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Wednesday 17 February 2010

Haiku #52


Voices in his head
Alan Bennett's Talking Heads
silent now - writer's block?

19 comments:

Jim Murdoch said...

What's the story behind this one, Dave?

steven said...

writer's block - a mind collecting its thoughts, a river gathering rainfall. steven

@ctors Business said...

Every writer's nightmare that blank page, screen blinking back at you and nothing coming back at you

CiCi said...

Just because someone is silent doesn't mean writer's block, right? I read that Alan Bennett declined a knighthood a few years ago.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Do you suppose Alan Bennett could possibly suffer from writer's block, Dave? If he does then that is quite comforting - incidentally I love Talking Heads.

Helen said...

Mr Dave ...... since 52 is my lucky number, I respectfully request you number today's Haiku accordingly. That is, unless you had the perfect reason for duplication.
I love the way you challenge all of us to be better than we are in terms of thought/creativity.

Kass said...

The madness of King
Alan has taken the form
of writer's depression.

Kay said...

proof: the voices in your head, are there for a reason. do not try to quiet them.

Dave King said...

Jim
Hi! Good to have you back.
Alan Bennet t told an audience a couple of nights ago that his Talking Heads had been drawn from voices that he heard in his head. Now they are not there any more. He doesn't hear them and the scripts have dried up. He has tried to write new scripts, but he can't. Some newspaper articles have described it as a specific form of writer,s block.

Steven
I go for the river.

Gwei Mui
Agreed! But nothing there in the first place doesn't sound like a block.

TechnoBabe
Right! And right again - I think!

Weaver of Grass
I'm sure he could, but I don't think this is a case in point. I, too,love them.

Helen
Sorry! Will correct!

Kass
I'm not sure about the first and last lines, but the middle one is superb!

Kay
Seems reasonable.

Jim Murdoch said...

I see. Very interesting. I have a book out of the library at the moment called Alan Bennett: In a Manner of Speaking which was last taken out in August 2002 and I felt sorry for it. I’ve been thinking about doing a post on Bennett, specifically his Talking Heads series which were a great influence on me. Before I watched them I’d written a grand total of one short story. His voice suggested an approach to short story writing that appealed me. I don’t think you’ll find the resultant pieces very Bennettesque (Bennettish?) but that’s what inspired me. I’ve been told I sound a bit like him when I talk (world weary). I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Ronda Laveen said...

Sometimes the voices just move on to someone who truly hears them.

Tommaso Gervasutti said...

Dear Dave, marvellous haiku. It happens that I have four audio-cassetes of Alan Bennet's talking heads, I listened to each of them twice.

Linda Sue said...

Tough call- voices in the head or peace of mind, perhaps he just had to get older, move through it ,allow the voices to have their creative outlet. Now he can not claim that creativity as his own- it belongs to the lost voices.

Carl said...

Glad to get my daily haiku Dave.. Thank You!
Carl

Cloudia said...

The empty mirror



Aloha, Dave


Comfort Spiral

Shadow said...

writer's block. oh how i hate that...

Dave King said...

Jim
What a ghastly shame for the poor book! I'm almost inspired to write a poem from the book's point of view! The idea of a post on The Talking Heads sounds like a terrific idea. I do hope you go ahead with it. I shall read it with ill-concealed interest, if you do. I have often thought your Aggie... dialogues rather reminiscent of Bennett - mutatis mutandis.

Ronda
Sounds good to me!

Tommaso
Magnificent, aren't they?

Linda Sue
I think he just had so many and now he has - as you say - moved through them. There are n one left.

Carl
You are very welcome!

Cloudia
Ah!

Shadow
I decided long ago that it's like sleeplessness - it's not the fact of it itself that is so distressing: it's how you react to it.

Kass said...

Dave - I was referring to Alan being the author of The Madness of King George and the madness or genius it takes to hear voices in your head and turn them into art. And he admits himself that he's depressed....
...but then, you probably know these things, but just didn't like the way I arranged my thoughts. Oh well.

Dave King said...

Kass
Profound apologies. I was having a senior moment - they go on for days sometimes!