Dave's Anatomy: My History As a Writer #109: Spiritual Perspectives: "Qualities of Light."

Saint Ives, Cornwall, UK

The story "Qualities of Light" is what I consider my best story. What makes it that? Why do I think of it that way? All the things that I try to do and want to emphasize came together in that particular story. It embodies the values to which I hold; I managed to express them in the space of about 25 pages and do it with good style and in well-written paragraphs. There are times in the life of any artist—I've had this happen when I do music as well as in writing—when everyone comes together and, for some reason, you do everything well. So it was, at least in my estimation for this particular piece of fiction.

Sossity

It drew on two ongoing characters of mine. The secondary character, Sossity Chandler, appeared in many of my early stories. In fact, I published thirty-eight stories about her. She is a musician, a guitarist, who, after six years of struggle, failure, disappointment, and barely getting by financially, makes it big. The story "Qualities of Light" comes at a low point in her career, when she has landed in London after the collapse of a tour with popular rock singer Geri Muir. Sossity had hoped her opening for such a well-known figure in the music scene would boost her own career. Then Geri collapses and must be hospitalized for drug abuse, and the tour is cancelled. Sossity ends up in London and decides to live for a year and try to connect to the music scene in that city. But London is expensive. She looks for a place to stay and, answering an advertisement for splitting rent with someone, meets Heather Alabaster.

Anglican Nuns

Heather became another ongoing character. I've written stories about her and an as-of-yet unpublished novel with her as the main character. She is about as different from Sossity as she can be. She is a nurse and plans to be an Anglican nun after she finishes her nurses training. Very religious, straight-laced, a virgin, she stands in contrast to the rather loose behavior Sossity often exhibits. But neither of them has enough money to rent rooms in a house, so the two unlikely women move in together, truly an odd couple, and begin a year together as roommates.

"Qualities of Light" begins when they have lived in the same house about three months. Heather takes the train to the town of Saint Ives, UK, where she will be interviewed and, if she passes the interview, will be admitted next year as a postulant at the convent there (a postulant is someone who thinks she would like to become a nun but has not yet taken any vows; Maria in The Sound of Music is a postulant). Sossity goes with her.

Of course, Heather is nervous. The fact that Sossity is with her makes her even more nervous. When they encounter some of the nuns who will interview her on the streets of Saint Ives, she wonders what they will think of her for going around with Sossity, in her shorts and halter top, telling them she plays jazz and blues in nightclubs and bars. Sossity also takes up with a young man she meets (as she often does), which vexes Heather. She becomes judgmental and critical and increasingly alienated from her friend, thinking she may spoil her chances of being admitted to the convent.

Sossity, in the meantime, manages to get some gigs playing and local bars and makes quite a bit of money from the jobs and tips. She works hard, since the two women do not have money and don't know where their money for rent and food will come from next month. Sossity even busks on the streets. Heather goes about the business of preparing for the interview. She becomes uneasy when one of the nuns asks her several questions about Sossity and seems unduly interested in her. Heather catalogs Sossity's moral failings, noting that despite her many affairs with young men, she too is religious, always goes to church, and behaves most devoutly when there. Heather writes her off as a hypocrite and hopes being identified with her does not hurt her chances at entering the cloister.

Heather is admitted. She also finds out why one of the sisters asked so many questions about Sossity. One of them heard her play Celtic music in local pub where she went with her brother, whose daughter was getting married the next day. It was an outdoor wedding and their harp player backed out at the last minute. They ended up hiring Sossity to play and are thrilled at her ability and that she agreed to fill in for them.

After this, Heather has an epiphany:  a moment of realization such as one finds in James Joyce's stories. She realizes how judgmental, selfish, and rude she has been to her housemate. Sossity, who has worked incessantly to earn them money, supported and encouraged her in this trying time, and believed in her, has acted more the Christian than the convent-bound Heather.

On the way back from the wedding, heading for the train station. Sossity is elated. She has made enough money to sustain them for two months. Heather begins to cry. This scene follows:

On the way down, Sossity caught the expression on Heather’s face.

“What’s wrong?”

Heather fought back tears. “Sossity, sometimes I get glimpses what a vain, selfish pig I am—how judgmental and full of pride I can be. I often wonder why God doesn’t strike me from the face of the earth.”

“There are better candidates for that than you. I’d say I’m pretty near the top of the list.”

“I wouldn’t say that at all.”

Heather has realized how far short she falls of the Christian commandments to show love, grace, and gentleness. Sossity has taught her a spiritual lesson she very much needed to learn.

