Monday, July 5, 2010

Kinetic memory

This week I excavated my old Atari (circa 1980 or 1981, at latest) from a box in the basement, and hooked it up to the television to amuse the Things. And amused they are, digging completely on Frogger, Space Invaders, Outlaw, Combat, River Raid. Not so much with the Q-bert for them, which mystifies me since I find it a fine game, as is Joust. And Galaga! WOOT!

I'm quite surprised at how effortless it is for me to play these games after something close to three decades. My body remembers every move, every strategy, knows the posture and the moments of joystick toggling as if it were all genetically determined. I hardly think about it, but even thoughtlessly I'm performing like a true 70s child on the new technology! (It should also be said that I haven't played a single video game SINCE the Atari--no XBox or Nintendo or whatever else is out there now for me. So the Atari is still, sorta, the new technology from where I stand.)

So why is it that after only a two-week hiatus (Neruda and I taught at a writers' conference, went on a vacation with the Things, and then the last weekend's festivities) I seem to have lost all my momentum on this book? All I've got left is the last chapter. The chapter in which I say what I'm going to say, and set it up. And I've BEEN WRITING as a habit and daily practice for two months. But after two weeks I don't seem to be able to remember what it feels like, even physically, to write a paragraph. Discouraging. I wonder if a publisher would be interested in an intro based on PacMan....

4 comments:

Fie upon this quiet life! said...

I can relate. I was gone for a mere weekend last week and came home feeling like I could not cope with anything in my life -- let alone the things that I do on a regular basis. It came back once I forced myself to face reality, though. And, I started writing a novel just for fun, so I've been using that as a sort of motivating factor -- if I can get XYZ done now, then I can write later. That's been working. Maybe you can do some sort of incentive program like that. It's worked for me. I've written over 14K words in 12 days. :) Good luck!

Leslie said...

I totally loved Joust.

Lexy and Jared said...

I had to google what an Atari is.

Renaissance Girl said...

I wonder where Fie's comment went. Hmmm.

Leslie: at my house, we do not use the past tense. Come on by.