Spring Break
Tower Light writers embrace narrative, sound, sentiment
Poets and storytellers discuss influences on work, narrative; both conventional and non-traditional forms appear
Michael Mayday
Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: Beyond
Perhaps because his stories must carry a narrative, Ogden is more concerned with cohesiveness than sound and sense.
"The main thing I'm concerned about is whether it sucks or not," Ogden said.
Authors like Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner, Ogden said, are able create worlds so real that what they're writing becomes a dictation rather than a story.
Ogden finds a timeless charm in the Midwest of the early 20th Century. Ogden based his short story on a folk singer's song about a young man who gets revenge on his family for hanging his friend by burning their house down with his mother in it.
"For me, it would be very boring to go through life without these stories sort of happening and being a part of my whole experience," Ogden said.
"A lot of writers have written about this thing [in my story]," Ogden said. "But there's a lot about the early part of the century in this country in the rural places that's less glamorous than, but much more important than, or as important as the stuff that went on in the big urban centers. All of those little stories swim around."
"The main thing I'm concerned about is whether it sucks or not," Ogden said.
Authors like Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner, Ogden said, are able create worlds so real that what they're writing becomes a dictation rather than a story.
Ogden finds a timeless charm in the Midwest of the early 20th Century. Ogden based his short story on a folk singer's song about a young man who gets revenge on his family for hanging his friend by burning their house down with his mother in it.
"For me, it would be very boring to go through life without these stories sort of happening and being a part of my whole experience," Ogden said.
"A lot of writers have written about this thing [in my story]," Ogden said. "But there's a lot about the early part of the century in this country in the rural places that's less glamorous than, but much more important than, or as important as the stuff that went on in the big urban centers. All of those little stories swim around."
Be the first to comment on this story