June 29, 2011

A "FRUGAL" VISION BY YVONNE OSBORNE

BOOKS. The book reviewed by Yvonne Osborne is "The heart is a lonely hunter" by Carson McCullers. But the revelation for me has been herself and her vision.
The book shows what mundane work does to creativity. A young musician has to drop out of school and work at Woolworth's to help support her family for ten dollars a week. She thinks about a piano but does not mention that aloud. She does not want to work in the store but when they all start to think about what the ten dollars can buy, she is trapped into it. Her description of losing her energy and ambition to write music is a heartbreaking account of how hard is to spend your life creating art without being independently wealthy.
- "Now no music was in her mind. Sometimes a quick little tune would come and go. It was like the store took all her energy and time. Woolworth's wasn't the same as school. When she used to come home from school she felt good and was ready to start working on the music. But now she was always tired. A song she had started in her private notebook two months before was still not finished".
Yvonne believes that it is possible to stay outside the "rat-race":  
- "Whistle, sing, write, or draw with passion, whatever it is that lifts your spirits and makes you feel alive, but live simply, like a frugal bourgeois."
La reseña de Yvonne Osborne es sobre el libro "The heart is a lonely hunter" de Carson McCullers. Pero la revelación para mi ha sido ella y su visión. 
El libro muestra lo que el trabajo "mundano" hace a la creatividad. Una joven tiene que dejar la escuela y la música para ayudar a su familia trabajando en una tienda por diez dólares a la semana. No quiere trabajar allí pero cuando todos empiezan a pensar en lo que pueden hacer con los diez dólares, acaba atrapada en ello. Su descripción de cómo va perdiendo la energía y la ambición para componer es un duro relato de lo dificil que es crear sin independencia económica. 
- " Ahora no había música en su cabeza. A veces una pequeña melodía iba y venía. Era como si la tienda se llevara toda su energía y su tiempo. Woolworth no era como la escuela. Antes llegaba a casa sintiéndose bien y lista para empezar a trabajar en su música. Pero ahora siempre estaba cansada. Una canción que había comenzado en su cuaderno dos meses antes no estaba aún acabada"
Yvonne cree que es posible permanecer fuera de la "rat-race":
- "Silba, canta, escribe o dibuja con pasión, lo que sea que eleve tu espíritu y te haga sentir vivo, pero vive sencillamente, como un burgués frugal".

9 comments:

  1. Hello:
    This sadly is the story of so much creativity which is too often stifled in and by the mundane, but necessary, world of work. And what is the answer? Rich patronage, perhaps, for the lucky few.

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  2. justamente esta manyana oí algo aprecedio en la radio, de como un hombre tuvo que dejar su carrera musical para sacar adelante a su familia!!! el dinero y el ansia por tenerlo acabará con la sociedad!!!

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  3. for the moment, the moral of the story seems to be very subversive. nice.
    you write on your blog at 4 in the morning? that's weird, at this time, i knit! xxx

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  4. Hello! What a nice compliment, to be linked from someone else's blog. Thank you so much! It's nice to be read and understood.

    McCullers is an amazing author. What is truly astounding is the depth of empthy for and understanding of the human condition she displays in this novel at the age of 23.

    I especially love meeting people on your side of the ocean, and I'm glad you found me. I will follow your blog and see where it takes me.

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  5. oh thank you so much, i'm very grateful, now i can understand why i AM a knitting pumpkin forever.

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  6. Vous êtes tous des insomniaques !!!

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  7. Carson Mc Cullers est l'un de mes écrivains préférés. Merci de nous présenter ce livre.

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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