Wednesday, November 20, 2024
GAGE 1st Wave Feminist
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45580/45580-h/45580-h.htm
https://susanbanthonyhouse.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Matilda-Joslyn-Gage-WNLC-1890.pdf
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Monday, November 18, 2024
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
1st Terry Pratchet
EQUAL RITES
"If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing badly."
Words to live by for any would-be artist.
And,
"...a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance."
To remember when confronted by one's own or another's dogma.
Or the lack of agency inherent in a situation beyond your control.
"Sometimes you just have to go the way things take you."
Wisdom for wonderlings:
"The important thing about magic is how you don't use it."
"Coruscate" does seem to describe Pratchet's light touch with fiction.
Monday, October 28, 2024
"Conversation" with ChatGPT on Writer's Block
https://chatgpt.com/share/41ac8582-77d0-4b81-b783-753c639f9eee
Limbic System and Writer's Block
April 28, 2024
This conversation may reflect the link creator’s personalized data, which isn’t shared and can meaningfully change how the model responds.
You said:
How does the mid or mammalian brain contribute to writers block?
ChatGPT said:
ChatGPT
Writer's block can be caused by a complex interplay of psychological and neurological factors. While it is not directly related to a single part of the brain, the "mid" or "mammalian" brain—commonly referred to as the limbic system—plays a significant role in emotions and memory, which can contribute to the experience of writer's block. Here's how:
Emotional Responses: The limbic system is responsible for processing emotions, including anxiety and stress. When a writer experiences high levels of anxiety or fear (such as fear of failure or fear of criticism), it can activate the limbic system, leading to increased stress hormones like cortisol. This emotional response can lead to avoidance behaviors, such as avoiding writing altogether, and can impair creative thinking.
Memory and Associations: The limbic system includes the hippocampus, which is crucial for memory formation and retrieval. If a writer has had negative experiences related to writing—such as harsh feedback, failure, or rejection—these memories might be triggered by the act of writing, leading to emotional distress and contributing to writer's block.
Fight-or-Flight Response: The limbic system is involved in the body's fight-or-flight response. If the brain perceives writing as a threat due to the stress it may cause, this system can trigger a state of heightened alertness, diverting energy and focus away from creative tasks like writing.
To manage writer's block stemming from these limbic system responses, writers can consider strategies to mitigate stress and emotional tension. This might include mindfulness techniques, relaxation exercises, establishing a calming writing environment, or reframing negative thoughts about writing. Building positive associations with writing by setting small, achievable goals and rewarding oneself can also help rewire the brain's emotional responses to writing tasks.
You said:
Neurologically, how and why do these strategies work?
ChatGPT said:
ChatGPT
Strategies to manage writer's block work neurologically by targeting different pathways and systems in the brain to reduce stress, improve focus, and rewire negative associations with writing. Here's how and why these strategies work:
1. Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques
Mechanism: Mindfulness practices, such as meditation or deep breathing exercises, activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which counters the stress response triggered by the limbic system.
Benefits: By calming the mind and reducing cortisol levels, mindfulness can decrease anxiety and improve concentration. This leads to a more relaxed state, reducing the emotional barriers that contribute to writer's block.
2. Creating a Calming Environment
Mechanism: The brain is sensitive to environmental cues, which can either trigger stress responses or create a sense of safety and comfort.
Benefits: A quiet, organized, and pleasant environment can signal to the brain that it's a safe space, reducing the fight-or-flight response. This can lower stress levels, helping writers feel more at ease and more likely to engage in creative thinking.
3. Reframing Negative Thoughts
Mechanism: The brain has a tendency to ruminate on negative experiences, which can create neural pathways that reinforce fear and avoidance. Cognitive reappraisal or reframing can help break these patterns.
Benefits: By consciously reinterpreting negative thoughts and replacing them with positive or constructive ones, writers can weaken the associations between writing and stress. This can lead to the formation of new neural pathways, reducing the emotional impact of negative memories and promoting a more positive mindset.
4. Setting Achievable Goals and Rewards
Mechanism: Dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with motivation and reward, plays a key role in reinforcing behaviors. By setting small goals and rewarding oneself upon achieving them, the brain's reward system is activated.
