When Literary Giants Die

Philip Roth has died; last week Tom Wolfe died.  These men were literary giants, so I feel like I should say something on their passing.

Were they important to me?  Perhaps--most so in the doors that they opened.  Philip Roth created a new kind of protagonist, we could argue.  Tom Wolfe created a new kind of nonfiction.  I'm grateful to have these options for my own writing.

I read their work and enjoyed some of it.  But it didn't mean as much to me as many other works, by many other writers, who are their same age.  When Margaret Atwood dies, I will mourn the books that she won't be writing.  I don't feel the same way about Roth and Wolfe.

Roth and Wolfe had long, long lives.  But it occurs to me, as it does with every famous death, that I have less time ahead of me than I have behind me.  I am 52, and much as I say I will live to be 120 years old, I am not likely to live that long.  I am more haunted by the death of famous writers like Iris Murdoch--that amazing mind, laid low by dementia.  How long will our brains hold out?

I think of all the time wasted in a day:  Internet ramblings, grocery shopping, watching TV, eating and drinking in unhealthy ways.  Could I redirect some of that time towards literary endeavors?  And if not literary endeavors, perhaps a walk or something healthy?

One of the things I love about my Fitbit is that it reminds me to move each hour, if I haven't gotten in my 250 steps.  It's been a revelation to me how stiff I am when I move away from the computer, even on the days when I move more often.  It's good to have the Fitbit remind me to look away from the screen.

Let me think about other ways to use that reminder.  I've been taking the stairs, for example--it's a good way to get extra movement in and to get to the upper floor where I can finish my 250 steps for the hour.  Maybe after I return to desk from my hourly 250 steps, I can take one small step towards my literary life:  jot down a poem idea, address an envelope, type a poem into the computer, read a poem.  Maybe once a day, I should do something major, but not necessarily time consuming:  write a poem, send work to journals/publishers, write a scene for a piece of fiction.