Creative Writing: Introduction to the Chapbook and Ideas

 Another term and I will be creating another chapbook.  This small book of joy could follow on from my previous two books or could be something entirely new!

Alain de Botton (2005) On Seeing and Noticing

My last two books were the story of milk and honey but there was a character I created called Professor Zimmerman who I really wanted to explore more.

I want to write his story this term and I thought about maybe the diaries of Zimmerman or it could just be a chapter of his life.  While I was think of this I thought of Nabokov's Pnin - this book of the professor who is always out of place is a beautiful characterisation of a man that is touching, deep, funny and engaging. 

Vladimir Nabokov (1957) Pnin

Charles Poore of the New York Times described Pnin as; 'a comedy of academic manners in a romantically disenchanted world.' (Poore, 1957) This would explain why I am drawn to this book, written in 1957, however that same disenchantment comes to every academic's life.  But this is a book about the society that produced him and through his eccentricities, you come to love this character.

Evelyn Waugh (1928) Decline and Fall

Also I thought of Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall - again a comment on academia, society and a very British class system exposed.  The idea as well that failure leads to teaching...

References

Poore, C. (1957) Books of the Times: Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov, The New York Times. The New York Times. Available at: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/02/lifetimes/nab-r-pnin.html (Accessed: May 1, 2023).