The Novel as Performance Art: An Update

Novels share qualities of performance art and still photography. The performance aspect is the language and story sliding into the reader’s eyes and mind. The best work flows without interruption, directly becoming image, emotion and experience. And when read aloud, it sounds good to both the ear and the heart.

Like photography, writing stays forever linked to a page to be scrutinized by readers, writers and reviewers. Each word choice, each sentence, plot point and line of dialog sits in the form the writer produced it . . . which is to say, one word and sentence at a time.

So, though much of the world’s great art leaps—or seems to leap—into being spontaneously, it is the rare novel that is not the work of many years labor. At its best, a book is a long string of static symbols on a page that magically becomes a vivid presentation of life.

The journey of my novel The Trouble with Wisdom confirms this. Born in the mind almost of-a-piece in April 2001, years of writing and research followed. Some of that research was geographical, cultural and literary. The more important work occurred internally, learning to feel and grasp the wild ride Zhampa DiOrio and his fellow travelers make (internally and externally) as they travel through an unraveled world.

A novel’s highest use comes from publication and getting there is often a long journey. The Trouble with Wisdom’s path to publication has involved many drafts and countless rejections by agents and publishers. In 2009, it entered the fray self-published as a Hand to Hand experiment, which you can read about elsewhere on this site. Two years ago an editor helped raise the story from its shallow water grave, instilled this author in the craft and persisted with him until an integrated narrative emerged.

That manuscript found an agent in March 2013 and, as of this writing, it is being read by editors in seven of the great New York publishing houses. Though the pleasure of writing is getting the story down, married to craft, every writer longs to get the book into the hands of editors. It is the greatest opportunity, the bar for which she strives. And as of this writing, I count myself blessed to be in this place.

But . . . simply arriving in New York is no guarantee of success. Many stories do not meet the whims and constructs of the day’s market. I will keep you updated on developments, as I now turn my heart and pen to another narrative. If you care to read The Trouble with Wisdom in its current form, I will be delighted to send it to you and to receive your feedback.

Starting Over

Starting over comes with laughter and hope. It comes from laughter and hope. This insight arises in me from my daily activity as a writer, where the sport is little more than redoing what was an earlier attempt to communicate. Dreams of perfection must be checked at the door.

Like any sport--be it soccer where we must head or kick the spinning ball to another player or into the net, or archery where the wind, the light, the tension of the bow string and the release effect the flight--the activity of writing is joining in the moment with the muse. . . and accepting the results. 

The source of the muse has never been established. It can be engaged but not known. It feels too vast and bright to come from inside, yet it is too personal for it to reside in the ethers or under the control of another (presumed) entity. So without knowing the mechanics we come each day to the 'dock' ready to jump in. We come naked. Confidence, laughter and carelessness are great friends.

Only when the piece has been thoroughly worked can we begin to have skill with its intent and nuance. This is true in the first chapter of a novel or--if we shrink the project down to an essay or a letter--in the first paragraph. The Trouble with Wisdom had many drafts, each an excursion coming to know the characters and their routes through challenges. And when it was all done, completely understood, it was time to begin with the first line, the first paragraph and scene. Never mind that I had rewritten it fifty times already, now I had to start again, because the first words are the connection to the world.

The antidote to thinking that our work is good and cannot be easily improved is to realize that it is nothing more than words, words that come from the muse. So let go and feel the novel that you know so well. How will it begin? What or who will speak first and how will those words land with the reader? 

It turns out Zhampa's entrance had to wait for several pages. First the Dorjay and the Purbha had to be born in the reader's mind. The young lama had to feel the heft of the gold, had to peel back the brocade and see a thousand years of history gleaming in his hand. He had to pocket them and promise to return them. He had to disappear into the mountains of Tibet.

The opening? "At first light, Selpo Rinpoche woke to the roar of his monastery's warning gong." Ah! The months of work to arrive at such a simple thing--a person, a place, an occurrence, a time and something driving all of them; a warning gong.

