middle of the night phone calls
+ on making our writing fresh ++ a delish & hearty appetizer
I love it when you:
(Thanks to my friend,
for sharing her painting. If you are interested in more of her beautiful work, check here.)hey-ho,
What do you do with your phone at night? Are phones forbidden in your bedroom? Because I’m in the habit of Duolingo-ing before sleep (I keep hoping I’ll dream in French!) and solving the NYTs puzzles with my coffee in the morning, my phone lives in the drawer of my nightstand. It’s a problem.
The other night, around 3a, my entire nightstand seemed ready to blast off with all the buzzing and vibrating in the dark. When I finally clutched the phone, a glance at the screen revealed it was my friend who is traveling in Europe and so is eight hours ahead. Of course she knows the time difference... I answered.
“Hello? Are you okay?”
Silence for a minute. I figured it was the phone lag…
“Hello? Are you okay? Hello?” I said her name several times. My heart was racing, cortisol pumped in my body. I sat up. And then I heard the laughter and lilt of a conversation. She’d butt dialed me.
I want to wake in peace. I don’t want to worry. Why, I wondered, wasn’t my first thought butt dial? Why do I go straight to disaster? My husband used to answer his phone, “Is everything okay?” And it sort of drove me crazy. Why wouldn’t it be okay? And yet… there’s a sort of breaking point where we also ask, why would it be okay?
I believe the news cycle has us living in a constant state of angst. Ever since G.W.B. put us in threat-level-orange, since there’s always a war somewhere, since… politics, since people don’t feel safe driving their cars, since the news reminds us we live w/doom, since we live with heat domes and atmospheric rivers, plus Bennifer is over. All of it looms like a sword of Damocles, all the time ready to flay us, not to mention our private woes… Why wouldn’t a ringing phone in the middle of the night seem perilous?
It took me a long time to fall back asleep, even though the last sound I heard over the phone was my friend’s laughter. Apparently, and thank goodness, she was having a wonderful time.
What do you do to unplug from the machinery of anxiety?
invite a dog to sleep in your bed
use scent, lavender in particular
take a bath
drink something warm (caffeine and alcohol free)
turn off your phone
listen to music
My phone can still have a sleepover in my nightstand. It’ll just be turned off.
read:
We had a fantastic conversation over on the r.w.e. book group! We read THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, by Mark Twain, and JAMES, by Percival Everett, which is a corrective to the first book, told from Jim’s point of view.(Here’s an audio version of Huck Finn for $1!) It was wonderful to have revisited Huck before embarking on the journey down the river with James. In Twain’s novel, Jim is the moral center with no agency at all, no character arc. Jim is enslaved and we watch as Huck grapples with the injustice, as he comes to deeply love his friend, Jim, and question slavery as an institution. In JAMES, Everett brings Jim into fullness. He steps into agency, with tremendous loss, violence, risk, and humor.
Everett’s playfulness is a joy. Early on we watch the enslaved characters code switch to get by and the language is fantastic. Later, Jim is forced to join a minstrel act. He is literally a black man pretending to be a white man pretending to be a black man. It’s preposterous and hilarious. And, of course the novel was hard at times. Humans are terrible. We deny each other dignity, safety, and respect. Power and fear corrupt. And, love is a driving force. I highly encourage you to pick up James. It’s complicated and smart.
For our next r.w.e. book group we will be reading ELIGIBLE, by Curtis Sittenfeld, which of course is a re-telling of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, by Jane Austen, which I will be reading as well and I’m pretty sure you must have on your bookshelf. For extra credit, there is a fabulous PBS limited series of P&P with Colin Firth. As well as PRIDE AND PROTEST, by Nikki Payne, another retelling which I’ve not read but plan on diving in. It’s all meant to be fun for summer. We meet over zoom on 14 July from 9:30 - 11:00 pacific time. The book group is a perk for paid subscribers and let me tell you we are a lively bunch! Do consider joining us. A paid subscription is a mere $5 a month, or the cost of one coffee!
Check my read.write.eat. Bookshop Store, where you will find many of the books I've recommended in the newsletter. Buying books from my shop is a way you can be a friend to the newsletter.
write:
I took a class from the fantastic writer, Jenny Offill, the other day. It was over zoom, a one-off from LIGHTHOUSE WRITERS. It was great! Offill gave a talk on defamiliarization, something I talk with my clients and students about all the time.
