I’ve become very fond of novels that open each chapter with a quotation (something that I wrote about once before on this blog, quite a while ago). The last two good novels I read that used this method were Hand and Ring by Anna Katharine Green and Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart. That last one made particularly superb use of them, with sources ranging from Shakespeare to Dickens to Elizabeth Barrett Browning and more, each perfectly suited to the events within the chapters.
I’ve always wanted to do this myself, and I’ve finally happened on my opportunity. Last summer I came across a passage in a book I was reading that perfectly fit the underlying theme of a Mrs. Meade story which was then in the planning stages. The thought of what it would be like to use the quotation at the beginning of the story briefly crossed my mind, and then flitted away. But later on it came back to me, and I thought—why not? Since then, apt opening quotations have popped into my head during the outlining of the next few stories, so I’ve delightedly decided to make them a feature of the series. I’m even going to go back and insert a quotation at the opening of The Silver Shawl—I think I’ve nearly settled on something from Shakespeare.
Going back to pick one for The Silver Shawl has taught me one thing, though. It’s much better and easier to have apt quotations pop into your head and suggest themselves than it is to go looking for one on a particular topic. And for that to happen, you need to have an underlying familiarity with poetry, plays, etc. for your memory to fall back upon. I’ve started making a little conscious effort to improve myself in that respect. I recently put the complete works of Shakespeare on my Kindle (for $1.99!) and I’ve been reading a Sonnet here and there over the last few weeks. It’s a funny thing about Shakespeare—you can plow on for a while through a tangle of unfamiliar phrasing and obscure meaning, and then suddenly happen upon a line that expresses some familiar feeling almost perfectly. The man certainly knew how to put things. Good poetry is like that—as the narrator of Nine Coaches Waiting puts it, “One always got the same shock of recognition and delight when someone’s words swam up to meet a thought or name a picture…Poetry was awfully good material to think with.”
In short, I need to read more poetry.
The Author’s Prayer For His Book
The Three Best ‘Writer’ Episodes of The Waltons
Although most episodes of The Waltons had moments dealing with books and writing strung through them, there are certain episodes that were based around or portrayed events in a writer’s life particularly well. These three are my favorites:
The Typewriter
Coming near the beginning of the first season, “The Typewriter” was one of the first episodes to concentrate specifically on John-Boy’s writing ambitions. When he submits his first story to a magazine (the now-defunct Collier’s Weekly), it’s returned because they don’t accept handwritten manuscripts. So he borrows a prized antique typewriter from the eccentric Baldwin sisters…and manages to lose it. Some of my favorite scenes in this episode come near the beginning: where John-Boy dares to show someone his story for the first time (yes, they point out the grammar errors first and you have to nervously ask how they liked the story itself), and where the rest of the family, who know he’s always writing but aren’t really aware of what he’s writing about, start to ask questions and become more interested.
The Book
In the third season, now attending college, John-Boy begins a new writing class and is properly overwhelmed by his classmates’ matter-of-fact descriptions of their highbrow and high-concept projects and their condescending questions about his ‘themes’ and ‘approach.’ Hoping to bolster his confidence, Olivia takes some of his stories to a ‘publisher’ she saw advertised, who claims they’d like to publish his collection. John-Boy’s exultation carries him a little too far, affecting his work, his behavior toward his family…and causing him to overlook some of the fine print in his contract…
One thing I find rather interesting is that the problems presented in the first half of the episode are never really resolved as such. John-Boy’s snobbish classmates are happy to accept him as soon as they find out he’s going to be published, apparently forgetting their low opinion of his work. Similarly, John-Boy no longer has any worries about the quality of his own work as soon as he knows it’s going to be published. Publication means validation. This still seems to be a common view, but when you really look at it in light of a situation like that in “The Book,” it’s extremely subjective.
The Prophecy
This episode is not specifically about writing—the main story is about John Walton Sr.’s reluctance to attend his high school reunion, feeling like a failure beside his more financially successful former classmates. But meanwhile, John-Boy is once again down in the dumps because a well-meaning and pessimistic professor gave him a personal lecture on how writers, no matter how good they are, never make a living from writing. This is a fine example of how the most skilfully-written episodes of The Waltons used a subplot to echo themes from the main plot, as Johns Sr. & Jr. both come to understand that the meaning of true success is not measured by money.
As a sidenote, I was amused at how, in spite of his struggles with the literary elite in “The Book,” John-Boy displays a little snobbishness of his own while trying to compile a list of writers who make a living. When Mary Ellen suggests Mary Roberts Rineheart (whose debut novel The Circular Staircase I read over the weekend, incidentally), he explodes indignantly, “Oh, be serious! I’m not talking about people who write murder mysteries.” Mary Ellen sensibly retorts, “We’re talking about writers making money, and lots of it.”
What are your favorites writing-related episodes or moments from The Waltons? Or other favorite TV shows?
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