End of " The Midnight Disease"

Good afternoon, everyone. How are y'all? This is LaVel Moorehead: writer, reader, and book blogger extraordinaire. I just finished the rest of "The Midnight Disease" by Alice W. Flaherty. Interestingly enough, I really enjoyed the last chapter which is titled "Metaphor, the Inner Voice, and the Muse." Here, Ms. Flaherty endorses the idea that writing is 99% drive and 1% inspiration. But where does this "inspiration" come from? She introduces a few theories in this last chapter. :)

Metaphor in this chapter is tied to the idea of meaning. Meaning, Ms. Flaherty writes, has 2 components to it: one is linked to the temporal lobe or semantics and the second is tied to the frontal lobes or emotions. This will help us understand her idea of inspiration. Last year in college, I read some of Plato's works and it was interesting to learn his views on poetry. He detested many poets because in his view, they didn't represent 'reality' through the use of metaphors. He thought that metaphors were misleading, but on the other hand his pupil Aristotle loved metaphors. *Gasp* I've always had difficulty writing poetry because I want to come up with distinct comparisons, metaphors or other trophes which I relate to. Of course, the metaphors that I come up with may not relate to someone else. It's just hard to put words onto paper, especially something as refined as poetry. O.O

Ms. Flaherty shares the poem "For Anne Gregory" by Butler Yeats. Read this:
"Never shall a young man
Thrown into despair
By those great honey-colored
Ramparts at your ear
Love you for yourself alone
And not your yellow hair"

So in the poem, the limbic (emotional) and sensory (semantic) overtones are "complicated, not simplified" in Ms. Flaherty's view. She says that we're more familiar with blondes than towers; a fun fact is that Yeats lived in a tower so the metaphor meant more to him than us. The poem ties together "a vivid exaggeration of her sexual impregnability and of the massy thickness of her hair." I'm not sure if I agree that it complicates the overtones because most of us know what a tower is; most of us would read the word "tower" and could picture it, right? I think so. So, a little over-analyzed on Ms. Flaherty's part (I believe).

Okay, we must talk about the "muse," the "force" or "being" that gives writers inspiration to write. But before I talk about that, can you name all 9 Greek Muses? Come on, you know you want to. Here they are. :D Calliope the epic Muse, Clio the Muse of history, Erato the Muse of love poetry, Euterpe the Muse of lyric poetry, Melpomene the Muse of tragedy, Polyhymnia the Muse of sacred poetry, Terpsichore the Muse of choral song and dance, Thalia the Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry, and Urania the Muse of astronomy. Wow, that was a mouthful! >__< I didn't know most of their names, so that was cool to learn them. Thanks, Ms. Flaherty. :) Anyway, Ms. FLaherty asks the question: why would artists attribute their best ideas to something outside themselves? Well, some would say that it's a pride issue. Some would say that they feel special that the "muse" visited them, so they MUST have it going on. Another is that writers are humbled and feel the need to be helped by something or someone other than themselves like God. As many know, I'm a Christian and I believe that God has given me gifts for a purpose: to glorify Him and His Kingdom. I don't believe that the muse is some outside force that visits on a whim. I believe that if I ask God to help me with my writing with an open and a humble heart, He will help if it's in His will. :)

I thought this description of Frued was funny in chapter 7. Freud thought that being alienated from or subconscious (subconscious is tied to the idea of the muse) makes us "neurotic" but being too involved with the subconscious makes us "psychotic." It's like, we need the muse or the inner voice sometimes. Haha. :) I think it definitely helps to have the creative juices flowing. Just don't have voices speaking to you all the time or you'll go loopy. ;)

I had a fun time reading and blogging about this book. I learned so much about the cerebral cortex, the limbic system, the temporal lobes, frontal lobes...okay you get the picture. The book dealt a lot about the structure and function of the brain with creative writing. I look forward to reading books dealing with overcoming Writer's Block. The next book I'm reading is "Writers Block and How to Use It" by Victoria Nelson. I will blog about it in the coming days so STAY TUNED. Alright? Have a great rest of the day and I will chat with you later.

~LaVel :-)