When Communication Fails: Nick Hornby on Sci Fi

Ok, the inspiration behind this post is important for one reason. It's funny as hell.

And the man behind it all is writer Nick Hornby,who is coming to Seattle this Friday eve, so it's a good time to re-pimp him. 

Hornby wrote a pair of my favorite books several years ago, while writing a monthly column for The Believer on his monthly reading habits. The books were: The Polysyllabic Spree and Housekeeping vs. Dirt.

I'd advise everyone to get one of these immediately. The essays are smart and funny and human -- and tie into the fact that many of us as readers think everyone else is so much better read than we are that we keep buying books in the hopes that owning them will suffice and cover up our dimness. And it's more than that, too, aside from an intriguing memoir of sorts and some beautiful descriptions and insight and a good diverse reading list -- with excerpts! I suggest PS first and then H vs D.

I"m going to give you a sample from H vs. D. It's from a month where Hornby decides to try reading some new stuff.

And the new stuff is not a book on the peregrine falcon as he wanted it to be, but a sci-fi novel. And he hits upon the ultra-geeky sci fi type of book and this is not a slag at sci fi which  I actually quite like stories that are speculative and futuristic but not like the one below.

I actually read this section today -- well the part in bold -- to a someone I was talking about work with today and I think it actually helped me get the editing gig -- which is translating technical instructional weepifying text into something that a clerk can read and feel smart about.

Here we go, from p. 58 – 59,  Housekeeping vs. The Dirt. The part in bold is the sentence I re-read about a million times over the last few days.

"When I actually tried to read ‘Excession’, embarrassment was swiftly replaced by trauma … And nothing in the twenty-odd pages I managed of ‘Excession’ was in any way bad; it’s just that I didn’t understand a word. I didn’t even understand the blurb on the back of the book: ‘Two and a half millennia ago, the artifict appeared in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe. It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared. Now it is back.’ This is clearly intended to entice us into the novel—that’s what blurbs do, right? But this blurb just made me scared. An artifact—that’s something you normally find in a musuem, isn’t it? Well, what’s a museum exhibit doing floating around in space? So what if it did nothing? What are museum exhibits supposed to do? And this dying sun—how come it’s switched universes? Can dying suns do that?

 The urge to weep tears of frustration was already upon me even before I read the short prologue, which seemed to describe some kind of androgynous avatar visiting a woman who has been pregnant for forty years and who lives on her own in the tower of a giant spaceship. (Is this the artifact? Or the dying sun? Can a dying sun be a spaceship? Probably.) By the time I got to the first chapter, which is entitled 'Outside Context Problem' and begins '(GCU Grey Area signal sequence file #n428857/119),' I was crying so hard that I could no longer see the page in front of my face, at which point I abandoned the entire ill-conceived experiment altogether. I haven’t felt so stupid since I stopped attending physics lessons aged fourteen."

***

Nick Hornby is reading at the Seattle's Central Library, Friday Oct 9 at 7pm. The book he's promoting, Juliet, Naked, is not science fiction.

Tap Into Your Inner Rock Star Genius

Imagine if you felt like this even 50 percent of your day --

So let’s start with the word Genius. Because yes you are one and perhaps more importantly, you have one.*

Genius  is defined in many dictionaries as a quality of supreme intelligence and creativity.

So to be in touch with your own personal Genius can mean to tap into your intelligence and creativity and the fact that you do know what you want and how to get there.  

And, your Genius, as defined by numerous dictionaries and cultures, is also a deity or guide of people and places. So imagine that your Genius is a spiritual guide with a killer compass. When you feel stuck or you’re starting a new chapter or project or you’re standing in the dark prickly woods of transitions and thresholds, your Genius can guide you through and out of the wood, and into the light of an amazing life. (Remember Dante?)

And now imagine that you've decided to tap into your Inner Rock Star Genius, rather than focus on and fan the problem at hand. Even if you don’t know what that really means, or looks like or feels like. But you're willing to see how your thinking and actions shift around a bit once you accept this superstar self. It also means focusing on what you want rather than the sticky branches hanging into the path.

Changing habits of the way you think and act, in even the tiniest ways, can lead to all sorts of daily-life enlightenments. And perhaps most importantly, harnessing that Inner Rock Star Genius can get you one step closer to living the dream. 

What if you lived your dream rather than just dreamt it?

