My Submission for Best of Australian Anthology 2010

Hello readers,

You asked for it - and here it is.

This is the piece I submitted today to the comp I spoke about in my last blog.

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White blinded vision

Flickering
Switch Flicking
Flickers
Switch
fuzzy lines

INstantaneoUS



F e e L

Twitching in your neck, invisible hands touching you, burning like the sun, sun burn prickles and spread up into your scalp, crawling, itching, tingling, living lice infestation, spreading like an oil spill.

S e
e

Flickering lights, fuzzy lines dance across your vision, strobing causes white colour blindness, bright and unfailing, impairing your vision.


H e Rrr
e a

High-pitched frequency, cancels you out to the world, with that Screeching noise, a constant throbbing beat, the pressure makes your ears bleed.

m e l
S l

Crushed ants, damp towels, damp ants, crushed towels. Senses cause confusion salicylic acid causes a chemical reaction, releasing effervescent bubbles that smell of lemon tang, foliage from the tree in your back garden scrape your skin like razors, breathe in and out don’t get smothered by their aroma.

T a t e
s t

Bitter pills mixed with water, clear a path for fast release pain relief, gulped down acidic bubbles make your tastebuds tingle from the fizzy cocktail, swallow hard and lay back to allow the drugs to take control.


You are Sally’s

Neck pain, spreading like a virus, moving upwards in a shiver, tingling the scalp, crawling sensation, like an infestation of lice. Burning eyes with one hundred tiny needles stabbing like a tattoo on the retina, impaired sight, flickering lights like an emergency beacon. White blinded vision causes spasms, affecting the optic nerve.
Eardrums, ringing like the safety lights at a level crossing., never failing alerting all those around.

Through the haze you find the medicine cabinet, shelves filled with drugs like books in a library.

You are the hissing of Sally’s aspirin, effervescent bubbles try to escape over the edge, taste buds tingle, tingling taste buds, lemon tang multi strength aspirin. Nostrils become the pipeline to your olfactory glands, filling them with the smell of crushed ants and wet towels, lemon tang, codeine phosphate, oxycontin. The inside of your head expands, as pressure builds ups with no form of escape. Thick dark curtains drawn to help eradicate the light, total darkness a requirement against the white blinding light. Churning stomach rolls in waves of nausea, causing involuntary muscle movement as the liquid ascends your oesophagus in an attempt to escape. Mouth welded shut, to keep the stomach contents imprisoned, if it escapes there's no chance to stop it, as the oxyacetylene has run out.

Finally you become horizontal and let the warm sensation of S8 painkillers take flight.

You are Sally’s MIGRAINE, grinding a halt to life, for a non specific time frame.

Disallowing normality, with pain and misery, the loss of hearing and sight.


I am once again blight on Sally’s existence.

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It's a bit out there - it was for a class called writing from the edge.

That's all I've got.

Assignment overload

It's been head down arse up for me the past few days. I've got assignments coming out my ears and running out of time to write them. I got an e-mail from one of the tutors stating don't forget to read Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes! There is NO chance I'll get that book read by next week. Thankfully I got myself a subscription to a site called e-notes and I'll utilise their brilliant 'summary' to get my head around what the book is about enough to answer the 'short questions' on it!

I'm not a fast reader - so it's a struggle for me to read a book every two weeks and actually 'have a life' so when I offer feedback on this subject anonymously I'll be stating that there's just too many texts to get through with 'other' subjects! Sure if you only did one subject a semester - well you'd have no bloody excuse not to get a book read every two weeks - but when you have two creative writing classes on top of the 'text' class it's a little too much!

Good news is I've completed my Writing from the edge essay with three days to spare :) (That's a record for me!) I've got about 500 words left to write on my Prose essay and then the killer Mrs Dalloway essay to write before two other creative writing pieces and I'm done for this semester! I have to say I'm looking forward to the break. I've struggled this semester to get 'into it' So a month off will hopefully allow me to a) not read any books that I don't *have* too i.e forced too and b) just give me some time to do nothing.

I plan of visiting my brother and his wife and their sons over the month of June - which will be great to just hangout and do nothing the Twelve hour drive out into western Queensland.

That's all I've got

Re-worked Writing from the edge piece

I've reworked my writing from the edge piece which is due tomorrow. I just need to write a 'note' to go with it as to what I was trying to achieve etc. and it's good to go. Below is a snippet of the 500+ word piece.



Flickers
Switch Flicking
Flickering
Switch
INstantaneoUS

F e e l

Twitching in your neck, invisible hands touching you, burning like the sun, sun burn prickles, tingle and spread up into your scalp, crawling, itching, tingling, alive, lice infestation, spreading like an oil spill.

S e
e
Flickering lights, fuzzy lines dance across your vision, strobing causes white colour blindness, bright and unfailing, impairing your vision.



