Toni’s Comments (group member since Jun 22, 2012)

Toni’s comments from the Q&A with Tahir Shah group.

Skipped through From the Notebooks in The Songlines and am enthused... Going to read the book again. I suppose ideas of what the book was going to be and wasn't was a block. Also, maybe what Doris Lessing said about books having a time for the reader and to put down a book that wasn't making sense or enjoyment. Think that is what Doris Lessing said.

Kevan I have done nothing to search for the golden heads... very far behind... but I wd like to cheer you on... I think like Naomi that there was a post about using maps to make triangles. How?

I have read Iron and Silk and UTZ and wish to re-read them. They are gentle, both of them.. understated..
I have Lewis Strange Wingfield's Wanderings of a Globe Trotter in the Far East and the First volume of Heinreich Barth Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa.!!!!
Both as yet unread. I wish really to say thank you (a repetiton) for so kindly taking the trouble to recommend these books and I look forward to reading the two Victorian travellers, though taking so long about it.

Kevin. I have not looked at the maps at all carefully and need to re-read the book but did try a bit of 'letting things come to me' like the bear of very little brain and FAILED.. Best wishes.

halloe kevan.
hopeless at this stuff and not looking ... can't read maps etc so no good to you..
don't at all know if it is meant to be a solo effort or not...
perhaps a collaborative effort is the very thing.
wishing you all the best in your search.

many thanks.

a thousand thanks for answering my belated question and no doubt for having to say or write what you have said many times before. i remain grateful.

missed the boat again. (too ask questions i mean, this is the sixth of june). don't think things through.. i am sorry.
just in case there is another question and answer i would like to ask if
'i just wanted the best book possible to be produced and doing it myself was the best way.
Believe me when I say that i would have gone with a conventional publisher if they'd have created the same book... It's cost me much more time and money of course, but we've got there... and I'm proud of what we've created.'
it has become less expennsive to self publish?? I suppose not?
has the publishing company you founded SECRETUM MUNDI ... made it easier for you in this area and will you be publishing other peoples works???
many thanks.

thank you for the answers. a response in one place answering the question in another place until there is in fact a patchwork quilt of answers. well a tiny bit of quilt anyway from my perspective.

like ita above and this re-iterates what she says more or less. However..
i was also wondering how long we have? are we going to survive without it getting worse than we imagine possible? the rotten quality of the so called food we eat; the divorce from the planet; the way we are treating the other animals on the planet, never mind man; the ant like lives we lead etc.
All I suppose state of the ark blindness only cured by the special food.
i take it not food found the way amadeaus kaine (cain) finds it. insights leading to drug addiction and delusions.
do brain cells grow with intellectual stimulation? one would like to ask questions that are a help in the process of learning a help to the Able.

i am on chapter thirty two and reading (now) (on the computer,) gripped. fascination and excitement levels very high indeed.
have interruptd reading to ask this.
is kaine mephistopheles rather than superman to help fix certain things in the memory, not least how short cuts may lead to hell?
what role does disgust and horror play in remembering things.?
i am assuuming that killing people and eating their eyes is wrong under any cirucmstances whatever?
like the reader above it seems especially easy to watch one's reactions while reading this real thriller of a book.
the narrative looks like a blue print to me? not that i am saying i can read the blueprint..
thank you once again.

I was thinking about the time taken to do something before seeing kevan's question above..
is time, the time taken, the time when a book or a project is done (carried out) very important?
Is it possible to say more about the time factor and is the commissioned aspect related to this?
the question may have come to mind because i seem to be constantly behind with my tasks. there is a feeling that the 'time' is missed or has slipped by. Carpe Diem not seized.
eg ..Julius Caesar
...There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
thank you.

Dear Tahir,
Thank you very much for answering my question.
I shall endeavour to show my gratitude by following the rules listed.
To have rules set out in this way and addressed to one by name should (I very much hope) not allow of any further excuses.

there was a cartoon about editing i saw somewhere on the internet.
'please doctor i have a problem. i can't stop editing my own work???
by editing i mean re-writing and that before there is a first draft.
i wonder if you could possibly say something about how to distinguish valid re-writes from playing about arranging words with a diminishing sense of whether improvements are being made?
have a feeling that question might be foolish ie unanswerable..if that is the case could you say how you tackle polishing and re-writes. thank you very much.

is it still possible to comment here at this late date.
i would like to thank you for the videos on how to get started on the process of writing.
a) the hard graft, the seat on the chair, the routine of writing.
b) the advice about not dissipating energy by 'telling' people you are engaged in writing a book, the book. :-)
c) the counsel to do the best you can re polish and editing before showing it to anyone
d) the further advice to find an editor.
e) pertinent words about an over elaborate prose style.

I fear it may be too big a subject to deal with here but could you give an example of some of the hoops you had to jump through in order to get Timbuctoo out. printers? editors? no doubt i haven't grasped the half of it.
recieved Timbuctoo, printed edition, from amazon u.K. yesterday. have not yet opened the package, will do so today. waiting to not be in a rush.

Halloe. I live in France. I am English.
First read, Gurdjieff and Ouspensky circa 1975. Then read The Sufis by Idries Shah and books published by the Octagon Press, wonderful books. From there to books by Tahir Shah and Saira Shah's The Story Tellers Daughter.
Thank you.
This is an edit of punctuation.

if it is of any interest i dont like social network stuff at all.
shrank from 'like' buttons but ended up using them. ( vaguely grasped they were lazy). can't even bring myself to introduce myself properly on a site such as this. looked for a quote from 'alice in wonderland' but can't find my copy of the book.
Those are my rabbit holes . 'alice' not a special favourite just thought i might find an appropriate quote there. do use email alot.
born 1945 so it may be no surprise that i have this attitude. of course becomming more familiar with 'anything' lessens the distaste. ( or increases it). laughing.
writers (in the ordinary way) having to become transmedia personalities in order to promote their writings sounds very tiresome to me.
dream of good publisher's reader good publishers and limited info about the author. well dream on.
dinasaur. well half dinasaur.

over all have probably read more biographies and autobiographies than i have fiction. shall attempt to look out for the key moments referred to in any future readings.
do you think there was as much 'comparatively speaking' pulp fiction about in the 19th century? has just not survived.
are 'traditional' publishers going to be forced to do a better job?
is self publishing likely to become easier? perhaps in the wake of all the work and effort you have put in over TIMBUCTOO.

I will do so.