Happy birthday, Edward Gorey
In honor of one of my favorite writer/illustrators, I’d like to share a much-loved passage from his book The Unstrung Harp, which is still one of the most vivid depictions of the writing process ever committed to paper. I’ve run a mental highlighter over pretty much every passage in this book, but since I’m mired in edits for novel #2, this one’s my favorite right now. Anyone who’s ever sweated over the last few chapters of a novel will identify:
“Even more harrowing than the first chapters of a novel are the last, for Mr. Earbrass anyway. The characters have one and all become thoroughly tiresome, as though he had been trapped at the same party with them since the day before; neglected sections of the plot loom on every hand, waiting to be disposed of; his verbs seem to have withered away and his adjectives to be proliferating past control. Furthermore, at this stage he inevitably gets insomnia. Even rereading The Truffle Plantation (his first novel) does not induce sleep. In the blue horror of dawn the vines in the carpet appear likely to begin twining up his ankles.”
Any other Gorey fans out there? Share your favorite drawings/stories below!
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Usually my tastes run more towards the “B is for Basil, assaulted by Bears” style of Gorey, but I tracked down an online copy of The Unstrung Harp recently. My favourite part is the very last line: “Though he is a person to whom things do not happen, perhaps they may when he is on the other side.”
*sigh*
Also, until not that long ago, I had no idea he had been alive as recently as the year 2000. I seriously thought he was a late 1800’s/early 1900’s Victorian illustrator, for reals. Which… I guess just tells you how good he was. (And shows how much I pay attention, but no use going there, it’s a black hole.)