And don't forget nature
Nature writing, unlike science, is everywhere in fiction. Reminded that after an on off relationship with The Balkan Trilogy which ended a month or two ago - with me losing 100 pages or so from the end, while promising to finish it as a duty in order to follow the history through - I am left with the memory of what seemed at the times to be the author's own diary-like entries of the weather she actually experienced when living in the countries she describes in her novel and the state of the flowers and trees (falling leaves done quite well). Struck a tad formulaic by popping up so frequently and regularly.
I always hear the opening bars of the familiar, once popular song when notions of leaves goes through my mind.
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These are my peaches - nearly 30 this year. At one stage it looked as if they had stopped at walnut size, as hard as rocks. A few weeks ago, with a lot of rain and then in the last week some warmth, hey presto big fruits.
In the shadow of the tree the house wall is completely covered in shiny snail trails, criss-crossing across the bricks. The snails don't seem to eat the peaches. Maybe they are waiting till they are ripe.
Suday 21 August 2005. Decide to pluck first peach. Felt nearly ripe. Must record this in a notebook for furture reference. Wonder when the first ripe peach came last year. Why am I writing like Daniele Defoe? This is continued in Norfolkskies
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I ought to re-write that to make it worth a novel. Who would say it to whom? I have it as someone in the UK writing a letter to a friend in a warm country where peaches grow better. For some reason it would also be do with a person recovering from a nervous breakdown. Now, AIATCWTWASE {as is always the case with the web and search engines} I feel obliged {'because it is there'} to look for nature/nervous breakdown/depression novels. Someone who has read many could reel off great lists: can't name a single one right now. Even better would be a novelist who suffered from depression, or even better manic-depression, who wrote a rather depressing novel which involved a "nature cure" (in latter case cycling between descriptions of the natural world then attempts to shut it out at any price..}
posted by Adfero Affero @ 10:31 AM
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