SirPalomides Posted October 13, 2020 In the past few months I've been consulting the Yijing as a way of bypassing writer's block, consulting it to determine the theme or structure of a poem. Does anyone else do this? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sketch Posted October 13, 2020 (edited) Philip K. Dick was known to use the I Ching as a writing tool. Adding strange attractors and random processes to creative work is part and parcel of the Cut Up method, explored in the works of William Burroughs. Especially for recording artists, Brian Eno created his "Oblique Strategies" cards, as a clear way to introdice a similar element within a particular technical frame. As a side note, I've been experimenting with using a twelve sided die, balanced to recreate "yarrow stalk" odds, to generate trigram lines. However, I don't consult the I Ching often, seasonally if that. Edited October 13, 2020 by Sketch 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SirPalomides Posted October 13, 2020 Thanks Sketch. For some reason I completely forgot about PKD! I had heard of Burroughs cut-up method and I've also had a lot of practice with surrealist games and automatism. Looking back at my own writing I've found that my best stuff, even when it is very structured, germinates from disparate, random phrases or images. I am not very good at extensive, pre-planned plots. Actually they are agony for me. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sketch Posted October 13, 2020 I've managed to confine my efforts to shorter stuff, lyrics and poems that fit on a page, short essays. I have notes for longer projects - short notes. The translation effort I've been posting here is the longest structured writing project I've begun. And my choice of Lao Tzu was entirely because of the relative brevity compared to Zhuangzi. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
