Creative Wordshops Writing Newsletter August 2021

In Child Mode

There are children playing in the street who could solve some of my top
problems in physics because they have modes of sensory perception that I
have lost long ago. (Robert Oppenheimer)

This month these two books arrived in my life via a charity (in Oz an opportunity or op) shop. Bringing a zany joy, a gust of air, an energy an
innovativeness. Lauren Child’s life story too is rich and strange. For her
books see https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/lauren-child/234795/0

This letter is not so much about writing for children, rather bringing this
child voice into our adult texts. Many writers testify to how tapping into
childhood memory revitalises our writing. “A writer who has had a childhood has enough to write about for the rest of their lives”.(Flannery O’Connor) “Children have more real voice. They talk poetically more easily…. Children have the gift of whole-heartedness, complete intentionality” (Peter Elbow.) “A child is “a natural existentialist” (Sam Keen)

Here’s one of my favourite cartoons. Apart from energy and detail, and the sense of “being there” as children, we were astonished by, absorbed in and sensually in our world. We lived in present tense. Entered a trance over a spider, a wheel chair woman, the wart on an uncle’s nose. Crying and laughing within one minute.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Aug-2021-letter.pdf