The Muddy Window

As promised, the beautiful metaphor. Actually it's anything but beautiful, but it's pretty accurate. So I had to read this book for class, To a Young Jazz Musician by Wynston Marsalis and then write up little things about my reactions and how it compares to writing. Well, the preface and the first chapter were pretty interesting and pretty cool. His style kept my interest, and he had some mildly interesting things to say.

Then I got to Chapter Two, or the second letter--not sure how they're distinguished and whoa! Those words I'd been worried about, actually one or two had shown up in Chapter One, but somehow they seemed minimal. Well, in Chapter Two, they weren't minimal. And they weren't mild. It became really really hard to concentrate on what I was reading and push to the end of the chapter. I guess it did some good though because it brought this metaphor to mind, which I actually wrote in my journal response.

This is what I wrote: "...the dominant things I do recall are the profanity. It so masks the rest of his writing, it's so unfortunate he felt a need to include it. I find profanity so utterly disrespectful, derogatory, unintelligent, unimaginative--it's the antithesis to good writing. A good image came to mind--like someone inviting you to come somewhere--a place you'll have to drive, and then as you're driving along and enjoying the scenery, suddenly they (the person who invited you, who is riding in the car with you) climb on your car and dump a bucket of mud on your windshield, then hop back in the car smiling as if they'd done nothing wrong--even helped you in some way. What? Sure you can turn on your windshield wipers and maybe still enjoy some of the scenery--you might even make it to your destination, but it gets harder the more times they hop out and dump the slop on your windshield and I personally have to wonder if it's really worth the journey. It seems a better use of my time to ask them to get out of my car and stay away from me. I'm sure I can find another friend who'll take me on a better trip."