May 2, 2011
Well, I have absolutely no wisdom about the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
I can only say that it felt strange, roughly into a decade that has, sadly, defined life (and death) for so many young people, for the goal of all these efforts to suddenly, unexpectedly, be reached.
I'm grateful that I was not--like many of the people up in trees last night, wrapped in flags and whooping and hollering--a child in middle school when 9/11 happened, when we turned our whole focus as a nation toward war. I'm glad I had a chance to grow up with other, smaller national problems, without that convulsion of national horror and grief, without watching the adults around me terrified and silenced (if only temporarily), without the bitter ideological substitute for the Cold War that the so-called War on Terror became. I'm glad that the attacks and their ruinous aftermath have occupied only a quarter of my life, after I'd already reached adulthood, and not a full half of it, while my mind and my views were still developing. I'm sorry that the case has been otherwise for so many.
Regarding the killing itself, I continue to think it's so deeply strange that we come to associate a person's ideas and ideology so much with his or her body. Do we think that by destroying the body, we destroy the idea? Ideas, good and ill, can't be expunged from the earth so easily. (On that note, go here to sign a petition to urge the Chinese government to free artist Ai Weiwei, who has been "disappeared" by security forces.)
Do we hope to frighten others away from a similar course by demonstrating what their likely ends will be? Or is it the urge to punish? The urge for revenge?
All these, I suppose.
It left me feeling hollow and disturbed. Not euphoric. Impressed with Obama, sure. But only up to a point.
In the Dhammapada, it says, "For hatred can never put an end to hatred. Love alone can. This is unalterable law." Encountering that text quite early in life has probably ruined me for triumphant violence.
It goes on: "People forget that their lives will end soon. For those who remember, quarrels come to an end." I like that part, too.
Shifting gears entirely: if all goes well, one year from today--on May 2, 2012--I'll be teaching my first class at the University of Seville! I'll teach creative writing for five weeks. I'm excited! They want someone who will teach in English; I want a place redolent with new scents and sights where I can be a flâneur and improve my Spanish. Perfect exchange. Many thanks to colleagues Ariana, Amelia, and James, who encouraged me to apply, and to future colleague María Luisa, whom I can't wait to meet.
Many happy returns of the day to these lovely students and former students who've recently published their work or had pieces accepted:
I'm excited to report that the University of Nebraska Press has acquired paperback rights to my memoir The Truth Book. Thank you, Tom Swanson! They're deciding now about when to release it. I'm happy, because it will have a redesigned cover--no more tabloidesque red, white, and black--and will get to shed, at long last, its rather sensationalistic subtitle, which was imposed by Arcade, the original press, and which always embarrassed me and seemed to point readers down a prematurely narrowed road.
Ah, the power of marketing departments. Sigh.
Anyway, I'm happy about the new incarnation The Truth Book will get to have, and I look forward to seeing what the University of Nebraska Press, with its wonderful book designers, will do with it.
But most of all, I love the fact that it will finally be available in a less expensive version for readers and especially for students.
I started reading War and Peace this morning, and finished Jennifer Egan's The Keep over the weekend, which I can't recommend highly enough (especially if you have a weakness for the Gothic). It's self-reflexive postmodernism, yes, but with a heart and a point, and it's just a lovely, wholly intelligent work of art. So clever and haunted and well wrought. (White privilege alert, though: no characters of color to be found.)
In other book news, the editor who acquired THE DESIRE PROJECTS emailed today to say that she'll have her edits on the first 200 pages sent to me by the end of this week! I'm so excited. I'm finishing grading final papers right now, and just about the time I turn in final grades, her edits should be here. She's also putting together the announcement for Publishers Marketplace, so that's exciting, too. More soon . . .
I can only say that it felt strange, roughly into a decade that has, sadly, defined life (and death) for so many young people, for the goal of all these efforts to suddenly, unexpectedly, be reached.
I'm grateful that I was not--like many of the people up in trees last night, wrapped in flags and whooping and hollering--a child in middle school when 9/11 happened, when we turned our whole focus as a nation toward war. I'm glad I had a chance to grow up with other, smaller national problems, without that convulsion of national horror and grief, without watching the adults around me terrified and silenced (if only temporarily), without the bitter ideological substitute for the Cold War that the so-called War on Terror became. I'm glad that the attacks and their ruinous aftermath have occupied only a quarter of my life, after I'd already reached adulthood, and not a full half of it, while my mind and my views were still developing. I'm sorry that the case has been otherwise for so many.
