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Jul. 22nd, 2006 11:48 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
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I read something earlier that made me think of LKH and how she's ended up where she has. It's an interesting quote all on it's own and, I think, a useful piece of advice to ponder for any writer - or artist in general - and makes me think this is *exactly* what has happened to LKH.
"In order to be creative, there has to be a distance from you and the thing itself. It is only when the distance gets confused that things go wrong. If you actually start to believe that you are what you write, then you have fucking had it. You have had it, and you ain't coming back. To assume that everything is about [one's own] life is to assume that that person is inherently stupid and isn't capable of absorbing anything else. The whole point of creativity is that you spend your whole life absorbing things almost to where it is unbearable. The way you deal with it is to get it out."
That's from Radiohead's Thom Yorke. I feel I have angered the Gods by including LKH and Yorke in the same post, because Lord knows that even at her very best LKH is/was no Thom Yorke(IMO); not even in neighboring universes actually.
It was from an interview where it was discussed how Thom's writings/lyrics were projected onto him so completely and as he states it, they "assume that everything is about [his] life". And about how, due to public opinions and success and media/journalists and sadly, sometimes people surrounding you, one can come to believe it themselves, become conditioned to be self-absorbed to a paralyzing point. After awhile, all you have to share with the world is this warped, regurgitated view of yourself. Which isn't creativity at all, it's masterbation.
Anyway... methinks this is what happened to LKH. Instead of growing and furthering her writing skills, she gave into the machinery surrounding her, and started to truly buy into the idea she is exactly what she writes.
That's all. Just a random (longish) ramble. :)
"In order to be creative, there has to be a distance from you and the thing itself. It is only when the distance gets confused that things go wrong. If you actually start to believe that you are what you write, then you have fucking had it. You have had it, and you ain't coming back. To assume that everything is about [one's own] life is to assume that that person is inherently stupid and isn't capable of absorbing anything else. The whole point of creativity is that you spend your whole life absorbing things almost to where it is unbearable. The way you deal with it is to get it out."
That's from Radiohead's Thom Yorke. I feel I have angered the Gods by including LKH and Yorke in the same post, because Lord knows that even at her very best LKH is/was no Thom Yorke(IMO); not even in neighboring universes actually.
It was from an interview where it was discussed how Thom's writings/lyrics were projected onto him so completely and as he states it, they "assume that everything is about [his] life". And about how, due to public opinions and success and media/journalists and sadly, sometimes people surrounding you, one can come to believe it themselves, become conditioned to be self-absorbed to a paralyzing point. After awhile, all you have to share with the world is this warped, regurgitated view of yourself. Which isn't creativity at all, it's masterbation.
Anyway... methinks this is what happened to LKH. Instead of growing and furthering her writing skills, she gave into the machinery surrounding her, and started to truly buy into the idea she is exactly what she writes.
That's all. Just a random (longish) ramble. :)
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Date: 2006-07-22 05:54 pm (UTC)you do have a point.
*shudders*
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Date: 2006-07-23 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 04:21 am (UTC)Greatest. Man. Ever.
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Date: 2006-07-23 04:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 05:50 am (UTC)No I did not. I fought and fought and fought to go...but things just didn't go as I had hoped.
Did you?
Have you heard Thom Yorke's solo CD btw?
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Date: 2006-07-23 06:35 am (UTC)The Eraser? Hells yeah.
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Date: 2006-07-23 03:36 pm (UTC)I really like his CD. I thought I wouldn't (don't ask me why, but I did) but I really enjoy. I can't listen to it very often though, it sort of makes me depressed. haha.
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Date: 2006-07-22 06:05 pm (UTC)So, do you think she started out with Anita as a completely separate character and then, over time, identified with her more and more?
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Date: 2006-07-22 06:29 pm (UTC)Obviously though, yeah, LKH has injected herself more and more. My point is that I wonder if it stems, in part (and like anyone, I can only guess), from too much obsession over her creation due to paying too much attention to the machinery that must spring up around any sucessful artist. You get money and success and any amount of fame, and strange things start to happen around you. It becomes a battle: do I follow any type of artistic integrity, or do I give the people what I think they want? What do I owe myself vrs. Them? And what do the people WANT?
