"grease mullets dance in sweat"
"made by a French accented Italian"
The Capuchin Crypt, filled with real skeletons from the Barberini family, welcomed us with a woman at a granite desk asking five per head. We walked through the same information from the two hour lecture from a St. Francis enthusiast. The crypt, an underground tomb with a set of stairs and one sign that reads no smoking, cellphones, pets, food, or photography, in symbols. We are in Rome, language barriers are the medians.
The underground home for the heart of Pope Sixtus the fifth's niece also houses intricate wall decor and chandeliers made from kneecaps and vertebrae.
You might consider working more with this. I didn't go to the crypt (though I did see two illegal pictures MacKenzie took), but I'm already struck with something I see in your post. I'm obsessed with this "two worlds" deal we talked about after reading the Calvino.
ReplyDelete"filled with real skeletons from the Barberini family, [...] a woman at a granite desk ask[s] five per head"
I think you could have a very interesting juggling/toggling piece that deals with the (necessary?) juxtaposition of the old and the new. This would offer you a very specific way of looking at it. The thought of a receptionist sitting outside of a crypt that is decorated grotesquely with bones is flipping cool. We saw the same kind of a thing at the Spanish Steps, where a sign warned not to "shout squall and sing" (no punctuation, I might add). The crypt example, though, would give you the most interesting, specific -in to a writing topic. It would be a way of talking about the old/new and the history/capitalism dichotomies without delving into baggage-heavy material. I would suggest writing about this experience (even the Comic convention location would be applicable. An escalator system runs through a retired fortress, while a bunch of comic book geeks [I use this term lovingly, of course] huddle to take part in Cosplay contests and sort through fandom memorabilia.). Consider writing about all of the times this sort of juxtaposition occurs. Then, later in the drafting process, pick one specific instance and use the material even if it applied to a different event. That way, you won’t limit yourself in the beginning, but you’ll also have focus for the draft.
Make sense? I'll be happy to private-workshop it with you if you want to go for it.