[John Riley]

My Birthday Is Tomorrow And These Are A Few Of The Things I Did Not Do This Year/An Attempt To Write True Sentences


I did not fly to Colorado to hear my son play the violin with a piano accompanist who wasn't very good.

I did not go skiing with my friend the economist before he moved away.

I did not become an empiricist.

I did not go to Philadelphia.

I did not start writing the book about Tycho Brahe I have planned to write for five years.

I did not go with my wife to visit her mother on mother's day.

I did not visit my mother's grave.

I did not go to any parties.

I did not stop taking my medicines.

I did not read Infinite Jest.

I did not update my will.

I did not come to understand why people were on Earth before me or where they will go when I am no longer here.

I did not learn how to forget the question.

I did not accept that the world will exist without me. (This is a true sentence.)

I did not follow through with my vow to think of other people more than I think of myself.

I did not tell anyone of my vow.

I did not make plans for next year.

I did not write only true sentences.

[Birthe Myers]

Happy Birthday John,
I wonder - is it easier to write the truth? You don't have to invent anything, you just remember and record.
But the truth can be painful, and fiction is more fun than the truth - though not always.
I especially like your intention, now in its fifth year, of writing a book about Tycho Brahe. I hope you mean that one. He is really very interesting. He wore a sliver nose to hide that he had lost most of the original nose in a duel. King Christian 4 built him an observation tower in mid-Copenhagen that still stands, and you can walk up the snail house road inside it. He deserves a(nother) book.
And I think the world will disappear when I do - on my time - so make the most of the time I have left.
I will not stop taking my medicines either.
Have a very good birthday.

[Janice D. Soderling]

Indeed John, happy birthday and many happy returns.

This list flash a la A Questionanaire for Rudolph Gordon (Jack Matthews) and Things I Did to Make It Possible (Francois Camoin) has a great twist at the end but if it hadn't been you, and if it hadn't been posted here, I might not have made it to the end.

I suggest that you jazz up the list, add more ambiguity, to lure the reader on, make her inquisitive.

I know you are terrific at revising and can do it. IF you want to. Otherwise, Happy Birthday.

[Edward Zuk]

Hi John,

This is an interesting exercise. If it’s a personal stock-taking, then it is what it is. If it’s meant for others, then I’d urge you to take Janice’s advice. The premise is excellent, but you should push yourself to expand on the details so that each one is entertaining in itself.

The queen of lists is Sei Shonagon. Here’s a short example from her pillow book (the translator is Helen Craig McCullough):

Elegant Things

A young girl’s trailing white summer robe, worn over a lavender chemise.
Shaved ice, mixed with vine syrup and put into a new metal bowl.
Fallen snow on plum blossoms.
A sweet infant eating a strawberry.
A duck egg, broken.
Crystal prayer beads.

I’d like to see the details in your list pushed to the same level of specificity and inventiveness.

And assuming the title is one of the truthful lines, happy birthday!

[John Riley]

Maybe I shouldn't have posted this little experiment. I'm a little intrigued by it because it is exactly what I say it is. My attempt to write some true sentences about the previous year. I don't know what it says about me that I couldn't do it. That I wasn't able to stick with the facts. It isn't that I lied in terms of making stuff up but so many things are shaded or abbreviated that I didn't come away feeling I'd told the whole truth. I think it might be impossible to write the absolute truth. But it is a bit of navel gazing so maybe I shouldn't have imposed it on others.

Or maybe I'm a psychopath?

Birthe, thanks for commenting. I've been fascinated with Tycho ever since I wrote a biography of him for middle school readers several years ago. I've got a wonderful book called "On Tycho's Island" that goes into great detail about the instruments he built and who worked for him and what it was like. I think he lost his nose in a semi-drunken fight while in college when he got into an argument with another student over who was the superior mathematician. There are already lots of books on him. What I'd really like to do--see, another semi-truth--is write a play set during the year or so he and Kepler worked together in Prague before Tycho died at the dinner table. I would love to visit what is left of his observatory. I don't think his island was maintained, was it?

Janice, it isn't my birthday. I'll take a look at the two things you suggest if I decide to return to this. It would be interesting to see examples of similar works. Thanks.

Edward, thanks for introducing me to an new writer. I like the example of her work you've posted. I am interested in doing more of this sort of work and it's always great to have a model.

Thanks everyone for taking time with my little self-indulgence.

John

[Janice D. Soderling]

Since it isn't your birthday, I'll give you a birthday present now anyway, because I probably won't know when it happens.

http://www.tychobrahe.com/uk/om_museet.html

Here is everything you always wanted to know and nobody would tell you about Tycho Brache's island WHICH IS SWEDISH, ha, ha, (yust a yoke, Birthe) though that wasn't always the case.

I've always intended to finish a poem about Kepler's mother, maybe we should prod each other, John.

[Maryann Delaney]

Hello John - This seems to be an exercise, although maybe not. Being new here, I expected "story" to be in the Fiction section. So this maybe is a play on fiction with "An Attempt To Write True Sentences", which makes me think the audience for this is those in a workshop who are privy to the exercise.

The most intriguing line, to me, is: "I did not come to understand why people were on Earth before me or where they will go when I am no longer here." This is a great twist on "or where I will go when I'm no longer here." A story could be built around it, or probably around any one of the other statements.

I did not take the "My Birthday Is Tomorrow" as literal to the writer, but as a first person perspective which serves a purpose. I don't know what the purpose is, unless it is to satisfy an exercise. Oh! This could be a list for the purpose of developing a character. In that case, it gives hints of the character's personality. - Maryann Delaney

[John Riley]

Maryann,

Thanks for reading and commenting on my prose piece. I think of it as creative nonfiction but your idea of using it to develop a character is interesting. I'll have to think about that.

John