Benefits: As writers complete small tasks and receive positive reinforcement, their brain releases dopamine, creating a sense of accomplishment and motivation. This can encourage continued engagement with writing and reduce the impact of writer's block.
5. Building Positive Associations
Mechanism: The brain's associative learning system connects experiences with emotions. Creating positive experiences around writing can rewire the brain's connections.
Benefits: Engaging in enjoyable activities before or after writing, or associating writing with things that bring joy (like a favorite song or a comfortable space), can help create positive associations. This can lead to a decrease in anxiety and an increase in willingness to write.
These strategies work by engaging different neurological systems to lower stress, boost motivation, and create new, positive associations with the writing process. By addressing both the emotional and cognitive aspects of writer's block, writers can gradually overcome these barriers and improve their ability to write consistently.
You said:
What if the block stems from the content itself? If the writer cannot say what they want to say because of subconscious material?
ChatGPT said:
ChatGPT
When writer's block stems from subconscious material or content that a writer finds difficult to express, it suggests a deeper emotional or psychological barrier. This type of block can occur when a writer is attempting to explore themes or subjects that are emotionally charged, traumatic, or conflict with their internal beliefs and values. Here are ways to address this specific type of writer's block, along with the underlying neurological reasons:
1. Journaling and Free Writing
Mechanism: Free writing allows for expression without judgment, bypassing conscious restrictions and enabling subconscious thoughts to surface.
Benefits: By writing without a specific structure or goal, writers can access deeper emotions and memories. This can help uncover the underlying sources of resistance, providing a non-judgmental space to explore complex feelings.
2. Therapeutic Approaches
Mechanism: Working with a therapist or counselor can help uncover subconscious blocks by exploring personal history, trauma, or unresolved emotions.
Benefits: A therapist can guide the writer through difficult emotions, providing tools to process and integrate them. This process can alleviate the subconscious resistance to certain topics, allowing the writer to access their material more freely.
3. Symbolism and Metaphor
Mechanism: Using symbolism and metaphor can act as a buffer between raw emotions and their expression, allowing for a more indirect exploration of difficult subjects.
Benefits: By using figurative language, writers can express complex or sensitive ideas without confronting them head-on. This can help break down resistance to certain themes and facilitate a gradual approach to the deeper content.
4. Reframing and Perspective Shifts
Mechanism: Changing the point of view or the narrative framework can help disarm emotional blocks by providing a different lens through which to view the material.
Benefits: Shifting perspective (e.g., writing from a different character's point of view) can allow the writer to explore difficult topics in a less threatening way. This can provide emotional distance, making it easier to address subconscious material.
5. Visualization and Mindfulness
Mechanism: Visualization exercises can help writers connect with their subconscious and explore difficult emotions in a controlled way.
Benefits: By visualizing a safe space or a supportive guide, writers can create an internal environment conducive to exploring challenging topics. This can help reduce anxiety and build confidence in confronting subconscious material.
Neurologically, these approaches work by engaging different parts of the brain to process complex emotions, reduce stress, and create safe pathways to explore sensitive topics. By providing a framework to approach subconscious material, these strategies can help writers break through their block and find a way to express what they need to say.
You said:
Describe how writing through the block, and/or addressing the block can provide a catharsis for both writer and reader.
ChatGPT said:
ChatGPT
Writing through a block, especially when it arises from confronting emotionally intense or sensitive material, can be a deeply cathartic process for both the writer and the reader. This catharsis emerges from the act of facing, processing, and expressing difficult emotions or experiences through writing, and can have profound psychological benefits. Here's how and why it happens:
1. Processing Emotions
Mechanism: Writing provides a structured way to process emotions. When a writer engages with their block and explores the underlying reasons for it, they begin to confront and articulate their thoughts and feelings.
Benefits: By processing emotions through writing, the writer can gain a clearer understanding of their inner world. This can lead to a sense of relief or release, reducing the emotional weight that contributed to the block in the first place.
2. Expressing Repressed Thoughts
Mechanism: Blocks often arise when a writer is dealing with thoughts or memories that are difficult to express. Writing through the block can bring these repressed elements to the surface, allowing the writer to give them form and voice.
