Allan G. Hunter's Blog, page 36

Re-Reading

Re-reading is one of life’s great pleasures. At present I’m revisiting Margot Livesey’s wonderful book about writing (and reading) The Hidden Machinery. What a pleasure it is to read such intelligent insights! What deftness of touch! And how beautifully she conveys really important information, with a lightness that is utterly beguiling. If only I’d read this book about two decades ago (alright, it wasn’t in existence two decades ago, but I think you know what I mean) I could have been a much better writer and a far more appreciative reader, too.

If you’re interested at all in writing and reading, rather than in simply decoding words to follow a plot, this is a gem to be treasured.

New for 2020!

I’m thrilled to be one of fifteen artists and writers selected to be in Carla Sonheim’s year long on-line class “Words and Pictures”. You can see what Carla has to say at carlasonheim.com, and see who else is teaching. It’ll be fun! I’m giving away one free class. Send me your name and contact email address by Jan. 15, 2020 and I’ll pick a name out of a hat.

Actually, I’ll have my granddaughter pick a name, because she can’t read yet, and I want to ensure strict impartiality….

Fiction, anyone?

I’ve challenged myself to write 100 pieces of fiction in a year, and that’s exactly what you’ll find when you go to the page labelled ‘Fiction Project’. Three times a week, on average, I’ll write something fictive – often very short. Take a look.

Art and Museum Musings

These past few days I’ve been very happy to have had the company of my great friend Thierry Bogliolo and we’ve visited many art museums, eaten plenty of good food, and laughed a lot.

Thinking now about art I’m still puzzled as to what contemporary art might be. The Harrier jet, by Fiona Banner, hung in 2010 in the Tate Britain, is striking, a bit frightening, disorientating, and definitely bold. And I could add other art installations to this one. And yet… walking through the Peabody Essex Museum and seeing, perhaps, an Eighteenth Century portrait I found myself in the presence of something else, something that moved my heart. There was a tenderness in such works, an awareness of human frailty. Poignancy, if you wish. 

William Faulkner said that the only things worth writing about were the mysteries of the human heart. I don’t know if he’s right, today, but he was right then. Is art supposed to slap us around the face? If that is true then the Imperial War Museum will do that, and you will leave it feeling extremely sad. Or is it better to place an arm around our shoulders and ask us, “Take another look; this will move you to see what is positive in the world”?

Writing as Healing

This is now a hot topic – and plenty of people who have found out personally the benefits of memoir writing have come forward to tout the efficacy of this method. I agree. It is extraordinarily effective as a healing modality.

Yet, as I have learned it must be handled very carefully.

Trauma comes in many forms, and there’s a very real danger that when one unearths diificult material one will reignite the feelings that are attached to it. This is what they don’t tell us at workshops (or rarely) and it’s a major issue.

Trauma comes in two basic forms — Big T Trauma – which can be rape, incest, war, physical terror or something of that kind; and little t trauma, which is what most people encounter. Both can be hard to deal with. Both can paralyze us. The difference is that Big T Trauma requires a very different approach. Why is this? It’s a matter of brain chemistry. In order for trauma to be healed it has to be brought from the Unconscious, where it has been stored, and made Conscious. Big T Trauma is stored in an entirely different part of the brain, because at some level the individual knows that this is just too hard to deal with and the memories get locked away. Different therapies are required to cause it to surface. When it does emerge it is sometimes best not even to ask the individual to verbalize about those memories. They’re still too raw. Clearly, to get to such a place the individual must be allowed to feel completely safe – and that is not a task that is easy.

A blog post is not the place to go into details about Big T. My task here is simply to sound a warning. Writing can be immensely helpful. I’ve seen it work wonders. But it isn’t infallible.

And that’s why I do what I do. I can recognize the difference between the traumas and help the individual to cope appropriately, allowing the reprocessing without re-traumatizing.

Books and Faith

I’ve been invited to give a talk about books and faith and naturally I have a few favorites I’d like to discuss with the folks who come. What has become increasingly apparent to me is that many books, especially fiction, seek to explore what the spiritual world might be. In the process they often help to redefine what we understand about spirituality, and therefore about our faith in it (or lack thereof).

Perhaps one could go even further: any book that is any good will inevitably ask difficult questions, even questions that have no answers – and so to some extent will push the boundaries of existing understandings about faith.

Literature, in general, seeks to show through words that which cannot actually be stated in words. That’s why poetry evokes far more than it defines. That’s why a passage of Jane Austen suggests more than it says. We are asked to be part of the process of making meaning – and each one of us will make a slightly different meaning.

Perhaps one could say that all writing, all books, question faith. In the process of doing so they may actually help to build that faith into something stronger than it was before.

Jane Austen

It’s time for a huge shout out to the wonderful people at Fox Hill Village, in Westwood, who were the enthusiastic participants in my Jane Austen lecture series this month. It isn’t often that one gets to talk about such a deeply powerful author with a room full of folks who are insightful, engaged, and wise – and the resultant experience was remarkable, all around.

These days so few people seem to know ‘the classics’ at all, and few people seem to care that they are missing out on a writer who can tell us, still, a great deal about what is amiss with our society. This gathering of minds showed me otherwise.

Did we talk about present day politics? Did we talk about posturing politicians? Did we make reference to some of the eternal values of being human and alive? Yes, we did.

I am grateful to you all.

The True Purpose of Memoir

When you write your memoir I sincerely hope you’ll have it published, sell thousands of copies, and become famous. And yet…. there may be more to it than that.

The Stories We Tell Ourselves…

Sometimes they’re not accurate. Sometimes they’re not even true.

The shifting nature of memory and time

Time alters memories, and how we value things. So what is the right way to think of memories? This brief video will give you some guidance.