Le Guin, Steering The Craft, Chapter Five: Adjectives and Adverbs (Exercise Five, Chastity)

A note of apology for my lateness with this.  I had expected to have time earlier in the day, but it was not to be, alas.  Anyhow, I am still a bit nervous about this exercise, though it is clearly of significant import to Le Guin, as she points out that it is the only exercise that she has given to all of her workshops.  That, of course, does not alter my feelings about it, excepting that I am aware of it as something valuable and worth doing, so the fact that it is a bit daunting might well be seen, through that light, as a promise of reward, perhaps.  The more difficult the task, the more one has to gain, at least by some logic...

Exercise Five: Chastity

Mr. Torino was in charge.  He had his way.  It was the way.  Desktops are clean.  Nothing but work.  No pictures: not your kids; not your girl or wife; not (as Allen recounted) your car.   None of that.  No plants.  No cartoons.  That is for home, this is work.  Every desk had a calendar, the calendar.  No character to it, just the dates and times and space to write.  Pens and pencils were identical.  One brand (cheaper too).  Mr. Torino made the choices.  It was his choice.  He knew what they thought.  He had to know.  But he was stubborn.  Nothing would change.  He would keep things like he wanted them to be.  It was his office.  Outside, in the world, with color, with the sunlight, that was not a choice for him.  None knew.  It was too much.  All the things.  Stimulation.  He read about Stendhal, fainting from beauty.  He could relate.  In here, though, he had order.  In here, he was the line.  He held it.  The color of a wall, the lighting, the chairs, the desks.  He was in charge.  He chose, and he chose what would work.  What would let him work.  It was drab, he knew.  But how else?  He could not be sensitive.  Not here.  If he opened, it would end.  The walls would crumble.  He would crumble.  Like in the world.  Like seeing a sunset.  Like the color orange in the light.  Beauty that hurt.  All the beauty.  Close it away.  Do not hurt, Mr. Torino, you are the boss.  That is why, he thinks, that is the secret.  That beauty could end him, he thinks.  He thinks it would.  It is not worth the risk, not for a chair that swivels and a pen with personality.





Okay, so I am not really certain about this one, honestly.  I don't know whether it works well in it's narrative.  Something in it might be worth exploring.  The idea of Stendhal Syndrome is real and is actually named for the writer, but this is not a reflection of that.  In Stendhal Syndrome, certain beautiful experiences can trigger a type of seizure, I believe.  I allude in that direction, at most, but I think that the narrative aspect is less what I am interested in here than the questions posed by the assignment and it's limitations.  I definitely found that I had to slow down my thinking.  It took me a lot to really choose what to write about, how to be both descriptive and not use any of the forbidden words.  I don't, as I expected, feel truly certain about the degree of success, and I question myself on some of my thoughts about what does or does not truly constitute an adjective.  That is not the relevant issue.  In many ways, I had to consider how to structure my sentences around their sparse contents.  Structures that were obvious were used a lot, I know, but I did feel myself warming into the concept.  I began to realize that their were limitations I was putting on myself, not limitations of the exercise directly, but born from my own concepts about the use of language.  I am certain that repeating this exercise later will be a good thing, as I do not know that I really got all of it this time.  I feel that it pointed at some of the barriers in my conceptions of how I can utilize language.  Those limits that I was placing around myself were something that I had not perceived before, and even when I first considered them, I saw them as functions of not having adjectives and adverbs.  I cannot give specific examples, as it was not yet a cohesive thought, just a feeling that I am unpacking.  This is why I feel that I will want to return here later, though I expect that, as I continue working through the exercises from Steering The Craft, I will find myself with a more lucid understanding of what I am just now beginning to discover and explore.