We are more than the sum of the stories we give ourselves. Your Genius knows it. Follow it.

And that’s all for today, you Genius Rock Stars. All of you!

——

*Writer Elizabeth Gilbert gave a fantastic talk at TED on creativity and Genius. She speaks to a shift in how the ancient Greeks and Romans saw Genius as something people HAD, like an other, a daemon or creative cohort; and with the Renaissance, genius was something people WERE, with no one to share the success or the so-called failures. Heavy responsibility, but in dreams begin responsibilities.

Watch it here: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

But You Do Know

It's easy to say it. "I don't know." I don't know what I want.

I don't know what to do.

I don't know why I _________.

I just don't know.

Really?

But what if you did know. Imagine this:

A knowledge base deep inside you that for all the hours, days, months and years you've been alive,  it's been collecting and storing information based on all your experiences. This is the wise knowing you that knows.

It knows what you want. It knows what to do. It knows how you might begin getting there.

So, if you could suspend all disbelief and believe in this pool of knowledge -- even if just for one minute -- close your eyes, take a deep breath and PRETEND there is information coming to you from this juicy pool. If you open yourself up to the possibilities of answers to your I don't knows -- what are some of the answers?

This is about possibility. Commiting -- to yourself and your life. Stepping into an answer means you're willing to emerge from the security blanket of your I Don't Know. Let's face it: Just as it's frustrating to not know,  it's equally as comfortable to not know, too. Because then we don't have to take action. Or commit to anything, god forbid. (I admit, I fit into this last category).

So what if we all really know, but just don't give ourselves access to the information -- or the gift (or is it the confidence) of knowing?

Take one minute. As yourself one Fruitful Question that's been on your mind. Pretend you have an answer. If you're open to it you'll see it.

I recommend writing it down. Or doing a  freewrite. Ask yourself the question and you can use this line as a starter prompt:

"I do know I really know and the answer as I know it is ..." and let yourself free write without knowing where you're going. Writing always exposes us to something new. If you're open and write down the truth of what comes to you, there will be answers here.

You do know. We all do.

"Trust yourself. Then you will know how to live."                        --Goethe

A Modest Proposal: Screw the Elevator Pitch!

What's your elevator pitch?

Yeah yeah, we know already. It's that ten-word summation of Who You Are and What You Do and What Makes You So Amazingly In-Demand that any smart savvy successful professional or entrepreneur has got to nail.

Well screw that, I say. And here's why. And I do have an alternate solution.

First off, I do understand the value of  being able to articulate who you are and what you do in a short pithy statement. I see how it's especially anchoring for the individual saying it.

But here's my objection -- and I say this as someone who has struggled with my e-pitch in the past and has finally decided to do it my way in this phase of my biz development.

Change Starts Here Get us out of the elevator!

For starters, I hate being in an elevator. Don't you? I don't care for talking in an elevator and the idea of having to have an "elevator pitch" in which I sell myself to someone on the other side of fast-closing doors puts me in a state of anxiety. And who needs that for chrissakes. Plus, it's de-humanizing, and this is a kind, generous humanizing phase of business we're entering.

Also, I'm not in an elevator very often. And I've never ever gotten a job in an elevator. And people in elevators are usually too busy ignoring each other to care what anyone does.  

So screw the elevator.  Or, in the line from Diva which I actually blogged about earlier, "Je n'aime pas l'ascenseur." And double-screw the pitch. Why can't we just be ourselves instead of being in a desperate state of selling ourselves. How about a short-short story rather than a pithy bullshit pitch?

What's Your Party Line? So I decided to move away from the elevator and into a party setting. And when I say Party, I'm talking about the places that are comfortable for you, where you actually enjoy going and talking with people: a party, a dinner or any social gathering. In my case it would be places like the swimming pool or out on a trail run, in a cafe, aka my satellite office.

Why Not Give Yourself More Time to Talk About Yourself? I don't know why any of us has to say what we do in five seconds and less. Who made this rule up?

I know this is good for networking events where people hand out their biz cards like they're speed dating. Or if you need to get the question answered asap. But not all of us spend a lot of time at networking events. And even if you do, if someone can't give you a minute to listen to who you are and what you do, well -- maybe it's time to move on and find the person who does.

Another adendum: My Party Line gets to change. Because my moods change and even though what I do (writing, coaching, editing, consulting, figuring-out-what-the-hell-I'm doing) remains the same, the area I am focused on changes.

