Successful Writer Blog

A.B Yehoshua is one of Israel’s groundbreaking writers. There are those who say that the stories that he wrote in the beginning of his career are his best work, and because of it there are those who consider him a better writer than Carver. I’m very fond of some of his novels too, like The Lover which describes Israeli society before and after the 1973 Yom Kippur War or Mr. Mani which describes several generations of a Jewish family. But today I wanted to talk about the story ‘An Ongoing Silence of a Poet’ not only because it circles 17 years in the life of an “old” poet (he is approximately 65 years old when the story ends), but because in this story silence, old age and abnormality are linked together. In my opinion, at least compared to the other stories that I’ve read, he manages to reach new heights here. Amos Oz (another great Israeli novelist) who taught me this story in the university, told me that he has been reading this story for decades and still finds new levels and ideas in it every time he reads it.

The story was written with the backdrop of the decline of the poets of the 30’s and 40’s in Israel and the rise of a new generation of poets. It tells the story of a poet that decides to stop writing because he feels that he cannot compete with the younger generation, and when he tries all that he can do is write a satire that mocks whatever he had written before. Because he is spending more time with his wife, they bear a child, which is mentally challenged. The wife dies, their elderly daughters get married quickly and leave home, and the old poet is left to raise his son alone. They have a relationship that is sometimes physically violent; from the father’s side (although he is afraid his son will attack him and the only resemblance between them is “a thin line of violence”), in the end when the child grows, he discovers his father was a poet and he tries to force him to write. The father objects, and in the end destroys their safe haven and forces his daughters to find some sort of arrangement for his child and decides to wander around in the world.

I’m not afraid to tell the whole story, because every story of Yehoshua is basically a comic sketch, even his novels. The details, voices and descriptions are all important to the narrative. The other reason is that we need to make some orders in the details, because what I just told you is a lie. The poet who tells the story is lying to us and you can see that when you read the story. He sees things that he is not supposed to see, knows stuff that he is not supposed to know and the only way you can catch him out is by the details he uses. His old age is an excuse, but he is not really that old and this is a koan (something extra for the reader to think about). Yehoshua is keeping us guessing for as long as we let it.

The writing tip that I take from this story is that to have an untrustworthy story teller can sometimes enrich the story, and to pay extra attention to the details, as a writer and as a reader. The teller could be lying. Another fine example to a teller that’s lying could be found in the story ‘A Rose for Emily’ by Faulkner.

P.S. I saw several sites that refer to Yehoshua as ‘The Israeli Faulkner’. I find it most interesting.

Chinese and Japanese writing is pretty much based on the Zen philosophy. What is most interesting is the way that this philosophy highlights the limits of the use of the words. Unlike the common belief, Zen and Daoism don’t attack words, but rather check how we refer to them. I mentioned someplace else that words are limited because they cannot describe the future or the present, just the past, and that’s what Zen says. Zen says that words have no connection with our true self or reality and so the Zen teacher does not teach in a regular manner. Instead, he teaches in a dialogue of traps. The Zen teacher will never teach you something you won’t discover on your own. The teacher can give you a Koan which is a riddle or a beginning of a dialogue that one can ponder for years and years to develop his consciousness. An example for a koan is, “Does the ring of the bell come from the metal or from the air?” or “Use the shovel with empty hands!” which for me feels like a metaphor for a true base of writing.

The book that I would like to recommend for you today is Ten Bulls sometimes called Ten Ox Herding Pictures, not only because of the dialogue between the pictures and writing or as the Wikipedia says it:

“The pictures, poems and short pieces of prose tell how the student ventures into the wilderness in his search for “the Bull” (or “Ox”; a common metaphor for enlightenment, or the true self, or simply a regular human being), and how his efforts prove fruitless at first. Undeterred, he keeps searching and eventually finds footprints on a riverbank. When he sees the bull for the first time he is amazed by the splendor of its features (’empty and marvelous’ is a well known phrase used to describe the perception of Buddha nature). However, the student has not tamed the bull, and must work hard to bring it under control. Eventually he reaches the highest Enlightenment, returns to the world and ‘everyone I look upon becomes enlightened’.

Taming the Bull

Common titles of the pictures in English, and common themes of the prose, include:

1. In Search of the Bull (aimless searching, only the sound of cicadas)
2. Discovery of the Footprints (a path to follow)
3. Perceiving the Bull (but only its rear, not its head)
4. Catching the Bull (a great struggle, the bull repeatedly escapes, discipline is required)
5. Taming the Bull (less straying, less discipline, the bull becomes gentle and obedient)
6. Riding the Bull Home (great joy)
7. The Bull Transcended (once home, the bull is forgotten and the discipline’s whip is idle; stillness)
8. Both Bull and Self Transcended (all forgotten and empty)
9. Reaching the Source (unconcerned with or without; the sound of cicadas)
10. Return to Society (crowded marketplace; spreading enlightenment by mingling with humankind

So check out how a story can grow throughout the generations. Try to experience some of its ideas about being lost and being found and if it really matters anyway. In a way the story of The Bull is a story of being enlightened by the idea of a story. From the moment of inspiration until the moment the story reaches out and in turn enlightens other people, is another way of reading the story of the Ox, showing that inspiration is a recyclable resource. In the next article I will try to follow a Chinese poet’s career, and hopefully we’ll see that some phenomenon in poetry are’nt new or western.