A friend once asked me, “Can you, in a word, sum up what writing is like.” Tough question. Crazy might be the first, best word. Who in their right (or do I mean write) mind would take up writing? It’s an endless activity, mostly carried out in solitude, and the readers are the ones in the driver’s seat once you let it out into the world! … Yet, who doesn’t take up storytelling? Storytelling is how we explore our place in the world, and how we create new worlds. Who doesn’t want to know where they stand, and who doesn’t want to dream?
Today, I consider myself a writer, not because I am starting to publish, but because I care so much about how thoughts are phrased and whether it’s good enough, which it never is. My journey as a writer started, however, during my career as a scientist, and the scientist remains in me. I find myself occasionally looking at the act of writing as I perform it or as others do so. So, On Writing, explores the act of being …
The Newest Musings
Introducing Mr. Blok
Mr. Blok by my father, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, was published posthumously by Adelaide Books. Excerpts from my introduction in the book are below:
My father wrote Mr. Blok at the prime of his illustrious cello career. I was very young and didn’t read the manuscript until last year. At some point many years ago I asked Papa why he didn’t publish it. “Because if I did,” he said, “both you and your sister Jephta would be expelled from school!” Doubtful, I thought, but he said nothing more.
Time passed and Papa died from lung cancer in 1976; he was 73. The manuscript languished in my mother’s house for 50 more years.... [Read More]