Regarding the killing itself, I continue to think it's so deeply strange that we come to associate a person's ideas and ideology so much with his or her body. Do we think that by destroying the body, we destroy the idea? Ideas, good and ill, can't be expunged from the earth so easily. (On that note, go here to sign a petition to urge the Chinese government to free artist Ai Weiwei, who has been "disappeared" by security forces.)
Do we hope to frighten others away from a similar course by demonstrating what their likely ends will be? Or is it the urge to punish? The urge for revenge?
All these, I suppose.
It left me feeling hollow and disturbed. Not euphoric. Impressed with Obama, sure. But only up to a point.
In the Dhammapada, it says, "For hatred can never put an end to hatred. Love alone can. This is unalterable law." Encountering that text quite early in life has probably ruined me for triumphant violence.
It goes on: "People forget that their lives will end soon. For those who remember, quarrels come to an end." I like that part, too.
~
Shifting gears entirely: if all goes well, one year from today--on May 2, 2012--I'll be teaching my first class at the University of Seville! I'll teach creative writing for five weeks. I'm excited! They want someone who will teach in English; I want a place redolent with new scents and sights where I can be a flâneur and improve my Spanish. Perfect exchange. Many thanks to colleagues Ariana, Amelia, and James, who encouraged me to apply, and to future colleague María Luisa, whom I can't wait to meet.
Many happy returns of the day to these lovely students and former students who've recently published their work or had pieces accepted:
¡Felicidades! Wow! Enjoy the glow, and be sure to let it last.Faye Snider, whose creative nonfiction "Goldie's Gold" will appear in Alimentum this June
DeMisty Bellinger, whose short story "what plums would do" appears online in SpringGun
Sindu Sathiyaseelan (who has also been moonlighting as my fantastic and indispensable research assistant; lucky me) who's had creative nonfiction accepted by both Brevity and Water~Stone Review
I'm excited to report that the University of Nebraska Press has acquired paperback rights to my memoir The Truth Book. Thank you, Tom Swanson! They're deciding now about when to release it. I'm happy, because it will have a redesigned cover--no more tabloidesque red, white, and black--and will get to shed, at long last, its rather sensationalistic subtitle, which was imposed by Arcade, the original press, and which always embarrassed me and seemed to point readers down a prematurely narrowed road.
Ah, the power of marketing departments. Sigh.
Anyway, I'm happy about the new incarnation The Truth Book will get to have, and I look forward to seeing what the University of Nebraska Press, with its wonderful book designers, will do with it.
But most of all, I love the fact that it will finally be available in a less expensive version for readers and especially for students.
I started reading War and Peace this morning, and finished Jennifer Egan's The Keep over the weekend, which I can't recommend highly enough (especially if you have a weakness for the Gothic). It's self-reflexive postmodernism, yes, but with a heart and a point, and it's just a lovely, wholly intelligent work of art. So clever and haunted and well wrought. (White privilege alert, though: no characters of color to be found.)
In other book news, the editor who acquired THE DESIRE PROJECTS emailed today to say that she'll have her edits on the first 200 pages sent to me by the end of this week! I'm so excited. I'm finishing grading final papers right now, and just about the time I turn in final grades, her edits should be here. She's also putting together the announcement for Publishers Marketplace, so that's exciting, too. More soon . . .
fayepoet said:
Thanks, Joy, for your sanguine thoughts on the end of the hunt for Osama. Reading your words settled my own whirling thoughts as I could relate to all that you shared. Yes, the man dead does not keep the others at bay. It simply closes a chapter and we are already in the next.I hate killing but what I'm glad for it that the fear of this monster, at least for some, is over and hopefully, all the time and effort put to tracking Osama can be diverted to a more noble cause. I can only wish...
You have so much wonderful news--Seville--those lucky folk, and the wonderful news about your Truth Book and your newest gem about to reach us. YEAH!
Thanks for the shout out about "Goldie's Gold." It's my first publication in a lit magazine and its subject launched me into writing memoir. It is a Wow experience.
Happy editing!
May 3, 2011 4:55 PM