Po Bronson

Due to a very fierce case of insomnia that has settled in with me for almost a week now and my incapability to take any sleeping meds, I have resulted in attempting to write myself to sleep. Unfortunately my mind hasn’t completely thawed out yet, therefore the writing of a whole short story, which is what I have been trying to do for the past week in vain, would be rather impossible at the moment. After writing my last post, I became intrigued by this Po Bronson character who was able to define the very thing I was fleeing and the reason for doing so all in one quote on the side of a Starbucks cup. I decided to look him up and was pleasantly surprised to find what seems to be my literary soul-mate (or at least one of many). He wrote a book entitled “What Should I Do With My Life?” Po, where have you been all of mine? This piece of work compiles 50 short stories of people confronted with that ticking-time-bomb question. A few are available on his website.

Those close to me know that I am working on a collection of short stories based on certain aspects of life and that I have very recently taken a strong liking to fiction which has slowly started to influence my work. Last night I saw the new Jim Jarmusch film: The Limits of Control. When I read that Christopher Doyle (In The Mood For Love) was behind the cinematography, I was there in a heartbeat because I was hoping it would knock something loose. Doyle was one of those responsible for giving me a wider vision of how things can be captured/perceived and how by simply framing a subject in another manner, you could change the image’s entire signification. Evidently this principle can be applied to words as well. The same story can be written in many ways depending on where you feel the emphasis should be put. Of course with fiction, the possibilities become endless, hence my sudden lenience towards it. However after reading a few of Bronson’s factual stories, I am again torn. Perhaps I will merely have to write two books simultaneously.