{"id":393,"date":"2011-02-17T22:56:13","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T22:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nabourke.com\/?p=393"},"modified":"2011-02-17T22:56:13","modified_gmt":"2011-02-17T22:56:13","slug":"on-finishing-and-funambules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/?p=393","title":{"rendered":"On Finishing and Funambules"},"content":{"rendered":"

I, like everybody else, have a certain fear of heights and I have to be very careful when I am in the clouds but it is also what I love, it is my domain, so when you love something you don’t have fear. Philippe Petit (1949–)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Phjilippe
Philippe Petit performs a back roll between the towers of the Notre Dame Cathedral, 6 June, 1971.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently, I completed a novel I had been working on. Such a tiny sentence, and yet it indicates the end of a project on which I have been working for several years. In order to write this novel I have made the usual sacrifices: I have given up my mornings, I have worn out my printer, my patience and my ink supply, and infuriated and neglected those I love most.<\/p>\n

Of course, like many novels, this one only seems finished. I have done what I can with it, and sent it out to its first readers, knowing it is rough-hewn and incomplete, and that the characters I so adore, and whose lives have consumed me for a long time, are only words after all. Now, those words must be tested. <\/p>\n

I completed this work during a difficult year, and the final haul – that final dragging of the beast up out of the dark onto the shore – has taken place during what seems like one of the darkest times of my life. Writing has been one of the grace notes of this time, providing a space into which I can enter that is almost completely separate from the world in which I actually live. During this time, one of my sisters reminded me that as child I used to disappear into books – as a reader, then – for hours. That at parties, while everyone else was talking, laughing, making friends, I would hole up in an empty corner and read. Then, as now, stories were the landscape into which I escaped, and in which I found comfort. As Philippe Petit said of being in the clouds: it is … what i love, it is my domain<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For now, I am between novels, which feels a little like being suspended in thin air between buildings; it is perhaps similar to the way Philippe Petit felt the first time he found himself halfway between two imposing structures on a wire no thicker than a pencil. Some part of me wants to go back, some part of me is beckoned forward, but for now I am out here on the wire. If only I had the grace and courage of Petit, and could be content to play on this impossibly fine line, as he did when performing his funambule<\/em> between the two towers of the Notre Dame at dawn, on the 6th of June, 1971 (and later – far more famously – between the twin towers of New York). Rolling, tumbling, dancing in thin air while gawkers and applauders join the fire engines, police and ambulances gathering below, and – inside the ancient cathedral – fifty priests are solemnly ordained.<\/p>\n

For now, I am in the clouds. Perhaps it’s time to seek advice from some of the great funambulists<\/em>:<\/p>\n

If I see three oranges, I have to juggle. And if I see two towers, I have to walk. Philippe Petit (1949–).<\/em><\/p>\n

The gestures of the tightrope walker would look absurd to anyone unaware that he was walking over the void and over death. Jean Cocteau (1889-1963).<\/em><\/p>\n

Every girl ought to walk a tightrope. It is a fine, healthy exercise. It develops a rare set of muscles and self-confidence and teaches one how to walk properly on the street. Bird Millman (1890-1940)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I, like everybody else, have a certain fear of heights and I have to be very careful when I am in the clouds but it is also what I love, it is my domain, so when you love something you don’t have fear. Philippe Petit (1949–) Recently, I completed a novel I had been working…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[175,193,167,182],"tags":[289,290,291,292,169],"class_list":["post-393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dying-in-the-first-person","category-on-reading","category-on-writing","category-work-in-progress","tag-bird-millman","tag-funambules","tag-jean-cocteau","tag-philippe-petit","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4LH1G-6l","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}