Suddenly, giraffes
Saturday, March 31st, 2007 at 3:30 pmI’m 22,663 words into the first draft of novel#2, which is about an old lady, Mrs Vuillemeyer, who runs away to sea. It is unlikely that she will really get to the sea until the end of the book, though you never know. It is a silly story, a bagatelle, and I suspect that I’m going to have trouble even getting it published. I fear my agent will disown me when I drop it on his New York doorstep like a dead rat in a little terylene frock. So dubious do I feel about it, in fact, that for three years I’ve resisted writing it at all and have been trying to make a book out of one or two more Serious and Important(tm) ideas. However, Mrs V insists. She is going to have her book and it is going to be, bless her, completely batshit.
So I’m writing, and she’s at the station - she’s running away by train - and first the train is decorated like a gentleman’s club with flock papers, bookcases and stag’s heads over the compartments, then as it is pulling out from the station “There were an unusual number of giraffes waving us goodbye from the platform, many of them weeping, so that I wondered if we were going to war, which worried me a little, as I didn’t think I’d be much good at the front. I hoped they’d give me a desk job somewhere behind the lines.” But the conductor informs her that giraffes are just particularly lachrymal animals. I don’t know what an “unusual number” of giraffes would be - one would appear to be unusual enough - so that wording may have to change, but I shall feel very loathe to dismiss the giraffes entirely. They are there, and so solidly presently there that I would fear upsetting some important, subtle cosmic balance if I were to remove them. I’ve never felt so much at the mercy of a character and so little at liberty to change what I see through her eyes. The most I can do is try to make the writing good so that at least a few readers will forgive me for the rest.
Oh, and the conductor has told her that she’s the guest of honour on the train and will have to give a speech after luncheon. All this would seem fine, somehow, if the character were a kind of everyman. Then it could be like a Haruki Murakami novel. But because it’s a somewhat crazy old lady the chemistry of the whole thing is changed. It remains to be seen whether the chemistry will work at all. But I’m curious, I want to find out, which means, keep writing…
March 31st, 2007 at 4:32 pm
I like the wording, an “unusual number of giraffes”, it is a joke in itself as - as you’ve said - one would be unusual. Leave it up to the reader to translate the phrase as they like. To me, when you say “an unusual number” I’m thinking 10 and a half, maybe four and three quarters. (giraffes are measured from the toes up, so neither the half, nor three quartered giraffe would have a head - which might well explain why *it* is waving … the others are simply wishing her a fair trip)
As for the speech, I can imagine it being very comedic, though taken quite seriously by the character. (or not, depending upon how she perceives the other passengers - if there are other passengers - if she is, indeed, on a train at all) Since she is an old woman, it might be in the vein of offering advice to the younger passengers; something every proper young person would be quite well advised to take.
At any rate, just tossing out some impressions, take what little value from them you can.
March 31st, 2007 at 4:46 pm
there is a director somewhere who is waiting for this.
March 31st, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Crazy old ladies running away to the sea are far more fun than Serious and Important(tm) ideas. I’m sure you’ll find a home for it somewhere. In the meantime, the most important thing is to keep having fun!
And I agree with W Alexander. The unspecified number of giraffes leaves it more open as a joke.
March 31st, 2007 at 6:02 pm
I, I think I love this lady already. I mean. Giraffes. ♥ I, too, am mysteriously possessed by the giggles at the wording “unusual number of giraffes.”
And I agree with Alankria up there, though I’d go so far as to say whoever’s vying hardest for your attention really dictates what’s Serious and Important(tm). I’m not sure whether the rest of the world would agree, but it’s not the rest of the world that has to live with her, either.
April 1st, 2007 at 7:59 am
You’re right, guys - “an unusual number of giraffes” it will remain.
W - I like the idea of giraffes being measured from the toes up!
Dave - I’d be asking for Luis Bunuel, but he’s dead. Maybe Bunuel’s reanimated zombie would be interested in the project.