So part of the dynamic of my Party Line is that it gets to change. Especially depending on who asks.

So, here's my Modest Party Line Proposal in a nutshell:

Get off the elevator and into a natural setting, call it a party, and talk about what you do in the language and pacing that works for you. Among people you are inspired by (and it's mutual) and who you'd  be interested in getting to know better or work with or network with.

Party Lines in Motion

Try on various Party Lines while you're forming Who You Are or What You Do. Not everything has to get hammered out in a business plan or a journal. For example, my answer can range from "I'm a writer and coach" to "I'm in transition right now" to ignoring the question, depending on my mood and the asker.

Admittedly, sometimes it does help to have an answer when people ask the casual but sometimes dreaded "What are you up to?"

Which brings me to a future post -- giving yourself permission not to answer the question.

In closing: I am not sold on the term "Party Line" -- but you get where I'm going with this here. If you have any better idea of how to rephrase the elevator pitch and put it in a more relaxed, inspiring setting, drop it in comments.

So. What's your cool-ass party line?

Friday Quickie

What are you going to create this weekend that will make a good story for friends and co-workers on Monday?

A To Do List for Visual People

I came up with a new way to Not Forget Things today.

While working on a coaching tool called a Life Wheel, I saw a way to unlock my recent state of overwhelmation -- aka, being pummeled with wordy to-do-lists.Like many 21st-century multi-taskers, I have this ongoing worry note that important items I need to attend to will be forgotten and will drop through phantom cracks.

And with 10 million word docs and zillions of pieces of papers and a bajillion notebooks, I am almost up to here with words that represent a reminder to do anything.

So I put my Major To Dos in a Wheel and added color. Something about the roundness softened it too.

It's simple:

*Get a piece of paper. *Draw a big circle. *Divide it into eight sections (pieces of pie). *Name your eight areas of To Dos. *Colored them in with pastel crayons, if you'd like. *Itemize each section with some of the most immediate To Dos (or Get-to-dos). *Don't forget the fun stuff that feeds you. (e.g., one of mine was Creativity). *Put it somehwere you can see it. *Throw out old To-Do list that has been up on fridge for past month.

Have you noticed?

The wheel also looks like a compass. I find I can look at this Visual To Do list as: forward motion or a directional. Both, very comforting and encouraging.

My To-Do list doubles as a guide that says: do some of these and you'll get there.

No longer an admonishing finger telling me what I again didn't do.

So, give it a whirl?

And if you have something to add on the subject of To Do lists, let 'er rip.

How to write a last-minute blog post

It's Friday night. You didn't write your Friday blog post yet. And you made a contract with yourself that this was a Blog Day.

How do you do something quick and easy and stick with it?

Start with a photo. I found one in my photo files.

And then pose a question, like:

What makes you feel like the hungry animal in the photo?

Hmmm, now what. Follow up with a second question:

And when you feel like that, what is the perfect way to quiet the call for your choice of "food?"

For me, it’s often a good feeding of the arts. And the other night, I realized how this beast has been roaring inside me for a while. 

Two nights ago went to see a director's cut of dances at PNB. These are usually a sampling of contemporary dances but this program was more classical. It included George Balanchine. Personally, I never have to see a piece by George Balanchine for as long as I live.

So what did I do watching the traditional G.B. dance? Cried a little. Yup, I was moved to tears.

Because I was so hungry my body reacted with tears that represent a state of relief and appreciation. Ahhh, beauty, movement, music, I can breathe again, life’s worth living. Much, much better now.

I was so hungry I was moved by this:

 

When I’m really more into something like this:

 

So that’s what I am often asking for in a state of Feed-Me hunger: art. 

And so goes my last-minute Friday evening blog posting. I (re)learned something, too.

So what can you do when you want to make a post and the day’s almost done and there’s hardly any time—or desire left?

Let’s review:

Find a photo that grabs you.

Post it. Then start writing to it. Without knowing what you’re going to write. I told myself if I just wanted to write “crackers” underneath, that would be fine. But it never is, I always find something else to say.

There’s magic in getting started, like your internal creative muse wakes up and comes running downstairs to play. More!, it says.

See? done. Lesson learned I may get my mom and I some tickets to the symphony.

Feed me!

And now, good night.