http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/magazine/george-saunders-just-wrote-the-best-book-youll-read-this-year.html?pagewanted=3&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130106&_r=0
So I've never actually written anything George Saunders has written. But now I'm adding him to my list.
"One thing is that you read them and you feel known, if that makes any
sense. Or, possibly even woollier, you feel as if he understands
humanity in a way that no one else quite does, and you’re comforted by
it."
I think that is one of the essential functions of art, of books. We all hunger, deep down, for some sense of connection. The feeling that we are not alone in feeling whatever it is that we are feeling at the moment - lost, maybe. Confused and scared and maybe even despairing.
The fact that someone you have never met and probably never will can lift you out of that self-pitying stupor through a line in a book or a phrase in a song and make you "feel known" is a certain type of magic.
To feeling known.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Drafts
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/movies/awardsseason/writers-rethink-words-for-the-big-screen.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&nl=movies&emc=edit_fm_20130104
"David O. Russell wrote 20 drafts of the screenplay for “Silver Linings Playbook,” based on a novel by Matthew Quick. Ol Parker did 43, for four directors, before “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” was done. Tony Kushner’s first pass at “Lincoln,” based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals” and other sources, was 500 pages long."
Can you imagine writing 20 drafts of something? Or 43?
I haven't, so far. I think sometimes we lose sight of how difficult creative work can be, even if you love it and it's the only thing you can see yourself doing. We see the finished product - a novel, a movie, a piece of art - and we marvel at it and we think to ourselves, "I couldn't do that in a million years."
What if we try?
To drafts.
"David O. Russell wrote 20 drafts of the screenplay for “Silver Linings Playbook,” based on a novel by Matthew Quick. Ol Parker did 43, for four directors, before “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” was done. Tony Kushner’s first pass at “Lincoln,” based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals” and other sources, was 500 pages long."
Can you imagine writing 20 drafts of something? Or 43?
I haven't, so far. I think sometimes we lose sight of how difficult creative work can be, even if you love it and it's the only thing you can see yourself doing. We see the finished product - a novel, a movie, a piece of art - and we marvel at it and we think to ourselves, "I couldn't do that in a million years."
What if we try?
To drafts.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Natasha Trethewey on Poetry
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/natasha-trethewey-poetry-showed-me-that-i-wasnt-alone/2013/01/01/cc1a96da-5384-11e2-a613-ec8d394535c6_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
I found myself turning to poetry in the way so many people do — to make sense of losses...it did feel that the poem was the only place that could hold this grief...That poem showed me that I wasn’t alone in feeling that way. That’s what poetry can do for us — to remind us when we feel most alone, we are not at all.
-Natasha Trethewey
I don't know if poetry can ever completely "make sense of losses..." I don't know if anything, really, can do that - not religion nor music nor other people nor love. But I think poetry can be a refuge. And in a shining moment, it can remind us, beautifully, that we aren't alone.
To poetry. To the knowledge that "when we feel most alone, we are not at all."
I found myself turning to poetry in the way so many people do — to make sense of losses...it did feel that the poem was the only place that could hold this grief...That poem showed me that I wasn’t alone in feeling that way. That’s what poetry can do for us — to remind us when we feel most alone, we are not at all.
-Natasha Trethewey
I don't know if poetry can ever completely "make sense of losses..." I don't know if anything, really, can do that - not religion nor music nor other people nor love. But I think poetry can be a refuge. And in a shining moment, it can remind us, beautifully, that we aren't alone.
To poetry. To the knowledge that "when we feel most alone, we are not at all."
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Thank You
http://www.npr.org/2012/12/28/168142027/decades-later-student-finds-teacher-to-say-thank-you
My name is John Cruitt, and I was in your third-grade class during the 1958-1959 school year. Two days before Christmas, my mother passed away, and you told me that you were there if I needed you. I hope life has been as kind to you as you were to me.
God bless you, always. With great fondness,
John
To saying, "Thank you." To giving thanks.
My name is John Cruitt, and I was in your third-grade class during the 1958-1959 school year. Two days before Christmas, my mother passed away, and you told me that you were there if I needed you. I hope life has been as kind to you as you were to me.
God bless you, always. With great fondness,
John
To saying, "Thank you." To giving thanks.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Tim Walker, Dreams, and Magic
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evelyne-politanoff/tim-walker-story-teller-photos_b_1970997.html?utm_hp_ref=style&ir=Style
With an imagination that knows no bounds, Tim Walker turns fashion shoots into fairytales or, in his own words, "daydreams into photographs."
-Evelyn Politanoff
I haven't read this book or seen this exhibition, nor am I really familiar with Tim Walker's work, but I love that phrase, turning "daydreams into photographs." It's magical, isn't it? Not to sound like a five-year-old (or maybe to bring out the five-year-old in you, too, so we can once again recognize magic), but well, isn't it magical? Turning a little bit of nothing into something...fluff into something more concrete. Dreams into reality, a little bit, anyway.
"Sometimes when you're taking a picture an extraordinary sense of luck and chance takes over and propels you to make pictures that you could't in your wildest dreams have imagined. This is the magic of photography."
-Tim Walker
I'm not much of a photographer, but I think I know what he's talking about when he discusses making something "that you could[n]'t in your wildest dreams have imagined," don't you?
To turning dreams into reality and creating what we can't (even in our wildest dreams) imagine. To magic.
With an imagination that knows no bounds, Tim Walker turns fashion shoots into fairytales or, in his own words, "daydreams into photographs."
