If there's such a thing as a collective memoir to be built, let me add my little brick of memory to your story. There was a coffee shop across the street from the detention center that made the only authentic croissants to be found in New York in those days. A friend who would later become a famous actress and I sometimes met for coffee there on a Saturday morning. From our table at the window, we could see the husbands and lovers of the incarcerated women, standing in the street desperately calling up to the women inside, many stories above them. They were pleading for the impossible, for those women to come down and comfort them in all the ways they once could and now could not. That's what I remember most. The vulnerability of men left behind and unable to bear it. My friend and I were like accidental voyeurs, adjacent to a misery we knew nothing about.
Polly Adler, Jane Alpert, Angela Davis, Andrea Dworkin, Miriam Moskowitz, Ethel Rosenberg, Afeni Shakur, and Judith Malina. That's quite a Hall of Fame over the years. Imagine the conversations if they had coincided.
Love the Woman's House of Detention post, but wonder if the apostrophe was in the original title. Your description certainly suggests the building was theirs. As to the Richard piece I have it on good authority that being a pain-in-the ass does not feel like freedom.
I grew up on Waverly Place and the house of detention was a presence I didn’t understand. I was more aware of its absence after they tore it down, the fenced off lot that eventually became a community garden with some controversy over whose space it was. The house of detention stood in contrast to the library with its circular staircase and fairy tale vibes. Happy and sad, side by side.
"If I wore the clothes and lived in the apartment of a free woman, I would eventually grow a body with the right feelings and thoughts. In the meantime, I was a coin wrapped in paper, making my way from the window to the street and from the street to the window." Wonderful! Thank you.
The way your writing combines personal memories and feelings, city history, politics, moral values, always has a powerful effect on me. I remember walking by the WHOD with friends and hearing the women clamoring when I was in high school and feeling both depressed, sad and threatened in some way that this piece helps me understand better, so many years later.
Each story is a gem and great last line: "You get something of this effect with people you want more than they want you. You take a vacation from yourself." The things that unself us open up worlds :) And the book -- so looking forward to it. x
Thanks so much! The book, yes the book. It seems to be galloping along. It seems to have been waiting for me to form it. I think it's coming together easily because the writing is increasingly less (I hope) weighed down with old needs of the human writer and an interest I no longer have in the abject and stuck parts of myself and life. If R and I are not crazy, the book is so far good. xxL
this line killed me: “When people talk about “facing reality,” I often think they are depressed.”😭 i think you’re probably right! also loved “I was interested in the freedom Richard had to be a pain in the ass,” followed by “I didn’t mind it that much because I was glad it was him instead of me.” i’m sorry you gave away that mug (and gardner’s silk shirt!) but now those regrets are folded into these terrific stories, so you have done your job in pleasing this reader. xc
I like your posts. Don't know what else to say except I enjoy reading them, and they hook me right to the end. One of these days I'll join in all the conversations...or comment something meaninful. Meanwhile, you bring me a lot of interest and happiness, which is not ruining anything.
"Get rid of everything that was for you in a way you knew and didn't realize, and ask yourself with each word, image, reference, and plot element: does this have a chance of bringing delight to the reader?"
Good advice for ruthless revision (à la "kill your darlings". But,
Are they mutually exclusive? Always or just sometimes? Is a chord played on one nervous system no clue to what might resonate with another?
To answer your question, yes, the only criterion I consider is: What are readers going to get out of this? The better I get at this awareness, the better my writing becomes. I don't think of it as editing. I try to have this consideration in mind sentence by sentence, as I write them. It gets easier with practice.
If there's such a thing as a collective memoir to be built, let me add my little brick of memory to your story. There was a coffee shop across the street from the detention center that made the only authentic croissants to be found in New York in those days. A friend who would later become a famous actress and I sometimes met for coffee there on a Saturday morning. From our table at the window, we could see the husbands and lovers of the incarcerated women, standing in the street desperately calling up to the women inside, many stories above them. They were pleading for the impossible, for those women to come down and comfort them in all the ways they once could and now could not. That's what I remember most. The vulnerability of men left behind and unable to bear it. My friend and I were like accidental voyeurs, adjacent to a misery we knew nothing about.
