Open Me Carefully - Section 1

[Sara]

So, what does everyone think so far?

Do you feel Emily's love for her beloved "Susie" through her words?

What do you feel is the nature of Emily's love for Susan?

Did any of Emily's words touch you?

Were there any confusing points in any of Emily's letters?

How do you feel about Emily's playfulness of comparing her real life family/friends to characters from popular novels? Do you feel like she knew and understood those characters better than she understood those real life people she compared them to?

Anyone have any favorite quotes they'd like to share from Section 1?

[Sara]

First, everyone knows I LOVE this book...

I certainly feel Emily's love for Susie in her words. You can tell how Emily misses Susie when she's away and almost acts like she may never see her again.

I'm always torn when it comes to Emily's love for Susan. On one hand I can see how it might seem like Emily is "in" love with Susan. However, I have a few very close girl friends who I love in this same manner...and I think about the words I use when I write to them and it might seem like I'm romantically involved with them too.

Emily Dickinson will never cease to touch me...in the heart, mind, and soul.

Some of Emily's character comparisons with people she's close with confuse me. One, because I don't know much about some of the people she's discussing from her real life, and two, because at times she pulls very obscure Dickens' characters and I'm not up on my Dickens unfortunately.

I feel as though Emily had a greater connection with those characters in the novels she kept on a shelf in her room than with the people she might have seen or talked to everyday.

" - have all the fun wh' you possible can - and laugh as often and sing, for tears are plentier than smiles in this little world of our's -" pg10

[Tera, First Chick]

I think her love for Susie is very clear. I don't think its a romantic love. I agree with what you said before Sara. When I write/text/call my friends I could see how some of the things we say might be misunderstood if they were read with no insight into who we are or how we relate. We always hang up with saying we love each other and we sincerely do. It isnt a romantic love but I think love between really great friends is often just as powerful than a romantic love but in another way. I wouldnt think twice about doing anything for them or dropping everything to be there for them if they needed it. If I were to write their biography or eulogy it would be filled with sentiments of love maybe even an idolized love but not romance. Maybe Emily did have this sort of idolized needy sort of love for Susie but I dont think it was more than that.

I think when youre that good of a write you could write a cereal box and it would become touching. She has a gift that is certain.

That doesnt mean I always understand everything she says. And maybe I dont need to. I think the fun of poetry or any writing really is that its not always about what the author means but rather what we take from it. She could be talking about any number of things but if something she says invokes memories or thoughts of something else in me then that becomes what it is about. I think thats whats important is how we relate to it. I can relate to her work so I find it beautiful.

I think its great that she made those comparisons. We, or I, do the same thing with movies more often than books. Or characters from TV. All year long I have called one of my husbands co-workers Andy because he is annoying like Andy from The Office. No one knows what I mean but me and my husband and that makes it all the more fun.

I seriously need to start marking pages and quotes. I am awful at doing that and never remember them well enough to quote later on. my paraphrasing stinks so ill refrain from torturing all of you with it.

[Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie]

warning: i've had my 3rd iv treatment today & i'm not sure how loopy or not i may be as i try & type this, so forgive me if this sounds a bit odd!

while i do feel her love for susie, i also feel almost a desperate lonliness or longing in emily's words ~ perhaps from not having anyone physically close to her that she relates well with or... i lost my train of thought!

i do feel that emily's love for susie is passionate, though i'm not yet sure if it's strictly friendship though i'm leaning in that direction as of yet.

i think because emily loved and understood the literature of her time so well, it was natural for her to relate the people she actually knew in her life with those in the books she read and as it appears that susie also enjoyed much of the same literature of that time, emily used that as a common interest/link so as to engage susie in her letters. (it's a natural tendency we all have i think!)

i don't think emily so much understood the characters in the books she read more so than the people in her life as she enjoyed the characters in her books immensly compared to many in her life. and when one is as passionate & feels things as deeply as she did, i think it's hard to relate to other actual people in many instances and so i think she felt it easier & more enjoyable to live in her books and writing.

i'm not sure i got confused at any point thus far though i di get a little lost in the lofty language of the day (i think that's what i mean!) and though i read dickens & longfellow in high school & college (and enjoyed them then!), i don't remember enough to recall who's who & where they're from, so i'm glad for the footnotes!

at the moment i don't have any quotes that stood out for me, though that could be because i'm foggy from the meds!

[Joanne]

Sorry I haven't posted yet on Open Me Carefully. We were in Chicago last week visiting family. But now I am trying to catch up with reading this book.

Poetry is definitely hard for me. During section one, the 19th century style of writing was at times difficult to understand. But now that I am part way through section 2, I find it very slow going with so many poems.

Here's my question: I am totally stumped with the poem on page 72, #27. "Pigmy Seraphs, Vevay, Coterie, Ambuscade" ???? What the heck??? Please help!!

Thanks!