I've been thinking about James Lee Burke. Listening to his books on tape read by Will Patton. My dad gave me one for the road trip back to Mexico over a month ago. Whether it's the bayous of Lousiana or the border wars the events of the world hover over our heads these days; some kind of storms brewing . I am grateful for JLB's perspective of the telling of history, and the undercurrents of the time. I love his way of describing people, feelings and the best and worst that are our characters. We agree, my dad and I, that JLB writes like a photographer SEEs.
I found this essay Burke wrote and wanted to share it with you. Check it out for a little persceptive on why we do what we do. WRITERS ON WRITING BY James LEE BURKE.
"A real writer is driven both by obsession and a secret vanity, namely that he has a perfect vision of the truth, in the same way that the camera lens can close perfectly on a piece of the external world. "
"Jack Kerouac once said, "Your art is the Holy Ghost blowing through your soul." He also said that there was no such thing as failure in art, not when you genuinely invest yourself in it. What a critic might call failure is just part of larger work that is ongoing.
The material for the stories is everywhere. The whole human family becomes your cast of characters. You can give voice to those who have none and expose those who would turn the earth into a sludge pit. As an artist you have automatic membership in a group that is loathed, feared and denigrated by every dictator and demagogue in the world.
