Writing to Find Perspective
Lydia Millet on the differences between fiction and nonfiction and moments of insight
“I was in the mood to write something unfiltered and more earnest.” —Lydia Millet
Preview: Episode 112 Lydia Millet
“Writers have powerful ripple effects, says Lydia Millet, editor, fiction writer and memoirist. “Books can save lives. Books can save our souls.” In this week’s episode (coming tomorrow) we discuss her most recent book, We Loved It All, a memoir woven a besitary, and how this departure from her work as a fiction writer challenged and opened her.
Lydia Millet has written more than a dozen novels and story collections. Her novel A Children's Bible was a New York Times "Best 10 Books of 2020" selection and shortlisted for the National Book Award. In 2019 her story collection Fight No More received an Award of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and her collection Love in Infant Monkeys was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010. She also writes essays, opinion pieces, book reviews, and other ephemera and has worked as an editor and staff writer at the Center for Biological Diversity since 1999. She lives in the desert outside Tucson with her family.
What We’re Reading and Listening to:
Rosemerry:
I love it when a poem surprises me, and oh, this poem, “Pentimento” by Barbara Crooker, published last week in Vox Populi really thrilled me for many reasons, including how powerfully she uses taste and smell in this poem to evoke memory, and then how the whole poem turns on the scent and taste of the last line.
At MountainFilm in Telluride last weekend, my daughter and I watched Porcelain War, a feature film on the war in Ukraine and three artists who chose to stay, to fight, to train others to fight, and to continue to make art. The film is a delicate balance between despair and how our creativity and art is essential to our culture and our spirit—and how essential art is when the whole world is crumbling—how it continues develop and inspire our humanity. Not in theaters or online yet outside the festival circuit, but keep your eye out for it.
Christie:
I fell in love with Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones. This memoir is easily one of my top reads this year. The writing is revelatory and honest. Cooper Jones was born without a sacrum, a condition that caused her to be extremely short, walk with a wobble and have chronic pain. The book recounts what it’s like to move through the world in a body that our society wasn’t built for and her internal struggle dealing with the injustices she’s encountered. This is a beautiful narrative of revelation. Yes, things happen in the book — she gets pregnant, has a son, and travels around the world. But the real movement in this story happens internally, as we witness a transformation within Cooper Jones as she reshapes her view of herself and her interactions with others. This publicity synopsis puts it well: “Her memoir begins at the point when, challenged on the ethics of giving birth to disabled children—and on the value of her own life—Cooper Jones realizes she has allowed the discomfort of others to limit her choices.” I listened to the audio version, read by the author, who gives it a wonderful intimacy. Also, be forewarned: this book will make you want to see Beyonce in concert. I highly recommend this book to anyone writing a memoir, because it’s a master class.
I just finished Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind by Annalee Newitz, and it is so good and so timely. One big takeaway: psyops has a long history in America. It was used against Native Americans, for instance. And Benjamin Franklin created a bogus newspaper to spread fake news about Native Americans collecting the scalps of his compatriots (some of them children) to share as prizes with the British. The news was a hoax, but it helped spread the idea that Natives were savage murderers, unworthy of citizenship. The book isn’t all doom and gloom though. Newitz ends by outlining how to fight back against misinformation and nefarious actors.
Self-Talk on a Difficult Night
You are not a pangolin, and yet
here you are, curled in a ball on the couch,
as if tucking into yourself will help keep you safe.
Maybe you wish you had thick scales to protect you,
scales overlapping like artichoke leaves,
scales to shield you from sharp claws or teeth—
but sweet scared self, scales could never save you.
What you’re hiding from is your own raging heart,
feral with loss, savage with pain. Curling in won’t
lock the pain out. And is that what you would want?
It’s so human to wish it didn’t have to hurt.
So animal to want to defend against pain.
So of course, you find yourself in a ball.
Sometimes grief feels like an attack.
But even the pangolin doesn’t stay curled up forever.
And the heart, oh good self, the heart
was made to be vulnerable.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
A Note About Paid Subscriptions:
First, we want to thank ALL our subscribers! We are so grateful you join us in this conversation about what it is to engage with yourself, the world and others in a creative way. And a BIG thank you to our paid subscribers. You make this podcast possible. Starting this month, only our paid subscribers will receive our bonus episodes as a thank you for their financial support.
This week, Lydia talks with us about why she prefers to have a career outside of writing, dancing wildly, the importance of taking it slow, and much more. If you are not yet a paid subscriber, you can go now to our website, EmergingForm.substack.com, or by clicking the button below. Thank you!
Two Questions:
(share your answers with us here on Substack or in our FB group)
What’s your favorite word you’ve recently learned?
What is a book that saved your soul?
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