Benefits: Expressing repressed thoughts can be liberating. It can help the writer release pent-up tension and move past emotional barriers. This process can also help them identify and work through any unresolved issues or trauma.
3. Creating a Sense of Closure
Mechanism: By writing through the block, the writer is able to create a narrative that has structure and coherence, which can contribute to a sense of closure or resolution.
Benefits: This closure can be emotionally satisfying, providing a way to move forward from the emotions or experiences that caused the block. It can also enable the writer to turn a personal struggle into something meaningful and complete.
4. Empathy and Connection
Mechanism: Writing through difficult subjects not only helps the writer but can also create a connection with the reader. When readers identify with a writer's experience, it can evoke empathy and a sense of shared humanity.
Benefits: For the reader, experiencing the writer's catharsis through their words can lead to their own emotional release. It can validate their own feelings and experiences, fostering a sense of connection and understanding.
5. Transforming Pain into Art
Mechanism: Turning personal struggles into art can transform pain into something beautiful or meaningful. This act of creation can provide both the writer and reader with a sense of purpose and transcendence.
Benefits: For the writer, this transformation can be a powerful way to reframe painful experiences. For the reader, it can be a source of inspiration and healing, showing that beauty can arise from even the most challenging circumstances.
By addressing and writing through a block, the writer creates an opportunity for catharsis that can resonate with both themselves and their audience. This shared experience can be a healing journey, fostering deeper emotional connections and providing a sense of release and resolution.
You said:
There are many versions of what constitutes our basic emotions. If we used a double axis with fear/anger on one end and joy/love on the other, how might a writer use this structural tool to process and resolve painful memories?
ChatGPT said:
ChatGPT
Using a double-axis model with fear/anger on one end and joy/love on the other can provide a useful framework for a writer to process and resolve painful memories. This structure can help visualize emotional states and transitions, allowing for a more organized approach to storytelling and emotional exploration. Here's how a writer might use this model:
1. Mapping Emotions Along the Axes
Mechanism: By plotting emotions along a double-axis, a writer can visually represent the emotional spectrum and the relationships between different emotions.
Benefits: This helps the writer see where their painful memories fall on the spectrum and identify patterns of emotional movement. For example, anger may shift toward fear or love, indicating different narrative arcs or emotional resolutions.
2. Identifying Contrasting Emotions
Mechanism: The double-axis model encourages the writer to consider how contrasting emotions interact. If a painful memory is associated with fear, the writer can explore how love or joy might counterbalance it.
Benefits: This structure can guide the writer in creating a journey of emotional growth and transformation. For example, moving from fear to love or from anger to joy can represent a significant emotional shift and a path toward healing.
3. Creating Character Arcs
Mechanism: By using the double-axis model, a writer can design character arcs that demonstrate emotional growth. Characters can start from a point of fear or anger and gradually move toward joy or love.
Benefits: This approach allows for a clear progression in the story, providing a sense of direction and resolution. As characters move along the axes, they can face challenges that help them overcome their initial emotional state.
4. Developing Conflict and Resolution
Mechanism: The double-axis model can help a writer structure conflict and resolution within a story. Conflict might arise from characters experiencing fear or anger, while resolution comes from finding joy or love.
Benefits: This model can serve as a guide for building tension and resolving it in a satisfying way. Writers can explore how different events or relationships contribute to shifts in emotional states, creating a cohesive narrative arc.
5. Exploring Emotional Nuance
Mechanism: By visualizing emotions on a double-axis, a writer can explore the complexity and nuance of emotions. This allows for a more layered and realistic portrayal of emotional experiences.
Benefits: Writers can show that emotions aren't static; they can fluctuate and coexist. For example, a character might experience anger and love simultaneously, adding depth to their portrayal. This model encourages exploring these nuances to create multidimensional characters.
6. Using the Model for Catharsis
Mechanism: The double-axis model can guide a writer toward catharsis by illustrating the path from pain to healing. Moving from fear/anger to joy/love symbolizes a journey toward emotional resolution and growth.