I lived in the WHOD....after it was renovated and converted into loft apartments. I could feel the women's vibes
Polly Adler, Jane Alpert, Angela Davis, Andrea Dworkin, Miriam Moskowitz, Ethel Rosenberg, Afeni Shakur, and Judith Malina. That's quite a Hall of Fame over the years. Imagine the conversations if they had coincided.
Love the Woman's House of Detention post, but wonder if the apostrophe was in the original title. Your description certainly suggests the building was theirs. As to the Richard piece I have it on good authority that being a pain-in-the ass does not feel like freedom.
I grew up on Waverly Place and the house of detention was a presence I didn’t understand. I was more aware of its absence after they tore it down, the fenced off lot that eventually became a community garden with some controversy over whose space it was. The house of detention stood in contrast to the library with its circular staircase and fairy tale vibes. Happy and sad, side by side.
"If I wore the clothes and lived in the apartment of a free woman, I would eventually grow a body with the right feelings and thoughts. In the meantime, I was a coin wrapped in paper, making my way from the window to the street and from the street to the window." Wonderful! Thank you.
😂 I still think of Isadora Duncan every time I'm on the platform waiting for a subway in a long scarf!
Good work. xxL
The way your writing combines personal memories and feelings, city history, politics, moral values, always has a powerful effect on me. I remember walking by the WHOD with friends and hearing the women clamoring when I was in high school and feeling both depressed, sad and threatened in some way that this piece helps me understand better, so many years later.
Thanks for articulating my method so well. And huge thanks for sustaining the stack with your paid support. 🌷
Grace Paley wrote vividly about the Women’s House of Detention.
Each story is a gem and great last line: "You get something of this effect with people you want more than they want you. You take a vacation from yourself." The things that unself us open up worlds :) And the book -- so looking forward to it. x
Thanks so much! The book, yes the book. It seems to be galloping along. It seems to have been waiting for me to form it. I think it's coming together easily because the writing is increasingly less (I hope) weighed down with old needs of the human writer and an interest I no longer have in the abject and stuck parts of myself and life. If R and I are not crazy, the book is so far good. xxL
You are not crazy -- it will be wonderful and I love what you say about not being interested in the abject and stuck parts xx
this line killed me: “When people talk about “facing reality,” I often think they are depressed.”😭 i think you’re probably right! also loved “I was interested in the freedom Richard had to be a pain in the ass,” followed by “I didn’t mind it that much because I was glad it was him instead of me.” i’m sorry you gave away that mug (and gardner’s silk shirt!) but now those regrets are folded into these terrific stories, so you have done your job in pleasing this reader. xc
Thanks, dearest.
I’m caught between pausing to take in what I’ve just read and racing to see what comes next. I loved all of it.
So pleased to hear.
I like your posts. Don't know what else to say except I enjoy reading them, and they hook me right to the end. One of these days I'll join in all the conversations...or comment something meaninful. Meanwhile, you bring me a lot of interest and happiness, which is not ruining anything.
Good to know. Thanks. Your paid support is super encouraging. xxL
This touched me deeply. Thank you for this.
"Get rid of everything that was for you in a way you knew and didn't realize, and ask yourself with each word, image, reference, and plot element: does this have a chance of bringing delight to the reader?"
Good advice for ruthless revision (à la "kill your darlings". But,
Are they mutually exclusive? Always or just sometimes? Is a chord played on one nervous system no clue to what might resonate with another?
(This must be why so few people read me. 😂)
To answer your question, yes, the only criterion I consider is: What are readers going to get out of this? The better I get at this awareness, the better my writing becomes. I don't think of it as editing. I try to have this consideration in mind sentence by sentence, as I write them. It gets easier with practice.
Yes! That can be felt in following your writing. It feels as if you’re as surprised as we are.
I find it helpful to work with the baby prompts: "sometimes," "what if," and "on the other hand."
(Funny; I just read your most recent post and subscribed.)
You might want to think about having Gina Gordhon on she has a new book out Alpha Pussy and is also a writer.