Newsletter #12: James Baldwin
Photograph by Robert Elfstrom
Hey!
It’s hard to believe the first month of 2023 is done. I feel like I’m just getting started. Whatever your aspirations are for this year, I hope January was a step in the right direction.
And now here’s this week’s newsletter on James Baldwin.
Three Sentences by Baldwin to Imitate and Study
I.
Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.
from Giovanni’s Room
Practice: Try this sentence frame using a concept from your writing:
Perhaps _____ is not _____ but simply _____.
Here’s an example I came up with:
Perhaps time is not a condition but simply a relationship with memories.
II.
Time could not be bought. The only coin time accepted was life.
from If Beale Street Could Talk
Practice: Try this sentence frame using a concept from your writing:
____ can/could not be ____. The only ____ accepts/accepted is/was ____.
Here’s an example I came up with:
Friendship cannot not be bargained. The only requirement friendship accepts is trust.
III.
Love forces, at last, this humility: you cannot love if you cannot be loved, you cannot see if you cannot be seen.
from Just Above My Head
Practice: Try this sentence frame using a concept from your writing:
_____ forces, at last, this _____: you cannot _____ if you cannot be _____, you cannot _____ if you cannot be _____.
Here’s an example I came up with:
Sharing your writing forces, at last, this truth: you cannot grow as a writer if you cannot be vulnerable, you cannot grow as an artist if you cannot be exposed for who you really are.
Two Quotes by Baldwin on writing to change the world and the purpose of education
I.
“You write in order to change the world ... if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.”
Journal Prompt: Why do you write? Or, more specifically, what would like to change in the world through your writing?
II.
“The purpose of education…is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions.”
Journal Prompt: Education is something everyone experiences. And because of that common experience, everyone has an opinion about it. And in a world in which a virus altered how we view work and life, education was finally forced to look at itself in the mirror. With that, what do you think is the purpose of education?
One Cool Thing - James Baldwin 321-word sentence
James Baldwin wrote some fantastic, and incredibly long sentences. His ability to articulate ideas with clarity, passion, and energy is unmatched in all of literature and letters. Pick up any of his books or skim through any of his numerous essays and you’ll find sentences of dizzying complexity yet perfectly descriptive of the characters, themes, and emotions he was writing about.
In this cool blog post by Cole Schafer, he breaks down a beautiful 321-word sentence from Baldwin’s essay, Nothing Personal.
Around the Interwebs
Here are a few links I found that I thought you’d like.
Corey Wilks, Psy D., psychologist, writer, and educator has a great Twitter thread on the Four Horseman of Fear.
Illustrator and storyteller Andy J. Pizza shares a heartfelt story of how his mother’s ADHD helped him learn about his own struggles as a creative.
In this lengthy interview, podcaster Rich Roll talks with Rick Rubin about how creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human.
Spread the Word
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