When Life Becomes Art

"The scene where you go down to the beach..." is sometimes how people start conversations about the book. That, or "I just loved the Ma and Papa characters," which Ma and Papa get a kick out of. Actually, this is how I talk about the events and people in Lost Edens when I talk about the book to people who can't start the conversation with "do you remember when we..."

Which is most people who have read the book, now.

It was a little weird at first, for instance, to refer to my sister as a character but now it comes pretty naturally. It was really hard to refer to the characters who got "new" names by their character name and not their real name. But now I'm struggling to remember one of their names in real life.

And so what were once memories become a story and one that was so faithful to my memory of events the story seems external now, which is actually nice. Sometimes people apologize and say "I hate to refer to your life in scenes," but really, that's what they've become. Scenes that are more detailed and honest than even the best memory would be six years after any event. Maybe that's why they feel like scenes now to me, too: I remember the actions but not the emotions or just how, exactly, the thought process went.

So life has become art in scenes and characters and you know what? The art is really kind of beautiful, even if the memories themselves aren't. So I don't mind at all when people refer to a scene or a character in the book. Every time they do, they're placing emphasis on the beautiful and it sure is nice to be focused on the beautiful rather than the pain!