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More musings from Natalie Goldberg on writing as a spiritual path, as "an authentic Zen way." Goldberg has some nice things to say about the importance of the process of writing. She recommends her students spend two years at writing "practice" before undertaking a specific project, so that they can "get in touch with their wild minds." The most inspired writing, she says, comes when one's conscious mind gets out of the way. Still, we are puzzled by Thunder and Lightning: is it really meant to show us how to turn "our flashes of inspiration ... into a polished piece of work," as the book jacket touts? It comes off more as a collection of Goldberg's ruminations on writing and reading. Goldberg tells us about her friend Julie's writing process. Another pal, Kate, talks about plot. We study Styron with Goldberg's workshop students and take a road trip through the South to try to figure out just how some of the poorest states in the union managed to produce so many great writers. There are some good stories here, and it's vaguely interesting to know what Nat likes to order when she does her café writing or lunches with her editors, but we end up desiring a little less wandering and a little more focus. --Jane Steinberg
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Goldberg here urges aspiring writers to go beyond the Zen-inspired writing practice she presented in her 1986 bestseller Writing Down the Bones and the subsequent Wild Mind. Writing practice was a means Goldberg devised of observing the mind by moving the hand, writing through our endless judgments and opinions until the unstoppable stream of thought becomes transparent and we can see clear through the mind to the vibrant life force that shines up from the bottom. In this guide, Goldberg seeks to help students find the organic formsAthe resonant questions and questsAthat exist deep down within us. She doesn't teach technique so much as affirm that the life force carves a particular channel in each of us. The title came to Goldberg several years ago in Costa Rica, as she stood at the foot of an active volcano and experienced the sudden power of a tropical storm: "I thought, some divine structure has just whipped through here." Goldberg describes her various book projects as inspirations that crash down like lightning, absorbing her and vanishing. As she delves into her own process and the process of other writers, however, it becomes clear that the work of discovering form can be as long and painstaking as an archeological dig, and as painful as surgery. Great book and story ideas do tend to come in flashes, she confirms. But they come to those who have gotten by the barking dogs of the conventional mind only to face the raw truth about what is. Goldberg writes as someone who has been there and back. She guides readers without handing out any illusions about how easy the trip is. BOMC, QPB, One Spirit Book Club and Reader's Subscription alternates.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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BACK IN NINTH-GRADE BIOLOGY CLASS when Mr. Albert Tint announced that we would study the involuntary organs-the heart and lungs-he forgot to mention the mind. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
BACK IN NINTH-GRADE BIOLOGY CLASS when Mr. Albert Tint announced that we would study the involuntary organs-the heart and lungs-he forgot to mention the mind. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worthwhle read,
By A Customer
This review is from: Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft (Paperback)
I have read one other of Natalie's books and at one point during that first book, I was a bit put off by the journal-style, flow-of-consciousness writing. At the time, I was searching for a quick fix or perhaps I just wanted nuts-and-bolts direction. And sometimes, encountering a lot of chatter over a writer's psyche, I do want to say, "Oh what's with all the melodrama? Just tell the wanna-be that they need to be damned good story-tellers and be done with it!"But then, Natalie Goldberg practices Zen meditation. She grew up in the 60s, too, a time when inner musings were given their due in the public forum of Hippie-dom. And if you know anything about Eastern philosophies, you should at least garner that patience is a virtue and that you are not reading Strunk and White. Anyway, after a chapter or two, Natalie began to discuss exactly the problem I was having with my novel, a problem I'd just begun to point out to myself but still wasn't quite sure what it entailed. And then Natalie described herself in the same place at one time. Problem: stalling in one's story because the writer is trying too damned hard to control the characters, who they are, etc. It helped, exceedingly, to learn her explanation for it. The same thing occurred in the next chapter, and the next. I've read many how-to writing books over the years ( you can put off writing indefinitely so long as you got something to read) and that I came across this book at this time could be deemed one of those little coincidences. These may have been some obscure how-to questions; not every writer may ask and another author might have brushed past them. So don't knock the Zen. When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Bleh.,
By
This review is from: Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft (Hardcover)
A babbling stream of zen consciousness nonsense. This book may be interesting to those who like new age poetry but if you're primarily looking to improve your writing craft - seek elsewhere. There are a few nuggets of helpful wisdom here, but they are buried by reams of meandering memoir.
3.0 out of 5 stars
GET PAST THE ACCENT,
By A Customer
This review is from: Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft (Audio Cassette)
I would have thought that Natalie Goldberg would have had the decency to hire a professional reader for this book. I like some of the things that she says about writing but they lose their credibility because I am constantly holding back my right index finger from hitting the "eject" button on my car's tape player simply because her voice is incredibly annoying! I can only listen to about 10 minutes of this at a time. Also, if you are a guy, you have to get past all of the more feminine comments such as her calling herself "Natalie, darling" a half a dozen times along with other assorted Natalie-only references such as talking about eating, chocolate, and her book "Bananna Rose". I would say that 50% of this book is kind of a self-serving memoir written by Natalie Goldberg (although to hear her say "memoir" still makes me cringe). If you have a convenient "fast-forward" mechanism on your tape player, then there is much that she says that holds water. You just have to wade through a lot of overhead to get to it. If you can't stand the sound of a New York accent then KEEP AWAY! In a regular book your imagination can choose to use whatever voice you are comfortable with - in an audiocasette, you have to listen to the one that's on the tape and in this case (even though I love most of her work) her voice is best kept for scolding kids or shouting across busy poolrooms.
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