Defamiliarization is a way to keep your work fresh and surprising. The “father” of the term is Viktor Shklovsky, who says, in his essay, ART AS TECHNIQUE, that it is the job of art to make the familiar strange. We writers must push against the habits, or shortcuts, of seeing the world, for when living becomes habitual, it becomes invisible. We must make the work bright and strange and fresh enough that the reader really ‘sees’ but not so bright and strange that the writing calls attention to itself and the reader is overly challenged.
“Habitualization devours work, clothes, furniture, one's wife, and the fear of war. If the whole complex lives of many people go on unconsciously, then such lives are as if they had never been.” -V. Shklovsky
Offill suggested that moments of strangeness, or ‘estrangements’ from the norm are like little speed bumps in the writing. They change our view slightly. They mess with our perception that we know what’s coming next. And, the defamiliarizations excite in us our own neophilia… that is, our love of the new.
So it is our job as writers, as artists to make the regular slightly strange. How do we do that?
Language: I would give anything to have described the sky in this way:
“It’s winter again: the sky’s a deep, headstrong blue, and the sunlight pours through the open living-room windows because the heat’s on too high in here and I can’t turn it off.” From Marie Howe’s beautiful poem, WHAT THE LIVING DO.Attention: This is from a story of mine in which the character, high on LSD, is talking to her mother on the telephone.
“You want Bounce? Bounce, Mom? Are you sure?” She held the yellow receiver away from her ear and stared at it. “Bounce?” The word came out of her mouth round and fully formed, as if she were laying an egg.
Time: It’s funny, but sometimes when we don’t pay attention it does seem as if buildings just spring forth from the ground!
“The city looked new with tall buildings raised while my back was turned.” From Donald Barthleme, “THE BALLOON”Weird verbs: This sentence has two wonderfully fresh verbs. One is usual but used in an unusual way, the second seems made up. “Now a sudden sob thrashed through me, some moist beast flippering up through my chest.” From HOME LAND, by Sam Lipsyte.
Perspective: From an essay I’m writing, about childbirth and who gets to tell the story: “I don’t remember much beside smushed time and expansive pain, traipsing the shiny halls in a different hospital, families busy being made in the labor rooms.” I was happy with the sentence because of the slight shift, not babies being born, but families being made.
Juxtaposition: “In walks two girls in freshly plucked eyebrows.” I like this one I just made up (it’s a riff on something Offill shared) because it’s as if the eyebrows are leading the way.
Look for powerful moments of defamiliarization in your reading. How does it make you feel? Try some sentences of your own. LMK! Please!
Also, please remember, you still need to get your reader from A to B. Don’t include too many defamiliarized moments or you will make progress impossible.
Looking for a class to inspire you and keep you writing this summer? I’ve got just the ticket:
Because you’re here… maybe you're interested in food? Just a guess. I’m teaching a one day workshop on Food in Prose. Briny cold oysters. Crisp and smoky bacon. Emulsified grease left in a frying pan on the stove overnight. Food, Glorious Food! With all the sensory details a meal enlivens a page. A plate of pancakes or a slightly brown banana is a concrete detail that makes a reader's mirror neurons engage. Food also carries cultural and status freight. Nourishment, or lack of, is an amazing way to learn about a character, a family. First dates, and last meals carry heavy burdens that are perfect for stories. Join in here!
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eat:
I made this at the last minute, guests were arriving, and so I have no image. Use your imagination! It was beautiful and delicious…you’ll have to trust me.
Feta, Tomato, and Asparagus Composed Salady Thing
Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Wash and dry one bunch of asparagus spears. Cut away woody ends. Slice the rest into thirds. Toss on a sheet pan with a pit of olive oil and flaky salt.
Roast for about 7 minutes. Until deeper green and slightly tender. “To the teeth” as they say.
Meanwhile, slice a block of feta into thinnish slices and lay in a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil and hot honey.
Roast until soft and bubbly. About 10-12 minutes.
Rinse one pint basket of cherry tomatoes. Slice in half, or quarters, depending upon the size, and drop in a bowl with 1 tiny clove of garlic-minced, a handful of chopped parsley, 2+ teaspoons of za'atar seasoning, a couple glugs of olive oil, a few grinds of the pepper mill.
Add the roasted asparagus to the tomatoes, add a wee more olive oil if it seems dry, as well as 1-2 T sherry vinegar.
Mash up the hot feta and spoon in the center of a low, shallow bowl. Arrange the tomatoes and asparagus in a wreath around the cheese, sprinkle with more za’atar seasoning.
Serve with sliced baguette. I used a whole grain walnut baguette to the delight of my guests.
YUM!!
Oh, okay…. here’s a snap of the leftovers!
Stanley and me! On an adventure. (And yes, I feel sorta bad about my neck!)
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xN
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