I cannot help but think of Bill Gray as the ideal or romanticized representation of the writer. \u00a0As in Mark Z. Danielewski’s interview (where he told some story about beginning his magnificent first novel on a Greyhound bus in the dark with a flashlight on the way to visit his dying father), there are echoes of the stereotype (or perhaps recurring theme in history) of the author shaped by painful experiences. \u00a0Gray is reclusive (a trait associated with many famous authors: Pynchon, Cormac McCarthy, Salinger) and this sense of remoteness contributes to an aura of loneliness and exhaustion. \u00a0During his photo session with Brita he talks about the exhaustion of keeping up this writely seclusion.<\/p>\n
“Maybe I don’t want to feel the things other people feel. \u00a0I have my own cosmology of pain. \u00a0Leave me alone with it. \u00a0Don’t stare at me, don’t ask me to sign copies of my books, don’t point me out on the street, don’t creep up on me with a tape recorder clipped to your belt. \u00a0Most of all don’t take my picture. \u00a0I’ve paid a terrible price for this wretched hiding. \u00a0And I’m finally sick of it” (45).<\/p>\n
The quotation shows how he is fed up with the certain aspects of the writer life he has designed for himself. \u00a0He makes a clear distinction between himself and the rest of the world, wanting to remain apart. \u00a0There are people who get their pictures taken and then there are other who don’t want to be photographed. \u00a0The interesting thing is that he gives in, he has his picture taken, in a sense killing the writerly image he has made for himself. \u00a0Image actually isn’t the right word for it because I don’t think he’s very concerned with image. \u00a0I think he genuinely wants to have his depressing solitude, but he sees himself \u00a0and his lifestyle as a writer as outmoded; photographers and terrorists can do his job better. \u00a0<\/p>\n
In a sense I read his decision to do the photo shoot as a suicide or perhaps the prelude to one (I have heard that less civilized people believe that cameras can steal your soul). \u00a0Afterwards he leaves the country and tries to help the Swiss writer escape from his kidnappers. \u00a0He talks with George about a possible exchange that would endanger his life, which indicates a desire to die (George tells him to get a computer to replace his typewriter, further proof of how Gray is outdated). \u00a0Gray travels to Lebanon a place of conflict (more wanting to die) and steps off a curb to be hit by a car (still more wanting to die). \u00a0Then he actually talks to a group of veterinarians about his “accident,” I think, in part so he better understand his wounds and he ends up dying more because he thinks he has\/wants mortal injuries rather than actually being seriously hurt. \u00a0<\/p>\n
That being said, sadly, I’m not sure what to make of this suicidal writer other than he may represent the every-writer lost in a post-modern world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I cannot help but think of Bill Gray as the ideal or romanticized representation of the writer. \u00a0As in Mark Z. Danielewski’s interview (where he told some story about beginning his magnificent first novel on a Greyhound bus in the dark with a flashlight on the way to visit his dying father), there are echoes … Continue reading The Writer and Death<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-11-mao-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":562,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}