-Evelyn Politanoff
I haven't read this book or seen this exhibition, nor am I really familiar with Tim Walker's work, but I love that phrase, turning "daydreams into photographs." It's magical, isn't it? Not to sound like a five-year-old (or maybe to bring out the five-year-old in you, too, so we can once again recognize magic), but well, isn't it magical? Turning a little bit of nothing into something...fluff into something more concrete. Dreams into reality, a little bit, anyway.
"Sometimes when you're taking a picture an extraordinary sense of luck and chance takes over and propels you to make pictures that you could't in your wildest dreams have imagined. This is the magic of photography."
-Tim Walker
I'm not much of a photographer, but I think I know what he's talking about when he discusses making something "that you could[n]'t in your wildest dreams have imagined," don't you?
To turning dreams into reality and creating what we can't (even in our wildest dreams) imagine. To magic.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Jolabokaflod, or the "Christmas Book Flood"
Why yes, Jolabokaflod is a word. (It's new to me, too. And no, I'm not sure of how to pronounce it.)
Sometimes it seems like there's nothing but bad news being reported. So in the spirit of the holidays (Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/whatever you may celebrate), here's a little something cheerful from a news outlet:
http://www.npr.org/2012/12/25/167537939/literary-iceland-revels-in-its-annual-christmas-book-flood
Iceland publishes more books per capita than any other country in the world, with five titles published for every 1,000 Icelanders. But what's really unusual is the timing: Historically, a majority of books in Iceland are sold from late September to early November. It's a national tradition, and it has a name: Jolabokaflod, or the "Christmas Book Flood."
"If you look at book sales distribution in the U.K. and the States, most book sales actually come from a minority of people. Very few people buy lots of books. Everybody else buys one book a year if you're lucky," Bjarnason says. "It's much more widespread in Iceland. Most people buy several books a year."
(Honestly, I probably only bought five to ten books this year...I like going to the library. Yes, I am one of the dinosaurs who still go to the library. You should, too.)
To books and reading and, of course, Jolabokaflod.
Sometimes it seems like there's nothing but bad news being reported. So in the spirit of the holidays (Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/whatever you may celebrate), here's a little something cheerful from a news outlet:
http://www.npr.org/2012/12/25/167537939/literary-iceland-revels-in-its-annual-christmas-book-flood
Iceland publishes more books per capita than any other country in the world, with five titles published for every 1,000 Icelanders. But what's really unusual is the timing: Historically, a majority of books in Iceland are sold from late September to early November. It's a national tradition, and it has a name: Jolabokaflod, or the "Christmas Book Flood."
"If you look at book sales distribution in the U.K. and the States, most book sales actually come from a minority of people. Very few people buy lots of books. Everybody else buys one book a year if you're lucky," Bjarnason says. "It's much more widespread in Iceland. Most people buy several books a year."
(Honestly, I probably only bought five to ten books this year...I like going to the library. Yes, I am one of the dinosaurs who still go to the library. You should, too.)
To books and reading and, of course, Jolabokaflod.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Wright's Law, Or, The Purpose
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/laws-of-physics-cant-trump-the-bonds-of-love/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121225
I'm not really much of a physics kind of girl (and believe me, that is such an understatement). But the guy profiled in this documentary...well, he transcends being a physics teacher. He gets right into the heart of being human. If you have 10 or 15 minutes, watch the video and read the accompanying article.
A few highlights:
“There is something a lot greater than energy. There’s something a lot greater than entropy. What’s the greatest thing?”
“Love,” his students whisper.
Okay, so that probably sounds a tad cliche, veering into after-school special territory. But it can be true, don't you think?
“That’s what makes the why of what we exist,” Mr. Wright tells the spellbound students. “In this great big universe, we have all those stars. Who cares? Well, somebody cares. Somebody cares about you a lot. As long as we care about each other, that’s where we go from here.”
So we don't know why the stars are there (or if you do, please enlighten me), or why we're here or if there's a why at all. But we do know that we're here, right? And caring about each other and being kind - well, that's one purpose.
“When you look at physics, it’s all about laws and how the world works,” he told me. “But if you don’t tie those laws into a much bigger purpose, the purpose in your heart, then they are going to sit there and ask the question ‘Who cares?’
To the purpose in our hearts.
I'm not really much of a physics kind of girl (and believe me, that is such an understatement). But the guy profiled in this documentary...well, he transcends being a physics teacher. He gets right into the heart of being human. If you have 10 or 15 minutes, watch the video and read the accompanying article.
A few highlights:
“There is something a lot greater than energy. There’s something a lot greater than entropy. What’s the greatest thing?”
“Love,” his students whisper.
Okay, so that probably sounds a tad cliche, veering into after-school special territory. But it can be true, don't you think?
“That’s what makes the why of what we exist,” Mr. Wright tells the spellbound students. “In this great big universe, we have all those stars. Who cares? Well, somebody cares. Somebody cares about you a lot. As long as we care about each other, that’s where we go from here.”
So we don't know why the stars are there (or if you do, please enlighten me), or why we're here or if there's a why at all. But we do know that we're here, right? And caring about each other and being kind - well, that's one purpose.
“When you look at physics, it’s all about laws and how the world works,” he told me. “But if you don’t tie those laws into a much bigger purpose, the purpose in your heart, then they are going to sit there and ask the question ‘Who cares?’
To the purpose in our hearts.
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