January by Verlyn Klinkenborg pg. 112-114
This essay revolves around a man who lives with horses and what he takes away from living such a casual life. He speaks of how baling twine is such a significant part of his life even though it seems to be such an insignificant piece of string. Throughout the essay, he shows how the twine becomes "second nature" while it helps him connect with his horses.
"It transmits the dexterity of your fingers, the guilelessness of you intentions. It becomes a subtle tool. It allows horse and human to moor each other."
To anyone who enjoys blue-collar work, I suggest reading this essay. It helps make you appreciate dirty, hard work even more.
Coolest name for an essayist ever, first of all. Verlyn Klinkenborg. Sounds villainous.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I'm suspicious of writers who talk about all these grand ideas and thoughts they have while doing simple tasks, because sometimes it comes off to me as a mockery of that work. Like they're doing it just to think and not appreciating the lifestyles of people who do that for a living. I will have to read this and see if Verlyn Klinkenborg (I had to use his full name) reads genuine.
Keen criticism. He does seem villainous.
DeleteHe's got an NYT column on word derivations, or something like that.
This sounds interesting, though like Melissa, I'm also somewhat skeptical when writers invest what sound like mundane activities with really profound implications. The idea that it "allows horse and human to moor each other" makes me think of that Super Bowl commercial about the guy who is clearly having an affair with his horse.
ReplyDeleteI criticized that commercial twice this morning while watching a Hulu-office. In War Horse, you can almost care about a man-horse bond because there's been a war and, like 150 of well-lit, well-musicked cinema. But that commercial is just terrible.
DeleteMeanwhile, I thought you were going to mention the Dodge Ram commercial about farmers, which actually seemed pretty awesome to me.
I totally see where you guys are coming from. I grew up doing a lot of what you could call "blue-collar" work and I never thought "Hey. Shoveling this horse shit really makes me think about my wonderful connection to horses. I need to write this down!" You guys will have to read this and let me know what you think because I am horrible at detecting that kind of genuine writing. Or maybe we can assign this to Tristan since Dave dubbed him our BS detector.
ReplyDeleteAC, I'd love to see an essay on some of your early jobs. And maybe you can actually do some of the deep thinking you're rightfully deriding above. The whole conceit of the essay would be: here're my old dirty jobs and here's what I could have thought about them, but didn't.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I've had you write about work before? Am I have a 151 flashback?
Good job above. I like that you quote from the text. It gives us a sense that maybe VK is going a little too far.
DW