Late in 2006 and early 2007, when I was finishing Always and working on my memoir, my creative engine just wouldn’t shut down. Every night, exhausted, I would start falling asleep only to have these weird dreamlike writing scenes drop into my head. I’d write them down, in the dark, on 3×5 index cards. In the morning, they were sometimes not legible. Sometimes even if they were legible they didn’t make sense. Sometimes they sort of made sense but were incredibly strange. I have twenty or thirty of these snippets, which I call my hypnagogic writing. I don’t edit them, because although they’re strange, they are exactly themselves.
Here, by special request, is one of those snippets in audio format. It doesn’t have a title, though I suppose, for ease of reference, we could call it “Rain.” It’s 37 seconds long. Enjoy.
http://www.nicolagriffith.com/audio/player.swf
Also, over at Gemæcce, my research blog, I’ve just done a post about Hadrian (his show at the British Museum, his wall, his boyfriend), which some of you may enjoy.
Sweet!! Great rhythm. It’s like it was living inside you, growing on it’s own . . . dare I say festering? The kind of thing I can listen to over and over . . . the images will sit in my mind all day . . .
Wow. That gets my vote for best audio so far. Thanks.
Glad you’re enjoying it. I read that out once before, at WisCon. I read much better for an audience than I do to a microphone plugged into my computer. Anyway, I have a zillion of these things, so I’ll record another, and then perhaps we’ll get back to Aud readings for a while.>>But I’m open to requests.
Rain washes clean. Rain erodes, both rock and sanity. Rain is relentless. Thanks for the relentless reading.
Thanks, barbara. Given our discussions earlier this week about water, it seemed appropriate.
What a great way to begin my internet day. Thanks for this treat. It rained here yesterday, after a week of non-stop sunshine. Rain was welcomed.
We’ve had (very welcome) rain for days. Now I’m hoping for a little sun this afternoon and over the weekend. Never satisfied, me :)
I do something really similar…I get ideas and write them down, but in the morning I’m like “that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever thought up…”>>What a great idea to keep yours in their original form!!
mli, one night when I was nineteen I got really wasted on some Gold Seal hash. I had many profound thoughts. I distilled them into one perfect sentence. I wrote it down. In the morning I read it: grass is green. There you go. Wisdom for the ages…>>So, are you a writer?
For your information, yes, I agree it is green and well worth the effort. Like water we wend.>>Meanwhile, have you ever heard of “Sudden Fiction”? I think you’ve hit on its audio cousin.
rhbee1, I hadn’t thought of that. Sudden audio. Hmmmn.