there's almost too much here that's good, i don't know what to pluck out. look at all you give us! i laughed at "the way men look at women has a built-in kindness of blindness and amazement that sex is about to happen." and i think you're right about what people mean when they say a piece of writing you wrote is brave. keep on churning, laurie-brain, i'm here for it!
Another wonderful essay. As an art historian, I have always been interested in images of the nude body, and wish I had some of myself when younger. Do you know the work of the New York painter Joan Semmel who for decades has painted herself in the nude? As she gets older and older, it is seen as a radical act. I've always wished that the U.S was freer about the naked body, in the way that much of Europe is.
I haven’t finished reading this piece yet but I had to stop and comment because I’m just so excited that for some reason you found me and followed me and now I know you exist. I seriously was reading your essay about the nudes thinking, “Oh, this is the kind of person whose writing makes me want to write.” Because I see a reflection of myself (my interests, proclivities, perceptions, sense of play) that also gives me something to work toward. I’m also delighted that you’re 77 and writing the kinds of things I hope to be writing at that age. In short - thank you.
'Memory operates in two time frames: a memory of what we think we lived through in the past, including the feelings stirred up then, and memory includes the shading of the past by the feelings we have now, as we look back. In this sense, memory operates the same way that narrative operates in these exact two time frames.' - everytime, so is anything true that we remember? and have always been struck by how siblings remember the same thing but very differently. Which makes me think all history must be a form of fiction.
"I found myself coming back to the fear and not the relief." I'm sure that was part of the draw: The fear of loss of love. "[I]t now starts with the fear I’d felt and the associations the fear stirred up, not while I was living the fear but while I was writing about the fear, right then, in the moment of stringing together sentences. ... One sentence leads to the next sentence." Exactly how to lure the reader.
there's almost too much here that's good, i don't know what to pluck out. look at all you give us! i laughed at "the way men look at women has a built-in kindness of blindness and amazement that sex is about to happen." and i think you're right about what people mean when they say a piece of writing you wrote is brave. keep on churning, laurie-brain, i'm here for it!
Another wonderful essay. As an art historian, I have always been interested in images of the nude body, and wish I had some of myself when younger. Do you know the work of the New York painter Joan Semmel who for decades has painted herself in the nude? As she gets older and older, it is seen as a radical act. I've always wished that the U.S was freer about the naked body, in the way that much of Europe is.
You beautifully captured the essence of body acceptance.
I haven’t finished reading this piece yet but I had to stop and comment because I’m just so excited that for some reason you found me and followed me and now I know you exist. I seriously was reading your essay about the nudes thinking, “Oh, this is the kind of person whose writing makes me want to write.” Because I see a reflection of myself (my interests, proclivities, perceptions, sense of play) that also gives me something to work toward. I’m also delighted that you’re 77 and writing the kinds of things I hope to be writing at that age. In short - thank you.
'Memory operates in two time frames: a memory of what we think we lived through in the past, including the feelings stirred up then, and memory includes the shading of the past by the feelings we have now, as we look back. In this sense, memory operates the same way that narrative operates in these exact two time frames.' - everytime, so is anything true that we remember? and have always been struck by how siblings remember the same thing but very differently. Which makes me think all history must be a form of fiction.
"I found myself coming back to the fear and not the relief." I'm sure that was part of the draw: The fear of loss of love. "[I]t now starts with the fear I’d felt and the associations the fear stirred up, not while I was living the fear but while I was writing about the fear, right then, in the moment of stringing together sentences. ... One sentence leads to the next sentence." Exactly how to lure the reader.
I am stumbling about here, clumsily - and I bump
into Laurie Stone who draws life wide open, line by line, and as if taking part in a Brechtian drama ...
There is a Banner - Warning 'Craft'.... don't forget/and you already have - this is a story about a story - called 'Life'
"the way men look at women has a built-in kindness of blindness and amazement that sex is about to happen" yep, that caught my eye.
Why then do I propose that memory, when it’s spontaneous, is sniffing for consolation?
I believe for myself, when I search to see the continuum backwards it's to understand.
Very thought provoking. I appreciate your bravery.