Brain Pickings, Roger Ebert, RIP ... blogging ... A- Zers something to reflect over and the ‘what now’ ...

I came across Roger Ebert, the renowned film critic who died recently, when I was researching about the silent movie “The Passion of Joan of Arc”.

 

Film montage c/o The Independent

Ebert’s description then made me realise that he must be one special man and obviously lived passionately for his work.

Maria Popova of Brain Pickings, who has the most incredible blog, posted about RIP,Roger Ebert ... The Beloved Critic on Writing, Life and Mortality ...

... the passages she selects for us, as bloggers, could offer highlights into our minds, our reflections, our future, our next journey, while most definitely making interesting reading.

Ebert had cancer of the jaw, lost his ability to talk, realised the advantage of the internet age, and then sadly died, but having written his memoirs, given a TED talk in Scotland, passed on pearls of wisdom in interviews, articles he was able to type etc ....

Please visit Maria Popova’s blog and particularly this post – it makes thought provoking reading together with all the links ...

With reference to us as bloggers, authors, memoir writers, genealogists for our families, et al ...

Extracted from Brain Pickings:

Much like his ability to summon memories without deliberate effort, Ebert’s mastery of the writing process is largely an unconscious act, a state of mesmerism experienced in finding your purpose and doing what you love:

When I write, I fall into the zone many writers, painters, musicians, athletes, and craftsmen of all sorts seem to share: In doing something I enjoy and am expert at, deliberate thought falls aside and it is all just there. I think of the next word no more than the composer thinks of the next note.

He marvels at how the social web, despite his initial skepticism, liberated his impulse for self-expression as his writing took on an autobiographical life of its own:

My blog became my voice, my outlet, my ‘social media’ in a way I couldn’t have dreamed of. Into it I poured my regrets, desires, and memories. Some days I became possessed.

The comments were a form of feedback I’d never had before, and I gained a better and deeper understanding of my readers. I made ‘online friends,’ a concept I’d scoffed at.

Most people choose to write a blog. I needed to. I didn’t intend for it to drift into autobiography, but in blogging there is a tidal drift that pushes you that way. …

... the Internet encourages first-person writing, and I’ve always written that way. How can a movie review be written in the third person, as if it were an account of facts? If it isn’t subjective, there’s something false about it.

The blog let loose the flood of memories. Told sometimes that I should write my memoirs, I failed to see how I possibly could. I had memories, I had lived a good life in an interesting time, but I was at a loss to see how I could organize the accumulation of a lifetime.

It was the blog that taught me how. It pushed me into first-person confession, it insisted on the personal, it seemed to organize itself in manageable fragments.

Some of these words, since rewritten and expanded, first appeared in blog forms. Most are here for the first time. They come pouring forth in a flood of relief.

There are many other insightful points put over on Maria’s posting ... it is really worth visiting – while the TED talk is definitely worth a 20 minute listen ......... what would you do if you could not talk?

 

The subject of not eating comes up ... where he mentions the ‘experience’ of missing the jokes, gossip, arguments and memories ... that he was not able to interact with.

My mother couldn’t eat or drink ... but we still had communication – mostly perfectly normal, though occasionally I’d need to have my wits about me (provided lots of laughter) ... and usually I never discussed food or drink of any sort – it made it fairer for my mother: though she had loved the experience.

There are some other lovely thought provoking thoughts here – so I hope you will click over and visit Maria’s blog and enjoy this posting on Roger Ebert RIP, together with blogging reflections.

Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings Blog – RIP, Roger Ebert: The Beloved Film Critic onWriting, on Life, and Mortality

My post on The Silent Pianist, which includes notes on the silent film  “The Passion of Joan of Arc”

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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