quote number three
Now we are moving through the theme rather nicely in my humble opinion. First question related to not dreaming during the day, the next to challenging sanity and now we can unplug from the Matrix proper and go…bugger!
Have a wonderful weekend and tomorrow look for the end of the theme and step into the world of one of my favourite authors.
Rules of the challenge
(Copied from the nomination by Intentergy’s post)
If you accept the challenge, post 1-3 quotes for three days and nominate three other wonderfully talented bloggers to the challenge as well.
For my part I’d like to see if the following three bloggers will participate, although at this point in time I’m not sure if I’m supposed to nominate three bloggers per day…these are picked from commenters as penitence for, well, being brilliant enough to stop by. On the assumption it’s a daily nomination process if you would like to be nominated brush aside the tumbleweed below and let me know otherwise I’ll just pick some more illustrious commenters and it could be you anyway 🙃
Think of it as shameless blog cross promotion if it pleases you more 😁
Very nice. I like the idea of being horribly sane for periods of time. Though I tend to feel worse when I’m away from writing. I’m talking stand at a distance and throw chocolate kind of distance. Writing is kind of like a drug.
I thought that might appeal to writers and the drug analogy is very spot on…well I think it is. I find it entirely all consuming when in the zone…scary coming back to reality in fact…which, on reflection, is also quite scary and Matrix like 🤔
That’s how I escape my life. I become someone else for a time. I live with them, experience what they do, and overcome their obstacles. That’s why, when I come back, I feel a little better.
That’s a good point really. Escapism. I do wonder if writers at large have similar problems coming out of the zone and engaging the real world or if, like me, it takes a while to readjust. Characters may be fictitious but apparently I speak about them as if they are real…might be why their emotional content and thoughts stay with me post writing for ages…shoot I must be crap to live with afterwards 😱
In a lot of ways yes, we keep them with us. I feel what’s happening, even if I’m not in their minds.
Mine never shut up…well that’s not strictly true…when my main antagonist is in the house all, goes very quiet. I get the feeling sometimes it’s a case of volunteer step one pace forwards and all that happens is the rest of the line takes one step back. I guess it’s why talking about them is easy. None writers don’t really get it in my humble opinion and think one is quite mad…which was touched on in the third quote post 😜
I understand. 😝
Thank you, Gary. I accept this award for my brilliant writing. I’d like to thank the Academy of MostlyBlogging for bringing us together.
Now, I struggled with that same question too- about the rules. Nominate 1 a day or 3 a day? I think we chose correctly. Overkill is never enough.
Sanity scares me!!
Come visit to see what I scare up! But I have next week all scheduled already, so it’ll be week after next.
Yay for being ahead of time!!
That’s the spirit. I thought you’d have a bash at some point amidst busy schedules. Weeks after next is fine…
Agreed re nominations….I pondered it s bit and thought what the heck crank it out and see what happens. If fifty percent take it up then that’s not too bad and hopefully it exposes blogs to new audiences…something like that anyway 😁
Don’t worry, one does peruse blogs I follow…often in random orders but generally if it crops up in my reader I’m on it pretty quick…it’s the time beast that controls all that limits commenting mind….it was easy when nobody followed my blog and the sound of silence echoed round the blogosphere…log in, sigh, log out…then I found Mostly Blogging and a few other places. Amazing how a few months changes things 🙃
So true, time changes all.
And Janice is fabulous!!! Every blogger in the universe should be following her!!
Queer thing is Time….apparently it’s constant and increases at the same rate…personally I’m not so sure…I think it varies with enjoyment and there is a direct relationship depending on the level of fun……more fun = faster…..but as with all rules there are exception….getting older is not fun but the principle of time speeding up holds there 🤕
Yup! To whatever it was you said. Being older, I already forgot. 😉
Quite right….who are you again 😁
Bwahahaha!!
I like the first quote a lot. There is no time we can’t dream, and if we dream in the day, who knows what we will think of, come to realise and see about this world. As a writer, I like to daydream in the day when I feel like it and that usually leads to ideas for my blog or book – especially when it’s quite at work, I daydream. And, like you, I like to daydream to escape reality. Within our imaginations, anything is possible and we all need to get away from the fast-paced modern world time and time again to recharge ourselves.
Last sentence first….too right. I like to escape now and then by lakes. No tech, no wifi…just air and silence…it recharges the mind or…put another way…lets it de-stress. I think the day dreaming might be a disease all us writers are infected with although maybe the word disease is a poor one as its healthy for a writer…possibly not for a heart surgeon…I want them on task and focussed 🙃
“day dreaming might be a disease all us writers are infected with” I think that sounds about right for writers. There are days when things are going slow at work and I’d be day dreaming about stories in my head, even day dreaming up my next blog or next chapter for my book. Day dreaming can be a powerful thing 😀
It is indeed…that’s why I think there a fine line between using it as a writer and not as a tool to dwell negatively on past events or futures that might not be…I think the term for that is catastrophising. Sadly a lot of people do that and it affects mental well being. Good on the one side and bad on the other. Bit like the force in Star Wars or political power I suppose. Tremendous power but wielded wrong then poof….day dreaming used used wrong…oooh heck I ve just redefined my own thinking doing this reply !!! 🙃