I laugh with relief. The manuscript is now in the hands of publishing houses in New York. And I will need to laugh again when a publisher says, "Yes, we'll take it on,  but it will need a little work." Later, I will need to roll in humor when the editor says, "Let's start at the beginning and make it good."

Comments on the Book

Please add your comments on the story. Click the hot 'Comments' button at the bottom of this posting.

"This magnificent book is a modern "Homeric epic" written on several levels . . . designs within designs within designs. While it is a highly plausible vision of the post-"Unraveling", it also propels the reader into a deep search for better alternatives."

Paul

The story draws you in with subtlety and nuance. . . a great mixing of beauty and terror. The humanity and tenderness of the main characters is highlighted and tested by horrible events that unfold as they make their way overland across the world. The book is a quest to follow the open--often broken--heart in a world that has fallen apart. For me, the "unraveling" seems all too possible in our unstable world! It's important to think about what I would sacrifice for the greater good of others. Highly recommended!

JamesA

"I found this book to be heartfelt, well-written, and beautifully drawn. It reminded me of some post-apocalyptical works of Cormac McCarthy, Denis Johnson and Margaret Atwood, and like those books, resonated with plausability, which make the story all the more poignant.I'm a tough and sometimes critical customer, but I thoroughly enjoyed this read."

Matt S.

"Simply reading the opening paragragh had me fully engaged! Thanks so much for such a special treat. Your language painted powerful images in my mind that I have carried around for days. I can usually anticipate the end of most books by about a third of the way through. This was a delightful surprise."

C Tower

I found this a compelling read, which held my interest on at least three levels. One - a great story: imaginative yet believable, very will written. Two - human values and attitudes: you can't go wrong living your beliefs or by accepting the 'happening' of life. Three - community governance: through interesting stories and situations, we see how some structures work well and some definitely don't.
Should be on the best seller's list! 

Hart Jansson

I struggled at first to understand the violence in the book, but I began to see Zhampa's struggles as trying to live non-violently in a violent world. As a complex character, he didn't have "the answer" and tried a variety of ways to accomplish this task. That resonated strongly with me, as I feel a similar need - and indeed, believe that is a primary task that all must face if we are not to annihilate ourselves. I really appreciated this facet of the book! 

Anonymous

This story describes all of us who share the desire to make sense of and make right this existence. It hit a vein personally for me as I'm sure it will with all readers. Thanks, Tom for putting it in words we can understand.

The First Page

Prologue

Tibet: March 1959

       At first light, Selpo Rinpoche woke to the roar of his monastery’s warning gong. Thinking fire, he threw open the shutters and scanned the temple, the library and the labyrinth of monks’ cells until movement outside the walls caught his eye. A monk was running barefoot down the mountain, maroon robes flying, blood staining his trail in the snow.

     Later, while doctors tended his wounds in the warmth of the great kitchen, the monk told Rinpoche the Red Army had invaded his monastery over the mountain, corralled monks and villagers in the courtyard and demanded his senior lamas bow down to Mao Tse Tung. When the lamas refused, soldiers shoved pistols into the hands of the novice monks and ordered them to kill their teachers. But in keeping with their vows, the boys turned the weapons on themselves. The soldiers emptied their guns into the crowd, then dragged the women and girls to the temple, laid them on their backs under the statue of the Buddha and raped them.

       All that day Rinpoche walked the halls, rallying monks and laypeople as they passed supplies and relics hand-to-hand out the Eastern Gate to the parade grounds, where porters loaded a caravan of yaks. Close to midnight, he waded through the crowd in the moonlit courtyard and mounted the horse his attendants had packed for his escape south, over the Himalayas.

       Reins in hand, he peered through the juniper smoke at the ancient square—the raised plaza where he had learned to debate the fine points of wisdom, the prayer wheels he’d turned as he circumambulated the statuary hall, the banners and gargoyles and, on the roof, the golden Wheel of Peace. He saw, too, tomorrow’s courtyard awash in blood. Centuries of labor and devotion were about to be swept away.