Moments of Clarity-Writing by Rail

I’m always seeking environments that offer moments of clarity. That one magnificent epiphany, that one true sentence, that pulse of reflective insight into self. A redwood forest, a beach, waterfall, or even a seat alone among a crowd of strangers. A few months ago, I wrote that Ernest Hemingway found that moment of clarity in front of a Cezanne. Doreen Carvajal’s romantic piece in the New York Times (10.26.14), entitled “Writing Retreat by Rail”, conjured up an enticing experience of traveling–and writing–by rail from Paris to the Riviera. She recounts the array of artists and writers who found their Eureka moment on the rails: John le Carre, Graham Greene, Matisse, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso, Anton Chekhov, J.K. Rowling, among others. What do they find there? The repetitive moment of the rails? The kaleidoscope of colors and light stirring those brain neurons? Perhaps we out to hold collaborative writing retreats on trains as well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/travel/a-writing-retreat-by-rail-from-paris-to-the-cote-dazur.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar&_r=0

Tags: Carvajal, Hemingway, writing by the rails

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2014 at 6:37 pm and is filed under imagination, Paris, Travel, writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.