Dormancy and all that crap... oh, and George Saunders, too.

Don't you hate posts that begin with the whole, sorry I haven't posted lately, too busy, uninspired, all that sort of crap - well, fuck it and here we go.

There was a time when it seemed like every other post was about George Saunders - and I could go there again, don't tempt me - but man, the guy can just write the pants off anyone. His latest Tenth of December pretty much blew the back of my head off. I tweeted, or facebooked, or something, about this funny moment at the University where I work. One morning, the philosophy prof. came into my office.

The convo went something like this:

"George Saunders!" he said.

"I know." I said.

"George Saunders!!!" he repeated.

"Yeah. I know. Fuck."

"Fuck."

"Tenth of December, I just read it. Damn." he said.

"I know."

This might have not been the verbatim exchange, but pretty close. He knew I read a lot (we swapped some books, and I took his Philosophy class last semester), but he'd never heard of this guy. He'd listened to the PBS interview, and figured Saunders had to be one of the better humans on the planet. So he went out and got the latest book. I told him i'd been reading him for a while, and he should check out Civilwarland in Bad Decline next. And that I'd be happy to lend him a copy. Nope, he said, this is the sort of book I need on my shelf.

Anyway - after reading a lot of okay books lately, some kind of crappy ones, and some horrible ones that i quit a third of the way in (Scandinavian crime fiction, anyone?), it was transforming to read Saunders again. He's been doing a lot of press, and finds himself on the besteller list - I think for the first time. But the way he talks about fiction is so humble, true and full of beauty - just like his work. He did an interview for CBC's Writer and Company where he talked about everything, life, death, religion, sexy nuns, and eventually got around to talking about the latest book. But he's a guy that will take 12 year to write a story (Semplica Girl Diaries), so he's in no hurry.

The kicker for me and the reason I'm back at the blog, is by the end of the last story (the title one), I was weeping. And I realized that not only do I need to dig back into writing - I want to re-examine what I have been writing. It sounds hokey, but that is why I used the transforming modifier. Tenth of December makes me want to write... really well. To pursue beauty and truth, in my writing - as incredibly difficult as that is, I need to begin. Again.

Wish me luck.

Oh, and I guess I should have called this "kicked out of dormancy."