It is the nature of art to offend. It is the nature of art to offer. It is the paradox of the artist to both widen and heal the split within ourselves. (Terry Tempest Williams, LEAP)
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Open thread on Terry Tempest Williams visit
It is the nature of art to offend. It is the nature of art to offer. It is the paradox of the artist to both widen and heal the split within ourselves. (Terry Tempest Williams, LEAP)
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I've been thinking about what Terry said at her talk Tuesday night about ritual: how it is ritual that keeps us from collapsing under grief and hopelessness. And for her that ritual is writing.
ReplyDeleteI haven't considered writing in this way before -- as ritual -- and over the last few days have started bringing that perspective to my own writing practice.
I think Barrie and Nuria asked smart, insightful, and provocative questions last night that challenged Terry and all of us in good ways. Thanks so much. And thanks to all of you writing so beautifully on the blog. To add my own text, I'm choosing a paragraph from the end of my novel, in which one of the main characters is walking a remediated landscape in Pig's Eye Dump designed and executed by her husband and daughter:
ReplyDelete"Slowly, happily, she follows the wooden walkway across the replanted prairie toward distant poplar groves. Swales of new vegetation thicken the edge of Battle Creek Lake, tinged violet by the dying sun. A sleepy cicada buzzes in the grass, not yet awake. Reaching the first fork where the paths fork south and east, she turns to face the Research Center, leaning her back against the railing. The sun has set but the afterglow remains, burnishing the glass and casting a tawny light through freckled trees. Roused, cicacads click and hum, joined now by crickets and frogs."
I'd like to underscore Mary's comments re: the interview. Nuria and Barrie asked wonderful questions--it was one of the better conversations I've seen at Hamline and how lucky we are to have these conversations! Likewise, I'm moved and impressed by the writing you've been doing on the blog and feel as if I've learned something about my own landscape: thank you.
ReplyDeleteHere's a bit of real-time conversation with Terry and the Dolphin Oracle (at the Walker Art Center)
Terry Tempest Williams: What will you have us know?
Dolphin: It's not profitable to speak in hypothetical terms
I left the talk with a whole notebook full of words that made me want to write, and a wish that these conversations were on video, so I could share them with my friends who love Terry's work.
ReplyDeleteWhat I appreciated most: Terry's recognition that there are places where readers "fall off of the page" in her toughest work. And her determination to try new things despite that.
Trisha
I hit a dog on the way to TTW's interview at Hamline and immediately was stricken by the sound of a tiny white dog clunking beneath my car and with the notion that this dashing-from-nowhere dog was a messanger.
ReplyDeleteI stopped. My passenger, Kendra, said she saw the white dog on its back by the side of the road, his paws pedaling the air. I leaped from the car. No dog. Horrified but relieved to think the dog was probably okay, we proceeded to the interview.
When TTW talked about animals as messengers, I relived the accident, the flash of white, the awful sound of dog against my car's metal belly. "What is the message, Terry?" I wanted to ask her. I didn't, but she answered me anyway.
Pay attention. Listen with your eyes, see with your heart.
I see/hear nature out of whack.
Terry Tempest Williams, in the interview and in her books, has opened up a new way for me to see what I have felt for so long, and to act despite my fears.
This term, I have appreciated reading Terry Tempest Williams' body of work. Because of this past week's contact with her, I have an even greater regard for TTW as a person--as someone who observes and considers, is loath to judge, and acts with kindness and passion. To all who made possible Terry's days at Hamline, genuine thanks.
ReplyDelete"For you, Lorna. Faith. Courage. Joy. Thank you for your rigor."
ReplyDeleteTTW wrote this message in my copy of _LEAP_ after I said how difficult it was to read. I was kind of taken aback that she was thanking me for reading _LEAP_, because "it is a difficult book," she said. She was entirely personable, and I'm glad I got to see her in action. I'll admit that I still don't get a lot of what is in this book, even after our class discussion and the TTW interview, but I'm convinced I'll be picking it up sometime in the near, and far, future.
Faith. Courage. Joy. I can't help but open the book every few days to look at her signature. She may not remember me in the years to come, but I will certainly remember her and these words. I guess they're the thoughts and emotions you need to continue on.