Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 89
October 31, 2013
On letters
I would like to think we have realised all we may lose if we only write emails. - Simon Garfield: in praise of the letter.
The Black Widow Society
Angela Makholwa, Black Widow Society - The world is theirs for the taking and they are widely regarded as visionaries who uphold good family values and are known for their spirit of ubuntu. - - Her marriage is an albatross which tightens its noose around her neck with each passing year. . . ' - The fresh scent of their husbands' blood still lingered on their flesh; a memory that stained some, whilst it purified others. - - Her family was awkward, strained and uncomfortable. They were like strangers who were sporadically thrown together and had to continually familiarise themselves...
October 30, 2013
On promises
The promise of continuity. That thing we’ll do anything to hold on to, that belief, even if it means killing or enslaving others. That drug we crave, so badly, that salve for all our fears, for those night-time jitters, that horror that keeps us awake at four a.m. That we will die, and death will be an ending. For we believe we have always existed, will always exist: to think we are disposable is agony. - Lavie Tidhar's Short Story 'Dragonkin' published by Tor.com
October 28, 2013
On House of Sand & Secrets
Cat Hellisen, House of Sand and Secrets - Did we each think to improve on the generation that came before us, or did we just want to be certain that someone somewhere loved and needed us? - - Daughters will always eventually understand the mothers they thought they hated. - - You shouldn't have asked his name . . . now he's a person. - - All that melodrama over one girl who wouldn't love him. And I and I can see why, because he was a whining pathetic little toad. - - Inside my head, the childhood room is...
On power
INTERVIEWER Many of your female characters are committed to passivity, attached to powerlessness. There’s even the little five-year-old in “Mermaids” who comforts herself by imagining her five-year-old male friend tying her up. What do you make of this phenomenon? EISENBERG Are women attached to powerlessness, either in reality or in my stories? I don’t know. But I do know that women haven’t chosen powerlessness for themselves. Powerlessness has been thrust upon them, by other people. In any case, passivity can be very powerful. It’s an efficient way of shifting responsibility—and blame—onto other people. And instead of having to do anything,...
October 24, 2013
On The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist - The boy's name was Santiago. - - He had to choose between something he had become accustomed to and something he wanted to have. - - The sale of his sheep had left him with enough money in his pouch, and the boy knew that in money there was magic; whoever has money is never really alone. - - He was at home with the silence of the desert, and he was content just to look at the trees. - - It was a frightening bet. But he had been making risky bets ever since...
On Mary Gaitskill
When men talk about Mary Gaitskill’s depictions of sex, they tend to not only miss the point, but also unleash invective that is far more prurient, repulsive, and objectifying than the material they purport to be excoriating. James Wolcott of Vanity Fair, for example, described the female protagonists in Gaitskill’s first book, Bad Behavior, as “dishrags and dickwipes, cold little biscuits slapped across Daddy’s lap.” If a female reviewer wrote about Henry Miller or Phillip Roth in such a manner, she’d be denounced as a prude. Wolcott, in contrast, was praised for his condemnation by none other than Susan Faludi...
October 23, 2013
On Bubbles
Rahla Xenopoulos, Bubbles - From early childhood I regarded myself as a great work of art. - - I learned about taking with emotion...Darling, I love you. It was a glourious evening. I feel downcast. - - Lipstick is the final touch. Even if the house is burning down, at risk of death, a lady can safely walk out on to the street in her nighties and slippers so long as her nails are manicured and her lips are painted. - - After his big fight with Johnny Ralph, he got it into his numbskull that it was his underwear...
October 21, 2013
On Suicide
How could anyone purposefully leave us, us, of all people? This is how I thought of it, for though I’ve often lost faith in myself, I’ve never lost it in my family, in my certainty that we are fundamentally better than everyone else. It’s an archaic belief, one that I haven’t seriously reconsidered since my late teens, but still I hold it. Ours is the only club I’d ever wanted to be a member of, so I couldn’t imagine quitting. Backing off for a year or two was understandable, but to want out so badly that you’d take your own...
On The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane - I had done my duty in the morning, spoken the words I was mean to speak, and I meant them as I spoke them. . . - - I make art, sometimes I make true art, and sometimes it fills the empty places in my life. - - 'How old are you, really?' I asked. 'Eleven.' I thought for a bit. Then I asked, 'How long have you been eleven for?' She smiled at me. - - Small children believe themselves to be gods, or some of them do,...