H e Rrr
e a

High-pitched frequency, cancels you out to the world with that screeching noise to a throbbing beat, the pressure makes your ears bleed.

m e l
S l

Crushed ants, damp towels, damp ants, crushed towels. Senses cause confusion Salicylic acid causes a chemical reaction, releasing effervescent bubbles that smell of lemon tang, leaves from the tree in your back garden scrape your skin like razors, breath in and out don’t get smothered by their aroma.


T a t e
s t

Bitter pills mixed with water, clear a path for fast release pain relief, gulped down acidic bubbles make your taste buds tingle from the fizzy cocktail, swallow hard and lay back to allow the drugs to take control





There's more but my PC is having a moment so I'll try posting the rest later.

That's all I've got

Writing from the edge piece

It's 'long' however it's well short of the recommended 'word count' of 1,500 words!
I'm going for 'quality' not 'quantity' ;P

Feedback very very welcome :)


I was influenced by several sources for my piece however three turned out to be more prominent.

Ken Bolton: Talking to you
Finola Moorhead: Nun
Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club


After reading Ken Bolton’s reading from topic three called Talking to you, and the visuals he achieved along with Chuck Palahniuk novel Fight club in which he refers to the protagonist in third person “I am Joe’s deflated happiness”. Combined with Finola Moorhead’s Nun, with its constant repetition of the word Nun. I came up with a piece based on a combination influenced by Palahniuk’s third person, Moorhead’s repetition, and Bolton’s short sharp entries that allow the reader to visualise.

Techniques also used are
Subject matter: Migraines and their debilitating nature, causing a state of melancholy.
Narration is interchanged from: You and You are: which addresses the reader directly; To at the end I AM showing ultimate control of the situation.


If only relief was instantaneous, like flicking a switch.


Can you feel it?
That twitch in your neck
An invisible hand touching you?
Burning sensation like the sun bearing down
Sunburn, prickles, tingling,
Spreading up into your scalp
Like a head full of a lice,
Crawling, itching, alive.


Can you see it?
Flickering lights
Strobing, fuzzy lines
Dancing across your vision
White blindness like snow
Bright and unfailing
Losing your vision
Thrown into the unknown

Can you hear it?
High-pitched frequency
Cancelling everything out
Like a siren in your head
Screeching to a throbbing beat
A vice like grip
Makes you feel like
Your ears bleed

Can you smell it?
Crushed ants
Damp towels
Effervescent bubbles
Salicylic acid causes
Chemical reactions


Can you taste it?
Acidic bubbles
Lemon tang of aspirin
Tastebuds tingle
Fizzy cocktail
Fast release pain relief.
Gulped down quickly

Before all senses are lost…


You are Sally’s neck
Pain spreading like a virus, moving upwards

You are Sally’s tingling scalp
Crawling sensation, like in infestation of lice.

You are Sally’s burning eyes
Fire like sensation, trapped within the retina.

You are Sally’s impaired eyesight
Flickering light like a disco Tec

You are Sally’s white blinded vision
Convulsions affecting the optic nerve.

You are Sally’s eardrum
Pounding to the rhythm of a vice being tightened slowly

You are Sally’s olfactory gland
Filled with the smell of crushed ants and wet towels

You are Sally’s medicine cabinet
Drugs fill the shelves like books in a library

You are the hissing of Sally’s aspirin
Effervescent bubbles try to escape over the edge.

You are Sally’s taste buds
Lemon tang multi strength Aspirin

You are the crinkle of Sally’s Panadine Forte packet
Escaping into her hand, before launching into her mouth.

You are Sally’s head
Trapped, in a vice like grip with pressure building.

You are Sally’s curtains
Drawn to help, eradicate the light.

You are Sally’s stomach
Churning from the nausea.


I AM Sally’s Migraine
Bringing a halt to life
For an extended period of time
Not allowing normal function
Without pain and misery
Without hearing or sight



I AM a blight on Sally’s existence.

systematic artifice

A systematic artifice

systematic: Characterised by order and planning
artifice: A deceptive manoeuvre (especially to avoid capture)

such as writing a piece without a particular vowel. But think about theme/content.

Without the Vowel of O – Theme difficulty :P

I will distance myself
Refuse a particular letter
Writing with deliberate vacancy
I am left absent
This piece is harder than I anticipated

Experimental writing

This semester I'm taking on a subject called "Writing from the edge" I got the study guide for it today. It looks like a do your head in type class. This semester is going to be a tough one. I've reached for the dictionary too many times already :(

This is something that just come out whilst trying to digest the main points of topic one.

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Motion exposure

I lay motionless.
I’ve been overexposed.
Overexposed to, the rigours of the motion.
Just going through the motions,
Clearly can, have dire consequences.
Sometimes


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I've got no idea if the punctuation is right - I put in commas and the green line saying 'Dumb arse you're not making a proper sentence' went away Woohoo :)

That's all I've got