Author Topic: Wabi Writing  (Read 2817 times)

Seraphim

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on: July 02, 2010, 07:42:18 PM
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Several years ago I read Tea Life Tea Mind, written by the current Wabi Tea master and descendent of Wabi Tea's founder. In Tea Life, the author mentions his forbearer's core rules for Wabi Tea. They are very simple in principle, but take a lifetime to master in execution. They struck me as an interesting aesthetic if applied outside the world of tea.  Eventually, modified somewhat to suit my purposes, they made their way into the milieu a number of my stories and story ideas are set in.  There they function as the aesthetic that governs the performances of fortune/storytellers (they tell traditional stories selected by fate to inform the "destiny" of their clients, as well as to entertain).

The seven Wabi rules are as follows:
The Seven Rules of Rikyu
"Make a delicious bowl of tea, lay the charcoal so that it heats the water; arrange the flowers as they are in the field; in summer suggest coolness; in winter, warmth; do everything ahead of time; prepare for rain; and give those with whom you find yourself
every consideration." --Soshitsu Sen

I modified the last rule to read, "Tell a good story." Of course the deeper implications demand an examination of what is a "good story," what characteristics and conditions make a particular story good at a particular time, etc.

My current list as shown in a story snippet: "A disciple asked Humming River what were foremost things to bear in mind when hosting a mat story. Humming River said, “Open the mat for your guest; arrange the flowers as they are in the field; serve your guest a proper meal; in heat suggest coolness, in chill suggest warmth; do all beforehand; be ready for rain; show your guest every consideration; and tell a good story.” The disciple answered, “Dame, these things I already know.” Humming River replied, “If you can tell a mat-story without straying from these rules in the least, then I shall become your disciple.”

The idea for telling a good story was suggested for me by the explanation of the rule, "arrange the flowers as they are in the field." How does one do any such thing in a vase. Cut flowers are in a very different environment than in the field...so what aspect(s) of the flowers in the field has to be suggested in an arrangement? That takes a lot of thought to arrange...and a lot of attention from a guest to actually appreciate...especially when there are other layers of meaning associated with certain flowers.

Here is my question,  if you were to take these aesthetic rules for tea and modify them to suit storytelling/writing, what would you do, how would you alter/modify the Wabi aesthetic to suit the telling/writing of stories?



Seraphim

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Reply #1 on: July 10, 2010, 04:35:44 AM
hmmm...69 views and no takers.  The crickets must be sleepy and ready for bed.



Scattercat

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Reply #2 on: July 10, 2010, 05:02:46 AM
The problem, I think, is that the question is a bit like "How is a raven like a writing desk?"  It's vague and open-ended, and while you might be able to garner some meaningful connections, comparing writing to tea-making is more a matter for a poem than a likely source of useful instruction.

To put it another way, only someone who already thoroughly understands how to write will be able to create the connections you ask for; there's not really any new insights about writing that can be gained by reading the instructions for Wabi Tea.  It's cool that you have a schema to understand writing and a motif you're fond of, but it's hard to respond to that other than to say, "Okay.  Good for you."



ElectricPaladin

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Reply #3 on: July 10, 2010, 05:25:22 AM
I'm glad this works for you, but it doesn't feel like it's necessary a model of general interest. Not a lot of people are going to find that the tea metaphor does much for them.

Furthermore, I'd contend that the Wabi method actually wouldn't automatically result in great stories. As I understand it, the principles of Wabi tea are all about balance without symmetry and neutrality without boredom. The goal is to provide a setting for the tea that is aesthetically pleasing, but without distracting from the tea itself, which is the central sensory experience. Imbalance is distracting, but symmetry is unnatural, and so on.

Stories, on the other hand, are driven by tension. Story is about balance shifting, things changing, things dying, and things being born. Story is bloody and violent and unsettling. Tea is soothing, gentle, and neutral. Take the format - mat, flowers, heat/cold, preparedness, rain, consideration, "goodness" - and fuck something up. Tear up the mat, burn the flowers, turn up the heat, make shit up as you go along, toss out the umbrella, tell a story that doesn't care about the reader, tell a story that isn't "good." Let there be tension, and story will follow.

That's my philosophy, anyway.

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Seraphim

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Reply #4 on: July 10, 2010, 05:59:42 AM
You are probably right scattercat...sort of a hobby horse notion.

EP, I'm not sure about ripping up the room, though I agree a good story needs tension...something of interest happening for it to be a story worth reading/hearing. There is an aesthetic in Wabi tea that I find compelling...and I don't mean all the studied calmness and balancing of this and that per se rather its "art" if you will of being highly creative within the context of the formalities of Wabi Tea by being, and as much as humanly possible, being self effacing...a creative self-negation if you will, that stands in contrast with our own society's preoccupation with self-expression, and self-esteem, etc. To be both passionless and ecstatic (in its more literal sense) at the same time, and to give expression to that in a writerly way both intrigues and eludes me. If I were thinking in terms of dance, then the Noh or Kabuki suggests itself; if painting then traditional iconography comes to mind, and for a meal...well Wabi tea, or even the Christian Eucharist.  If one confines one's scope to the religious then there of course are such vehicles as hymns, prayers, and hagiographies...but in the realm of fiction I can only think of the telling of fairy tales...not the dumbed down ones...the dangerous ones and all their verbal paraphernalia (once upon a time, happily ever after, and if they've not moved they're still there yet). But that doesn't feel complete...it even seems a bit artificial or artificially limited. 

Perhaps the disconnect...the tension I'm musing over is muddling an aesthetic readily applicable to story telling with the sometimes antagonistic demands of story creating.  Maybe its an arcane sort of artistic question that interests only me and whatever few poor souls elsewhere who might share my narrow take on the universe. One thing is certain though...this idea of creative self-negation must perforce distrust the very concept of novelty...at least of novelty for novelty's sake. Its watchword must be "tradition." But such a watchword has limited currency in a milieu that disdains and discards its traditions.

anyway, thanks for the replies...keeps this from being a poor orphan thread left to malinger.