Personal References
I got stuck this week. Stuck hard. You see, my main character was getting up from a chair. Technically, not a chair. It was more of a crate upon which he was sitting. But he was sort of scrambling to his feet in a bit of a humiliating fashion. His crush, you see, got the best of him. How our hearts and dicks will make us act like fools.
There’s a scene in the film, The Ice Storm, wherein Kevin Kline’s character sort of ejects himself from a seat. (Side note: The movie is a quiet, off-kilter masterpiece directed by Ang Lee. See it, if you haven’t had the pleasure.) The embarrassment is most uncomfortable. This is the way my protagonist must get up from his crate. The film character is what some of us in New England call hammah-drunk in this scene.
My character is not intoxicated—very much the opposite, in fact—at the time, but something about the choreography of that bit of genius Kline business is right on target for the scene in the book. The desperation, the absent defenses, the complete lack of ego brought about by the overabundance of, well, ego. It’s perfect, at least how my memory has it. It’s been a long while since I’ve watched it.
My work in progress does not take place in a 1970s American suburb, however. It’s a fantasy novel set in a Middle Ages-esque world. I know, I know, I won’t be winning any prizes for originality on that front. So many of my literary and pop culture references are useless in this context. I find it a challenge, since we largely communicate through deconstruction and collage in the 21st Century.
I spiraled a bit, searching for an adequate description. My drafting could not escape the gravity of an indelible, perfect moment of storytelling. I could not type, “He rose from his seat kinda like Kevin Kline in that scene from The Ice Storm, only not drunk.”
But I did. As a placeholder. Just until I could sleep on it and clear the blockage.
If you have “enjoyed” a similar experience, a similar skipping of the mental record, I’d love to hear about it. Gawddamn it! There were no records in medieval times, either!
PHOTO: Screengrab of my tweet about this.
PROGRESS REPORT: 87,319 words, to be precise. The war is coming…