Sometimes I get obsessed with things. There are the actual things, like zambonis, accordions, and yurts, but there are also the behavioral and conceptual things. I was just explaining this tonight, and realized that it was the first time I had put words to how this part of my brain works. I can spend weeks, months or years obsessed with a particular behavior or character trait, which is usually expressed by reams of unfinished stories, little blobs of narrative, and a particular thought or image that will track through my head every, say, 200 thoughts or so for some period of time. Part of my recent blogging explosion is an attempt to bring light to these obsessions and see where they go, since shoving them in a notebook or drawer for the past twenty years has gotten me only so far creatively.
Anyway, the list, which I am sure will expand the more I think about it:
1. Behaviors of really short, intense, domineering little men. Under 5’4″, aggressive men dominated (!) my writing for six or seven years.
2. What people do when they smoke: the ritual of packing an entire container cigarettes against one’s hand or packing individual cigarettes, when people take drags during conversations, when people ash, etc. This one lasted about two years.
3. New: fidgeting with a wedding band.
4. Living in a half constructed / half renovated house.
5. How men talk about working on cars.
6. Looking into a glass of dark beer or liquor = staring down the barrel of a glass.
7. Small towns in Pennsylvania, especially the fire that has been burning under Centralia, PA since 1962..
