Fiction = Acting

and other parlor games.

This weekend, I spent some time reading Renee Gladman’s Theory for Moving Houses as well as listened to a recent interview with the actor Nic Cage - what a joy!

For Gladman, writing and drawing are intimately linked. Reading her sentences, which often espouse a theory of the sentence, in this one imparted the fizzy sensation that I was reading-drawing—fun! Uncanny too. I also realized while reading that as a writer, I am generally more attuned to questions of “self” rather than “space.” (Though I do love to see in Gladman’s writing how tipping the scales toward questions of space changes one’s approach to character! This is most on display in the Ravicka series….) As a result, the approach and questions I bring to my writing practice share more parallels with acting and performance (rather than drawing) because of the overlapping interest in temporarily embodying (and bringing to life) fictional characters.