Lucille Lang Day's Blog, page 2
June 2, 2013
The Girl at Ocean Beach
My short story "The Girl at Ocean Beach" appears in the Summer 2013 issue of Ducts: http://www.ducts.org/content/the-girl...
May 22, 2013
"Form/Formless": A Math Poem!
My poem "Form/Formless" appears on JoAnne Growney's blog, Intersections — Poetry with Mathematics: http://poetrywithmathematics.blogspot...
May 16, 2013
Path Toward Destruction, Turned Around
An article about my memoir, Married at Fourteen, and its nomination for the Northern California Book Award in Creative Nonfiction appears in the JWeekly: http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/6...
May 12, 2013
Reflections on "The Trip"
My personal essay "The Trip" will be published in the anthology The Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the 60s and 70s. Here's a blog about "The Trip": http://www.timestheywereachanging.com...
May 1, 2013
Harsh and Gentle Readers
The night before reading from my memoir, Married at Fourteen, at a bookstore in Mendocino on the coast of Northern California, I stayed at a B&B in Albion. In the bookcase in my room was a first-edition copy of The Marble Faun, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I opened it to the Introduction, in which Hawthorne questions the loyalty, indeed the very existence, of the “Gentle Reader” who is “appreciative of his success, indulgent of his short-comings, and, in all respects, closer and kinder than a brother.”
I hadn’t previously given much thought to the 19th-century convention of addressing the Gentle Reader, but I now recognized it at once as not so much a belief that any particular reader would be gentle as a wish for him or her to be so. Since Married at Fourteen came out, I have, thankfully, been blessed by many gentle readers who have applied such adjectives as lively, instructive, gripping, inspiring, and entertaining to my book.
Nevertheless, I’ve learned that to expect all readers to be gentle is to be naïve. There are people who are not only ready to dislike a book, but also to hate the author, judge harshly, and pounce. Before my book came out, some people who had read all or part of it told me I was courageous to publish it. At the time, I didn’t really know what they were talking about. I didn’t feel courageous; I was simply telling the truth of my life. But after encountering some not-so-gentle readers, now I know.
Recently, I heard Jeanette Winterson, author of the memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, speak at a writer’s conference. One of the things she said was, “To write is to be misunderstood. If you can’t take being misunderstood, you should go into another line of work.” She also said, “Don’t expect everyone to understand or sympathize with your point of view. No matter how clearly you articulate it, some people never will.”
This was oddly comforting to me, because I had definitely encountered misunderstanding. In the first half of my book, I try to reconstruct what I was thinking and feeling as a troubled teenager between the ages of 12 and 19, and show how I gradually matured. Most people understand what I am doing in this part of the book, but some confuse who I was as a juvenile delinquent and teen mother with who I am today. Moreover, some have judged me as an adult based on things I did before I turned 20.
I think people should be judged on their triumphs and the things they do right rather than on their failures and mistakes. I also think people are redeemable and should be forgiven, especially children and adolescents who have done things that everyone would agree are wrong, but even many adults who have turned their lives around after breaking the law, being addicted to drugs, or doing things that are hurtful to others.
One of the reasons I love to read is that I can learn about characters who are very different from myself, people I could not imagine being or even being friends with. I like to open my mind and heart to such people. Most of us are neither villains nor saints, but have strengths and weaknesses. We have done some foolish things and some admirable ones, and we are deserving of each other’s respect.
I hadn’t previously given much thought to the 19th-century convention of addressing the Gentle Reader, but I now recognized it at once as not so much a belief that any particular reader would be gentle as a wish for him or her to be so. Since Married at Fourteen came out, I have, thankfully, been blessed by many gentle readers who have applied such adjectives as lively, instructive, gripping, inspiring, and entertaining to my book.
Nevertheless, I’ve learned that to expect all readers to be gentle is to be naïve. There are people who are not only ready to dislike a book, but also to hate the author, judge harshly, and pounce. Before my book came out, some people who had read all or part of it told me I was courageous to publish it. At the time, I didn’t really know what they were talking about. I didn’t feel courageous; I was simply telling the truth of my life. But after encountering some not-so-gentle readers, now I know.
Recently, I heard Jeanette Winterson, author of the memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, speak at a writer’s conference. One of the things she said was, “To write is to be misunderstood. If you can’t take being misunderstood, you should go into another line of work.” She also said, “Don’t expect everyone to understand or sympathize with your point of view. No matter how clearly you articulate it, some people never will.”
This was oddly comforting to me, because I had definitely encountered misunderstanding. In the first half of my book, I try to reconstruct what I was thinking and feeling as a troubled teenager between the ages of 12 and 19, and show how I gradually matured. Most people understand what I am doing in this part of the book, but some confuse who I was as a juvenile delinquent and teen mother with who I am today. Moreover, some have judged me as an adult based on things I did before I turned 20.
I think people should be judged on their triumphs and the things they do right rather than on their failures and mistakes. I also think people are redeemable and should be forgiven, especially children and adolescents who have done things that everyone would agree are wrong, but even many adults who have turned their lives around after breaking the law, being addicted to drugs, or doing things that are hurtful to others.
One of the reasons I love to read is that I can learn about characters who are very different from myself, people I could not imagine being or even being friends with. I like to open my mind and heart to such people. Most of us are neither villains nor saints, but have strengths and weaknesses. We have done some foolish things and some admirable ones, and we are deserving of each other’s respect.
April 18, 2013
Learning from Mistakes
Here's an article about my memoir, Married at Fourteen, that appeared in the Contra Costa Times: http://www.contracostatimes.com/orind...
April 4, 2013
Northern California Book Award Finalist!
Today I learned that my memoir, Married at Fourteen, is one of five finalists for the Northern California Book Award in the Creative Nonfiction category: http://poetryflash.org/programs/?p=nc....
The winner will be announced on May 19 at a ceremony in San Francisco.
The winner will be announced on May 19 at a ceremony in San Francisco.
March 20, 2013
Goodreads Q&A
On March 14, 2013, I did a Goodreads Author Q&A: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/9...
I answered questions about my memoir, Married at Fourteen: A True Story, and my children's book, Chain Letter.
I answered questions about my memoir, Married at Fourteen: A True Story, and my children's book, Chain Letter.
Get Lit Interview
On February 15, Peter Crooks of Diablo magazine interviewed me for Walnut Creek's Get Lit TV program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iOc3Z...
The topic was my memoir, Married at Fourteen: A True Story.
The topic was my memoir, Married at Fourteen: A True Story.
