Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Continuity

I realized this morning in my half-waked stupor that Darryl has to teach Persephone to drive the truck or the scene in the hotel at Christmas doesn't work. (Hades refused to teach her to drive in L.A., you see, so then how could she steal the truck to sneak out? Right now, there's no explanation, but since Darryl helps her get her GED, it seems reasonable that he'd teach her to drive. Especially since that would mean she could be more helpful around the orchard.)

I haven't written a single word since I got home, but that doesn't stop my brain from working on it. I am trying to trust that in the midst of painting the bathroom and Freedaughter's room, fixing the sprinkler, going to the grocery store, and doing laundry, that the literary stew is simmering and seasoning on the back burner and will be richer when I get back to give it a stir.

I need to put up all the index cards on my sliding glass doors downstairs so that I can keep everything straight. I hope I numbered them correctly when I took them down before.

I went to the bookstore and bought two different translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses to compare the myths and different interpretations. Letterlady's brilliant suggestion that I use pieces of the original text to begin chapters greatly appeals to me, but I also like the idea of using texts from a wider variety of interpretations (H.D.'s poem "Eurydice", various operas, etc.)

What about you, Dear Reader? Can you suggest other versions of these myths that might provide literary glue for my wee tale?

2 comments:

Aaron said...

Have you thought about perhaps cameo appearances from other characters from the Metamorphoses? The more I think about it, the less of a good idea it sounds, but it might make interesting transition material.

As I said, I kinda lost hope in the idea as I thought about it, it might be a little difficult to work in, and as I haven't actually read your work (and you probably wouldn't let me for a good five months or so) I don't know how well it would mesh with your style, but I suppose I'm just throwing stuff out there

Anonymous said...

Have you read _The Priest Fainted_ by Catherine Temma Davidson? I happen to have it at home right now, as I'm using an excerpt from it for a project I'm working on; a good friend of mine read it when she was in a study abroad program in Crete, she passed it on to me, and now I'm using it to create a literary-inspired gift for her. Anyway, each chapter (pretty much) is named after a Greek myth, and Davidson begins her chapters with a brief retelling of those myths (and some editorializing, as well). If you're interested, I can bring it to tea and scandal...