A Midlife Crisis

A midlife crisis? Yes, that is where we shall begin. It seems as good a place as any. 

Paradox. A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. I have always been a bit of late bloomer. I also was an early embracer of middle age and the accompanying crisis. I have no ill-will for the cosmos – I have come to accept my part within it. I mask my masochism with humor. Turning 30 was difficult for me. At 35 I started to get tattoos of the places in the world that I have traveled to, an artistic passport as a leg sleeve. I figured, if I can show off leg tattoos in a professional setting then I have won at life. I currently adhere to a business casual dress code as a salesman. At 36 I decided that I wanted to be a writer. After a year and a half of struggling, I have only a few short stories and the struggle to show for it. But that struggle has led me to an idea: Collage as Literature. This voice, style, aesthetic theory or whatever it will become will eventually develop on its own. If you’ll indulge my narcissism for a moment, I’m very excited about the whole shebang: learning how to write while developing an entirely different methodology? I told you the truth when I said I was a masochist.

Collage as Literature Principle Number 1: I believe that you should always tell the truth when you write – except for when it behooves you to do the opposite.

While I am wildly optimistic and (for the moment) extremely motivated, I am also a realist. Somewhere in the fog of my memories lies an amalgamation of the various History Channel specials. I can vaguely hear Peter Weller telling me that one of the Pharaohs (I forget which one) built his pyramid atop a high place, thus giving him the same or greater height than Khufu’s monument to overcompensation. Given that I have achieved, if that is what you would like to call it, middle age, I’m going to employ the aforementioned pharaoh’s stratagem and build atop a hill with what I call Collage as Literature. Not Khufu’s, but the one whose name I can’t remember. Speak up, Peter! For heaven’s sake.

The idea of Collage as Literature came to me nearly fifteen years ago. It is one of the many ideas that have not progressed into something more tangible. Unlike its many brothers and sisters sitting in a purgatory of waiting, it has not suffered in silence. The idea is as loud as it is undefined. It is my intention to define that idea, if for no other reason to end my suffering and silence it. Maybe there is a correlation between the loudness of an idea and its lack of definition. The only way to tell is to test the hypothesis. There’s probably a principle behind this, but I think it comes into play with method writing. It is currently 11:45 pm and I will need to be in business casual dress and sitting at my desk in a little more than eight hours. Getting into method writing will hamper my ability to make that (for the time being) necessary appointment. 

A note about these principles and their appearance in this manifesto – I’m developing them as I write. I have a general idea of where it might take me, but also have a hunch that it will provide plenty of surprises along the path to where it will take me (a completely different place than my general idea). Given the nature of Collage, that should be expected. Paradox. A self-contradictory and false proposition. As far as definitions go, I like the opening one better than this one. That’s the one we are going to go with.

Collage as Literature Principle Number 1: Every person, place and situation has the potential to participate in paradox. There is a correlation between level of participation in paradox (definition one, not that nasty definition number two) and the interestingness of that particular person, place or situation; and, thus, its utility to literary intentions.

The principles will continue to be numbered irrationally until I can impose some sort of rationality upon them. Thank you, and good night.