I just got off the phone with a friend after having a lovely conversation about motivation for creating art, the art itself, the need for an audience vs. creating for one's own sake and need. It has my mind reeling.
The individual at left is the French writer George Sand, her pen name. George often dressed as a man and wrote both novels and memoirs. My introduction to her was via her portrayal by Judy Davis in the movie Impromptu which tells a version of how George Sand met and wooed Frederick Chopin. It is a wonderful film with a great cast that includes Emma Thompson, Mandy Patinkin, Julian Sands, Hugh Grant, and Bernadette Peters.
A former lover of George Sand, in the movie, is critical of her writing and declares that she enters into relationships for the sole purpose of being able to regurgitate them onto paper in the form of her novels etc. Sure enough, one of her novels, Lucrezia Floriani is a thinly veiled account of her relationship with Chopin. It was considered scandalous by our standards and so was only translated and published in English about 35 years ago. Trust me, by today's standards there is nothing remotely scandalous in the story.
I was also able to find a nice Folio Society edition of her primary memoir on AbeBooks.com.
It is an interesting consideration - is fiction valid if it is strongly based on one's personal relationships? Guessing to what extent various works of fiction reflected autobiographical bits is nothing new. My friend has been encouraging me to write. As a result of his inspiration, I have drafted the first few paragraphs of a possible short story as well as a "treatment' for a three act play. I looked back on a story idea I had toyed with about a year ago. In most of these cases I believe I would draw heavily on my personal experience in creating these "fictions."
Tonight I confessed to him that I have been writing primarily to please him. I am not certain that I feel up to writing for a public, an audience. George Sand was notorious for writing fictions based on episodes from her life and her work was eagerly sought after by the public in the way that we grab the National Enquirer today to read about celebrities.
I'm not sure I want that kind of scrutiny.
Peace.
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