Newsletter #2: Kerouac, James, Eugenides, Writing and Vulnerability, and Reflections
Jack Kerouac by Tom Palumbo circa 1956
Three Sentences to Imitate and Study
I.
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.
- Jack Kerouac, On the Road
II.
But in another city, another valley, another ghetto, another slum, another favela, another township, another intifada, another war, another birth, somebody is singing Redemption Song, as if the Singer wrote it for no other reason but for this sufferah to sing, shout, whisper, weep, bawl, and scream right here, right now.
- Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings
III.
It didn’t matter in the end how old they had been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them, and that they hadn’t heard us calling, still do not hear us, up here in the tree house, with our thinning hair and soft bellies, calling them out of those rooms where they went to be alone for all time, alone in suicide, which is deeper than death, and where we will never find the pieces to put them back together.
- Jeffrey Eugenides, Virgin Suicides
Two Quotes on Writing and Vulnerability
I.
“You have to be brave to take out that white sheet of paper and put on it words that could be evidence of your stupidity.”
- Sol Saks (screenwriter, creator of the TV show Bewitched)
II.
“Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection.”
- Brene Brown (professor, author)
This Week’s Writing Prompt/Tip
Spend a few minutes staring at yourself in the mirror. Imagine that person is a stranger and write a sketch of that person. What do you see? What assumptions can you make about the person? What secrets hide behind this person’s eyes?
Post your response in the Comments section below.
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