And with money and fame and success come the people/media/projections that make it harder to separate yourself from your creation. It prolly becomes harder and harder to find people who will tell you the truth. And if you start to seperate yourself from the people who knew you before, who know you best, I suspect all you see when dealing with other people is your reflection mirrored back at you. And before long, perhaps that is all you have to work with: a mirror image of yourself. Not even the real thing.
And then you inject yourself into every aspect of your art, to such a point that your work is a thinly veiled puppet of the person people surrounding you think you are, that you have allowed yourself to *believe* you are. No longer are you able to look to look outside yourself in any real way. You've been conditioned not to create that distance.
My, aren't I chatty today?
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Date: 2006-07-22 06:44 pm (UTC)Well, with authors it's not as if they're actually getting that much money or fame. I doubt most people who read her books would recognize LKH in person, for example. It seems more as if LKH wants to convince herself that, yes, she's that famous.
I have to wonder how much the people in her life, such as Jon, have had to do with this. I mean, he was...the president?...of her fan club? So he might have had a heard time separating her from Anita, for example.
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Date: 2006-07-22 07:09 pm (UTC)But even a little can make a difference, I would think...and yeah, if your hubby was a hard-core fan of yours...well. I was kinda thinking about him when I was talking about the "having your reflection become who you are" type of thing. I mean, if the person you spend the most time with was/is a fanboy....who knows. Maybe he was able to separate her from Anita pretty early on. But it doesn't seem that way, does it?
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Date: 2006-07-23 02:05 am (UTC)So I'm not the only person who thinks he looks a bit like a gargoyle, then?
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Date: 2006-07-23 02:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 12:37 am (UTC)And well, in all seriousness, Anita has become very much a projection of herself, therefore becoming what is famously known in fanfiction a "Mary-Sue." (And, incidentally, that term is banned on the LKH forums.) She denies it vehemently, but it's painfully obvious if you look at the facts and Anita's timeline and the gradual decline of the books.
She lives in a state of denial, and it is true that she became so close to her own character that she almost seems to have trouble differentiating between fantasy and reality, therefore making her certifiably batshit insane. Or, at the VERY least, she borderlines on it and is well on her way to getting a one-way ticket to the Looney Bin.
And well, her life is reflected in her work, and the characters are symbolic of some people in her own life. Like, Richard being a projection of her ex-husband, and her using him as an emotional punching bag and beating on/abusing his character quite brutally. And Micah AND Nathaniel being a projection of her current husband, Jon. To Micah and Nath, Anita can do no wrong, so it's the same with her husband Jon. In his eyes, Laurell can do no wrong, she is perfection. Scary thought, no?
But this was an interesting, thought-provoking post.
Oh, and another person that LKH isn't even in the same universe as would be Neil Gaiman. He is one hella AWESOME writer. He's what LKH could never be. American Gods? Bloody fucking BRILLIANT. Just thought I would say. *cough*
If you haven't already checked him out, I highly recommend him. He makes a soothing balm for her GODawful writing.
Anyways, sorry for all the rambling. Heh. I'm feeling quite chatty m'self. ^^
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Date: 2006-07-23 02:47 am (UTC)But I agree; he's a fantastic story-teller.
Yeah, I really haven't addressed how LKH appears to do much of this to herself. I've mostly just addressed how the people and situations around her may have been a factor. But, of course, she has ALLOWED the people and situations to reach a certain point in her desire to have the worldview that she has cultivated.
Also, on another sidenote, when it comes to how she injects people around her so completely into her stories (once again, not creating that "distance" needed and believing you are what you write)all I have to say is this:
When you find yourself coddling the characters and in favor of the story so as to not "hurt" your creations, you're in trouble. Characters serve the story, NOT the other way around, Mrs. LKH.
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Date: 2006-07-23 05:12 am (UTC)You know I feel this way about many artists out there nowadays. And I am coming to realize it about LKH. I think it was Joe Bob Briggs that made a comment on recent studio horror pictures, singling out Eli Roth (when Cabin Fever came out), and he used the exact terms: artist and masturabatory. The guy (Roth) is so full of himself (and I met him after reading these comments about him and they are all true) that he propbably makes his own movies so he can sit in a darkened theatre and whack off to them.
It's really too bad that too mant artists show their conceit on the screen or pages nowadays....
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Date: 2006-07-23 06:36 am (UTC)I've never been one for gross-out horror-flicks.