action / reaction / solitude

Perhaps the return to mowing the in-lawn was more beneficial than I thought, especially since I seem to have abandoned podcasts for audiobooks and, in this second grand mowing, managed to listen to all of David Lynch's - not David Lunch, as I usually type it – CATCHING THE BIG FISH. Fascinating to read/hear how many of my work habits – or, rather, the ones to which I'm trying to return – are from this book I picked up in a Salem, MA used bookstore more 15 years ago:

I've got the chair(s) and now I need to relearn how to allow myself that time and space – and to not fill the space I do have with pointless trivialities; as Don DeLillo reminds us, "A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it."

THE SHADOW SCRAPBOOK (1979)

The latest addition to the collection, a first edition of Walter Gibson’s THE SHADOW SCRAPBOOK. Here’s the title page, signed by Gibson:

Gibson, on his writing days (which produced 282 +/- of the 325 SHADOW issues (plus comics) that Gibson, as Grant, penned):

The whole book is available via The Internet Archive; stoked to have a physical edition –the signature makes it even more wonderful. Will add more from it as I peruse and read.

re/visit :: CATCHING THE BIG FISH (Lynch, 2006)

Though I've endlessly perused Lynch's ode to TM-infused creativity in the 15+years since I last read it, this was my first time re-reading it in its totality or, rather, having David Lynch read it to me while I drove in circles on a lawnmower (THE STRAIGHT STORY part of my days) which gave it a whole new life.

Apparently my fragmentary thinking – and my efforts to stay there – has/have been around for a long time:

(These are my perpetual efforts to remember that final sentence.)

Recommended, wholly, just as it was 17 years ago – and especially worthwhile as an audio book, like Rubin's THE CREATIVE ACT: there's something about having both Lynch and Rubin speaking to you, whispering in your lone ear, lying in a field. Essential to the creative library.

Other note: I always have to type David Lynch twice, as I invariably type David Lunch the first time.