Tuesday Two Posts Tuesday

If people are going to ask me a question about this whole process the question will probably be: "what is the novel about?"

If I'm talking to someone who will never take the time to read the novel, or whom I wish to impress (just being honest), I tell them it is a re-telling of the story of Joseph the dreamer, told from the viewpoint of one of his brothers.

Both the Bible and the Qur'an have beautiful renditions of this story. I find the story to be immensely powerful, imaginative, and interesting. I would love to write something that shares any sort of parallel with the story of Joseph. But the truth is that I'm using this novel as an exercise to discover my own strengths and weaknesses, my ability to build something action based rather than idea based.* And so in this process I've started a story where the plot is less of a straight shooting arrow than a heat seeking missile. It kind of meanders all over the place following the temperatures of my mood or the day. The motives are still unclear because I'm still unclear. The characters are underdeveloped because I'm still finding myself as a writer. I have a loose idea of what the novel is actually about, but really I'm just doing my best to keep my head above water. As counter-intuitive as it may sound, I think at this point I would find it extremely difficult to try to model my story after a blueprint of somebody else's story rather than finding my own way. One day I would really like to retell the Joseph story, but for now the comparisons are few and far between.

I can tell you what elements of the Joseph story attracted me to it, and how I'm trying to make these elements appear in my own work. I'm strongly compelled by the idea of redemption that plays out in the psyches of the characters. Society tells Joseph that he needs to be redeemed for a sin that he didn't commit. He is imprisoned to repent for his actions. But Joseph's heart is pure. He dreams dreams sweet and full of promise and hope. His dreams are both his spiritual testimony (he is connected with God) and his physical salvation (the dreams get him out of prison). So although he is imprisoned he is impervious to the pain this might bring. His dreams bring him hope that allows inner freedom. In short, he stands outside the law by merit of his virtue. (this is radical!)

His brothers, on the other hand, are laden with guilt. They will spend much of their lives bypassing and waylaying the guilt that physically manifests itself and plagues them: famines, poverty, etc. Spiritually they are sick, while Joseph lies in his prison cell and dreams. And not just dreams, but prophecies! He inhabits the traditional role of a poet in the purest sense of the word. Pharaohs come to respect and rely upon him. Joseph becomes the most respected member of Egyptian courts. He rules alongside Pharaoh. By sentencing one man to death, Joseph's brothers inadvertently brought a rich spiritual life to all of Egypt.

I could go on and on. In the Bible the story is 8 chapters. The Qur'an's version is perhaps a bit longer, 111 verses. If you happen to visit this story I would love to talk to you about it. Ahh, so good!

So some elements I've tried to bring into my own work are those connected to the idea of the societal damned being the spiritually enlightened, the spiritual reality of dreaming playing out in the day to day world, and the redemptive qualities of the story that I've already touched upon.

Alright, to work!



*Which is a weak point for me. I'll want to write a story based off a philosophical idea and think, wow! That wil be great! Shortly afterwards I find myself struggling to bring the idea into reality: to find concrete actions that represent abstract ideals. This is a bit of a tangent, but I believe that in good writing every action, ideally, is in a sense a metaphor for some higher spiritual reasoning.