GOLDEN HOUR #011: a magical thinking library

memos from the thinking brain to witless hope

Good morning friends,

We have family here, and the weather has been very hit and miss, so we’ve mostly been cooking and watching some films on Mubi. Yesterday we enjoyed a roast lunch and I made Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Lime Cheesecake, which always feels a bit terrifying, as you have to bake the liquid mixture in a pan of hot water. Wibble wobble wibble wobble jelly on a plate! I find Nigella’s writing about food sublime. Here she describes the moment you need to take the cheesecake out of the oven …

You want to be able to detect, below the skin, the slightest, sexiest hint of a quiver within.

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about how I consume other artistic texts when I’m trying to write fiction, as it takes a slightly different form to my ‘regular’ reading. I find myself dipping into a wide range of books, films and albums, trying to immerse myself in a state of magical thinking. I’m not reading for enjoyment, but more to form a library of influences and aesthetic moods which I can return to each day.

My magical thinking library

Here is my magical thinking board for my current project:

1. FLIGHTS by Olga Torkarczuk

   I think I’ve spoken about Olga’s work before, but I find her a formally fascinating writer. This book was structured around the idea of how constellations are formed and interact with each other.

2. ON HOW LIFE IS by Macy Gray

3. JAGGED LITTLE PILL by Alanis Morisette

   These are both albums my mum listened to as I was growing up. They encapsulate a 90s feminist angst that I’m trying to explore.

4. NW by Zadie Smith

   Zadie is so good at writing about place and how a geographic environment can influence our sensibilities and expectations as we age.

5. LOST IN TRANSLATION directed by Sofia Coppola

6. HER directed by Spike Jonze

   I’m interested in the aesthetics of these films. The way they both feel ‘warm’, despite focussing on themes of loneliness and dislocation.

7. GILEAD by Marilynne Robinson

   Gilead will never not be on my moodboard. It influences the way I think about religion and its representation in fiction.

8. FLEABAG written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge

   Waller-Bridge shows us how important humour can be in creating a deeply moving narrative.

9. NEVER LET ME GO by Kazuo Ishiguro

10. A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD by Jennifer Egan

    These two books serve different purposes for me. I’m interested in the way Ishiguro is able incorporate ‘sci-fi’ themes into his novel in a very naturalistic way, and I’m also interested in the inventive form that Egan employs in Goon Squad - where a whole chapter is comprised of a powerpoint deck! There is some formal overlap between Egan and Torkarczuk.

So at the moment all of these texts and books and images are percolating in my mind and contributing to what Annie Dillard describes as my novel’s ‘vision’. The task of writing a novel is simply to transmute this vision to paper via the written word!