copied from twitter because i want to keep this in my memory/engagement
going through galleys last night i realized something about certain of my books. the book in question is one of those that catalyzes an immersive experience in readers not through a wash of lush language, but through suggestion & evocation—maybe even INvocation. the book evokes an experience of deep engagement with trees, living among them, in relation with them. as an erasure project it uses language repurposed from other contexts; i had the choice of the words in front of me & how to arrange them, but i was not totally “in control.” i hadn’t actually *read* the book in years, as a book, as a reader taking words into my body & opening to their work in me. so i was surprised when suddenly i was transported back to times when i was actually living in the woods, various woods at various times of my life. it was more than surprise! the book’s text is quite minimal. it isn’t linear (that’s consistent in all my books i think) & i was not expecting my own use of words to affect *me* in that way. their use of the page-space does not immediately make one expect to be pulled into a wood but there i was, many woods, many ages…& i realized that what this book does is not really happening on the page but in the body & senses & memory & imagination of the reader. it’s not grabbing your hand & dragging you along. it’s a wind in your hair, the smell of wet bark.
My favorite engagement with my own work is when I (rarely) see it out of context and don't recognize it. It's a special feeling of stepping out of yourself.
ReplyDeletei love that, yes! or for me, forgetting myself. i both do & don't remember what i write, the actual phrase/word...sometimes. if i'm using a source text i'm less likely to remember. but often these days, with the large cognitive changes i am experiencing, i can't access the memory of the words that came through/from me, & there's a sense of coming to them fresh, like another reader. i like that a lot because it gives me a sense of how others engage the work.
Delete"So much of what I write is because I want to spend more time with an encounter I’ve had – with a place or a person, or an experience of reading, of watching a performance or of looking at a painting. I want to do this because I can’t stop thinking about the encounter, or because it brought me great enjoyment, or it disturbed me, or it was mysterious or strange. I like that as a writer or an artist you can combine your experiences with something else." (it's Amina!) [https://granta.com/amina-cain-patrick-cottrell/]
ReplyDeletethanks for this link--i need to read the full thing! also just ordered A HORSE AT NIGHT--have you read it yet?
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