redefining "going by the book"
Back when, books were regarded as authoritative and unchangeable. Difference between one copy and another was "corruption," and scholars would quibble endlessly as to which was the true version.
Hence, "going by the book," "the rule book," "handbook" (which you keep close by so that you know exactly how to do something), "the Authorized version." "Bible" simply means "book," and there are still people who take every word of it literally, and who break out in hives at the idea that there are many more texts that could be legitimately included between its covers.
The static book infects all of our thinking.
What about bookmakers? Perhaps that's a Britishism. Digression:...
Written by Ela Harrison
on Saturday, 13 December 2014.
Posted in All About Words, Literary Citizenship
there's no such thing as "start at the beginning"
My beautiful new blog is still a new blog, and I'm still learning its outlines and characters. A couple days ago, I discovered, quite by accident, that there was a comment box--with comments in it awaiting my approval!
Comments are now live; please post comments!
And so, with humble apologies to those commenters, this post is all about comments, the word and the abstract object.
Written by Ela Harrison
on Friday, 12 December 2014.
Posted in All About Words, Literary Citizenship
making some connections explicit
As another week passes and as I reflect on where I/you/we/humankind/this blog came from and where we're going, I follow my tried and trusted path back into words and etymologies.
In honor of the movie I reviewed and recommended in my previous post, and in honor of that recurrent question, the word of the week is Origin.
Written by Ela Harrison
on Friday, 21 November 2014.
Posted in All About Words, Herbs and Plants
It Really IS How You Look At It
There were so many things I wanted to write about today.
I wanted to talk about words, and specific words: hormesis, discrimination, that I expect to talk about over and over.
And about colors, and about sleep, and literary citizenship, and doing things for other people.
I spilled some water on my computer this morning. Everything seemed fine until two hours later, when the screen went dark.
But guess what? It was a good thing!
Written by Ela Harrison
on Thursday, 13 November 2014.
Posted in Literary Citizenship, Mindfulness
peacefully, in her sleep, 11/6/2014
As a person who talks to dead people and who has tended toward disembodiment herself, I have some different words to add to the celebration and mourning pouring out for Judith Kitchen --
- Wife, mother, grandmother.
- Cofounder, with her husband, poet Stan Sanvel Rubin, of the Rainier Writing Workshop (the MFA program from which I graduated).
- Writer in every genre, with a style both limpidly readable and fiercely intelligent.
- Superbly influential critic, mentor, editor
- Supernaturally gifted "matchmaker" of mentors and students, and so inaugurator of many valuable and productive literary relationships
- Founder of Ovenbird Press; champion of fine writing in a changing literary culture
- Someone who never suffered folly gladly, but who never made a fool out of anyone
Written by Ela Harrison
on Tuesday, 11 November 2014.
Posted in Literary Citizenship
"there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." (Hamlet, Shakespeare)
I create this to be a writer-friendly and writing-friendly blog. I hold space for interest in writers and what they write, and in all aspects of the writerly life. And from the get-go, I intend this to be a writer-positive blog.
I run into the same challenges as any other writer. And rather than commiserate-commensurate, I take the above-mentioned advice from Shakespeare and reframe--how am I looking at it? Can a challenge be exciting instead of disheartening? YES!
Written by Ela Harrison
on Friday, 07 November 2014.
Posted in Literary Citizenship