letter to Tim

Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Tue, 03 Aug 1999 08:39:58 +0100 

    SB: '... A fifteen year old adult in a community of thirty
    year old infants ...'

    TO'C: '... Come on, Scottie ... you need not be so churlish. Eh?...'

    SB:  And yet, within the hour & without any prompting
    from me, another newcomer, the sixteen year old Carl,
    seems to be casting his metaphorical eyes to heaven at
    the sound of: '... 30 year olds blabber on about Star Wars ...
    [it] gave me a feeling of 'why bother? ...'

    Is it so hard to think my welcome to Jocelyn was other than
    absolutely genuine?  And for the reasons offered in that first post?

    TO'C:  '... you'd do us both a favor by stopping such assumptions
    about me and anyone else here whose work you do not know ...'

    SB:  I presumed, Tim, you, were giving us a glimpse of your
    fundamental attitude to writing when you confessed:
    '... We were going to have coffee today, but I had to write 
    some insipid prose for work ...'

    The world is full of people who tell us they have to write
    crap to make a living or they're saving the real stuff, the good stuff,
    for the Book.  But any serious writer - whether Fay Weldon in 
    her agency days recommending we Go to Work on an Egg, 
    or old Ernie filing his copy for the Kansas Star (or even my humble
    self writing a medical report for the insurance company) -
    will tell you it can't be turned on & off like a tap.  If you have
    the genuine infection you have to go full bore all the time.
    Tiresome but true.  Those who don't have already fallen victim
    to one or other of the dreaded Enemies of Promise - or were,
    perhaps, never real contenders in the first place.

    TO'C: '...I... return to find that there's been a general tone 
    of nastiness lately ... The level of rancor has been cranked up 
    pretty high ...'

    SB:  I find this an extraordinary comment.  Leaving aside 
    my own sour faced contributions (which everyone does, anyway) 
    when was the atmosphere ever warmer or more jovial with 
    the names of pop artists & songs tossed merrily back & forth 
    & eager datings made for the Harvard book store & across 
    the Canadian border?

    
    Boisterousness is not QUITE the same thing as destructiveness.
    And laughter at teatime does not ALWAYS lead to tears  
    before bedtime.

    Scottie B.