Writer's Lounge

That One Poem Molly Couldn’t Remember

2008-12-04T17:12:26-06:00

In honor of Katie’s story last night about the teenage girl hiding under the porch, here is the Audre Lorde poem that was on the tip of Molly’s tongue...(typos are not ours! Love that internet.)

Hanging Fire
by Audre Lorde

I am fourteen
and my skin has betrayed me
the boy I cannot live without
still sucks his tumb
in secret
how come my knees are
always so ashy
what if I die
before the morning comes
and momma’s in the bedroom
with the door closed.

I have to learn how to dance
in time for the next party
my room is too small for me
suppose I de before graduation
they will sing sad melodies
but finally
tell the truth aout me
There is nothing I want to do
and too much
that has to be done
and momma’s in the bedroom
with the door closed.

Nobody even stops to think
about my side of it
I should have been on Math Team
my marks were better than his
why do I have to be
the one
wearing braces
I have nothing to wear tomorrow
will I live long enough
to grow up
and momma’s in the bedroom
with the door closed.

2nd Story Outing

2008-12-04T14:27:32-06:00

Hi Fellow Writers of the Roundtable,

A couple of friends and I are going to the 2nd Story reading on December 14th, 2008 at Webster’s Wine Bar (1480 W. Webster) at 7PM. Does anyone want to join us? Would love it if you could. If so, you can buy tickets here:
http://2ndstory.serendipitytheatre.org/whatis/when.php
Make sure to purchase beforehand as I think they sell out. Let me know if you get them and we can all sit together.
Best,
Dana

Event this Saturday!

2008-12-03T09:11:33-06:00

And a head’s up for next month, we will be perfoming on January 31st at the Book Cellar in Lincoln Square. Have a good week everyone!

Amazing resource

2008-11-18T11:13:27-06:00

I may be behind the times a bit, but I just heard about the Gutenberg project. It contains thousands of free books. There is no translation of Von Kleist’s work, but I encourage you to read the Wikipedia entry about his life. Puts things in perspective. Check it out. http://www.gutenberg.org Tres

Amazing Free Resource

2008-11-18T11:06:08-06:00

I may be behind the times a bit, but I just heard about the Gutenberg project. It contains thousands of free books. Check it out. http://www.gutenberg.org Tres

Salt as Love

2008-11-16T15:49:55-06:00

There is an old parable that goes ‘I love you as meat loves salt.’ Likely the source material for Shakespeare’s King Lear. (or culled from it) As in Lear, The parable tells of the favored daughter answering her father’s question about how much she loves him with metaphor. ‘As meat loves salt.’ Father, not being a poetic soul finds her answer unsatisfactory and banishes her from the house. The remaining siblings squabble and Father dearest is driven nearly to distraction. The kitchen staff finds the need to take on a new cook. This new cook hides her identity and keeps to the shadows of the house. Then one evening during a feast, the food comes to the table inedible. The meat is without flavor, and possibly tainted as well. No salt. The cook is revealed to be Father’s dearest daughter having spoiled the dinner but having fully illustrated her point.

Salt is love. Sustenance. Life force. Salt of the earth. And yet what happens when we salt the earth? Death and destruction. Terminal generation.

So I find myself wondering what Monique Truong meant by writing The Book of Salt. Love, the word, is thin on the ground throughout the novel. And yet it does seem to be the quest object for Binh.

Binh seeks love in it’s many incarnations. Approval. Desire. Acceptance. Community. Maternal. Familial. Yet, rarely, if ever, does he name it. The physical properties of salt, however, surface and resurface. In relation to food prep, the sea, sweat, and blood. Salt is a fact of life. There is evidence of salt. It is tangible. Love is not. Kierkegaard even proposed that any time one can articulate a reason for love, they have invalidated it by making it about the reason and not the love itself. (I paraphrase here.)

So, The Book of Salt might well be called the Quest for Love despite its non appearance in the text.

Kelley’s Poem in Poetry Section

2008-11-13T11:29:24-06:00

Hey Poets,

Congrats to Kelley who sent us one of her poems to be published in the Poetry section of this site.

Bring on the poems!!! (We love publishing them.)

jill

Workshoppers published

2008-11-10T20:14:00-06:00

Hey gang,

Some of you know Mary from previous workshops. Just want you to get the link to her first chapter, which won fourth place in a novel contest. You can get all the details from the Listen Up section…

Great Blog Examples

2008-11-03T14:51:23-06:00

... or should I say: Examples of Great Blogs (?)

Here are some of the blogs we looked at in class last week:

PubRants: http://www.pubrants.blogspot.com
Get Rich Slowly: http://www.getrichslowly.org
Dooce: http://www.dooce.com
Puffery: http://www.puffery.blogspot.com
Geek Buffet: http://geekbuffet.wordpress.com/
Cake Wrecks: http://www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com

We also looked (very briefly) at how to set up a blog on http://www.blogger.com
and talked about “mini-blogging” on http://www.twitter.com

Anyone have suggestions of other blogs we should be checking out?
Also, think about Mari’s question of what sets one blog apart from the thousands of other blogs out there. If we figure this one out, we’ll all be rich.

‘til soon,
Molly

Wally Lamb is dead to me.

2008-10-25T12:20:19-06:00

I don’t know why, but in high school, I read She’s Come Undone about a thousand times. I originally nicked my sister’s copy, which became mine because she got tired of digging through my room for it. Then I wrote all of this crap that was directly influenced by the narrator’s tone, the events in the story, and every main theme. Seriously, you could have just called me a plagiarist. When his next novel, I Know This Much Is True, came out, I went straight to the library and snatched it up. I couldn’t even get past the first page, I thought it was so terrible. There was a little bit of that “this isn’t at all like his last novel, therefore, it is terrible” stuff, but mostly I just began to realize that I didn’t think Wally Lamb was a very good writer.

And I still don’t.

So, why do I still find myself leafing through my copy of She’s Come Undone? I don’t know! I read a passage and think, “This is too much...this book is just TOO MUCH.” It’s so fantastical and self-explanatory and totally Oprah-worthy that I’m ashamed to own it.

So why do I keep reading it? I hope someone hijacks my copy soon. Of course, I will just end up buying a copy at the used bookstore down the street, which has about 16 on hand at any given time.