Day 726: Panel – The Way We Write Now

Do New Orleanian authors write differently now than they did before the storm and flood? I’d like to think that the style remains the same and the stories a mixture of new and old. What would this ongoing incident do to that which a writer sources from?

Sam Jasper writes from more of an activist standpoint now (considers books more portable than blogs – aren’t blogs inherently portable, though, Sam?) Valentine Pierce says the anxiety since she returned from exile has changed the way she writes. Dave Brinks brought up the concept of writing in the moment, however long that moment is. Josh Clarke assures that writing henceforth will be framed by Katrina (he’s only 32 and grew up in this lull of history, so 9/11 and Katrina have given us a story).

What’s more important than the writing – the emotional connection or the facts?

JC: Facts and feelings have to be tied together. VP: Facts without feelings are useless. We have a poverty of everything here, except politicians who are lying to us. SJ: Going to the 17 Poets! open mic is like going to church. DB: Surrounded by 13 simultaneous emotions all the time.

Dave Brinks has quite the mesmerizing way with words … speaks to my love of the number 13

Update:  Valentine Pierce, a very elegant woman, has 60,000 words on “that small amount of time” between the storm and through all of that negative media coverage, full of facts and emotion.

The juxtaposition of facts and emotion – the scientist in me critically analyzed Tim Ruppert’s trend of 4.36 inches per mile, while my heart wept thinking of how far this city has to go before it can get a good night’s sleep.  Does that count?