At the beginning of the story, Sossity is reading from a tourist manual that mentions how the city of Saint Ives has always attracted artists because of the "qualities of light" seen there. Heather has learned that there are different qualities of light—different ways of manifesting goodness and of doing good. Her narrow focus has caused her to fail to see light in someone else. As a nun, she will need to revise her thinking on how she evaluates people and to judge not lest she be judged.

The story appeared in Eunoia Review. Read it here.

For more titles, see my Writer's Page.

 I would love to hear your comments.

Happy reading.

Dave's Anatomy: My History As a Writer, #12: Art and Inspiration

Flaming June by Sir Frederich Leighton

One of the great events of my life (and by this you will get to see what a geek I am) was visiting the Tate Museum in London. Art I had seen in glossy picture books, in encyclopedia articles, and on the internet, was suddenly there before me in all its glory. When I say that, I don't simply mean it was glorious and beautiful, though it was. The color and texture of a painting can never be fully expressed in a reproduction, no matter how good the photography or dense the pixel matrix might be. An example I saw was Frederic Leighton's painting, Flaming June. I had seen posters of it. A friend of mine has a reproduction of the work in his living room. But when I looked on the work itself, amazement struck me. The colors knocked my eyes out! It glowed and radiated color. No copy I had beheld came even a little close to conveying the richness of the painting from 1895.
.

It inspired me so much that, a couple of days later, on the flight back from England, I began writing.

I have a particular gift that I can write most anywhere and at any time when I have an idea. Author Louis L'Amour once said he could write on a bus or train or in the middle of Times Square. I can do that as well. Distractions don't bother me. In fact, they help. My brain welcomes minor distractions, background sounds, and "grey noise." One of my friends clarified it for me once when she said she liked to write and plan in public places where there is background noise because, "I have monkeys running around in my head. If the monkeys have something to listen to, they quiet down." I began writing on the airplane.

I write in longhand. Sitting next to my dear and loving wife, on that eight-hour flight from Heathrow to Pearson International Airport in Toronto, I began writing a story about Sossity walking through a small private museum and running into the ghost of Jemima Martindale, a woman artist from the 1700s, little known, who did capable art and ended up committing suicide. Sossity is intrigued. She later meets Jemima at the Tate and learns her story. She wanted to paint, her husband forbade her. Eventually, she went to Saint Ives, England, learned to paint, and also got pregnant. She has the child, but after her husband kills her lover in duel, she hangs herself.

Saint Ives, England

Sossity goes to a museum in Saint Ives and meets Rosie, a docent studying to be a painter who gives tours of the museum. They find a painting, Andromeda, by Jemima Martindale. Sossity discovers, to her chagrin, that it has been sold. But she feels something there she must investigate. She talks Rosie into letting her into the museum at night. Jemima appears and instructs Sossity to remove a board on the back of the frame. Behind the painting are Jemima's drawings and her journal as well. She also learns Rosie is a descendent of the son Jemima had out of wedlock. Sossity takes the documents.

She wanted to buy the painting, but since a German art dealer has already closed the deal on it, she is stymied in this. Jemima comes to the rescues, haunts and torments him, until he asks to get out of the contract. Sossity buys the painting. She also arranges to have Jemima's diary published. At the same time, a historian discovers the diary of the doctor who did the autopsy on Jemima Martindale and who was bribed by her husband to cover up the truth. He reveals it was a suicide. The two documents spark interest in Jemima and her art. Soon she is the focus of study and re-evaluation. Her work is saved from obscurity by this. Sossity keeps the painting in her home and, when she looks at it, feels the influence of Jemima, who has finally gone on her rest and her reward.

Art can inspire. In fact, art has inspired me as much as reading has. Poet Scott Cairns once remarked that he often gets ideas for poems by reading theological books or lives of the saints. He once quipped that someday he'll actually finish one of those books without the interruption of inspiration for a poem during the reading. I feel the same way about art. I always carry a moleskin when I got to a museum. Ideas for poems or stories inevitably following looking at art.

Many things can provide ideas for stories. Reading is the most common thing. Walking in nature is another. Art, a visual medium, can do the same. But I've found it doesn't work as a source of ideas, inspiration, or as a starting point, when viewed online or in a book. You have to be there. You need to see the vitality the artist put into the work. Then it comes alive. 

Has art ever inspired you to write a poem or a story?

Do you think viewing art is a pathway to creation of other works of art?

Is printed art or art reproduced on line equal to the actual work of art?  What is your experience in this?

The story appeared in the journal, Monday Night, still in print.  Here a link to it. I think it's a pretty good tale--for being written on an airplane crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

For more books on art, love, and the supernatural check out my Writer's Page.