Benefits: This journey can be cathartic for both the writer and the reader. As characters confront and resolve painful emotions, they embody the process of overcoming and healing, which can be profoundly satisfying.
In summary, using a double-axis model with fear/anger on one end and joy/love on the other can be a valuable structural tool for a writer to process painful memories. This framework offers a visual representation of emotional states, helps organize character arcs and conflicts, and facilitates the journey toward emotional resolution and catharsis.
You said:
Please list and map secondary emotions that would adhere to this primary axis model.
ChatGPT said:
ChatGPT
Secondary emotions are more complex than primary emotions and often arise from a blend of basic feelings. In the context of the double-axis model with fear/anger on one end and joy/love on the other, secondary emotions can be mapped along the spectrum to better understand their relationships and transitions.
Mapping Primary and Secondary Emotions on a Double Axis
Axis 1: Fear/Anger
Axis 2: Joy/Love
1. Emotions Near Fear
Primary Emotion: Fear
Secondary Emotions:
Anxiety: A pervasive sense of apprehension and worry, usually linked to fear.
Panic: An intense burst of fear or dread, often accompanied by physical symptoms.
Dread: A deep, prolonged fear about something that is expected or foreseen.
2. Emotions Near Anger
Primary Emotion: Anger
Secondary Emotions:
Frustration: The feeling of being blocked or thwarted, often leading to anger.
Rage: An intense form of anger, usually with a loss of control.
Resentment: A lingering feeling of anger or bitterness due to perceived unfairness.
3. Emotions Near Joy
Primary Emotion: Joy
Secondary Emotions:
Happiness: A general feeling of contentment and well-being.
Excitement: An intense, enthusiastic response to positive stimuli.
Euphoria: An extreme state of happiness or bliss, often heightened.
4. Emotions Near Love
Primary Emotion: Love
Secondary Emotions:
Affection: A gentle form of love or fondness for someone or something.
Compassion: A deeper sense of caring for others' suffering, often linked to love.
Gratitude: A feeling of thankfulness, often resulting from acts of kindness or love.
5. Emotions at Intermediate Points
Between Fear and Anger
Disgust: A complex emotion that can arise from fear, anger, or both.
Contempt: A mix of anger and disgust, with an underlying feeling of superiority.
Between Anger and Joy
Satisfaction: A positive feeling following the resolution of anger or frustration.
Relief: A sense of relaxation after an intense emotional state (anger or fear).
Between Joy and Love
Contentment: A stable state of happiness and satisfaction, often influenced by love.
Peace: A sense of inner tranquility and harmony, typically associated with both joy and love.
Between Love and Fear
Guilt: A complex emotion arising from a conflict between love and fear.
Shame: A blend of fear and a loss of love, leading to a diminished sense of self-worth.
Conclusion
This mapping of secondary emotions on the double-axis model allows for a nuanced understanding of how emotions interconnect and transition. By locating secondary emotions on this spectrum, a writer can better explore the complexity of characters and narrative arcs, illustrating the fluidity and multidimensionality of emotional experiences.
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
The Lady Writer Newsletter
https://www.theoi.com/Flora1.html
Her newsletter makes me believe she really is in it for the fun.
Quote:
"No other modern language known to me has the exact equivalent of the English 'fun'. The Dutch 'aardigkeit' perhaps comes nearest to it (derived from "aard" which means the same as 'Art' and 'Wesen' in German, and thus evidence, perhaps, that the matter cannot be reduced further). We may note in passing that 'fun' in its current usage is of rather recent origin. French, oddly enough, has no corresponding term at all; German half makes up for it by 'Spass' and 'Witz' together. Nevertheless it is precisely this fun-element that characterizes the essence of play. Here we have to do with an absolutely primary category of life, familiar to everybody at a glance right down to the animal level.
This is from Dutch historian, Johan Huizinga's book, Homo Ludens, in which he argues that play is a process through which culture is created and continues to develop.
I don't know if he's correct about the word, 'fun', but I definitely think he makes some interesting points about the creative power of play."
The synchronicity of this popping up in my inbox while reading PLAYGROUND was just too good not to note : )
PLAYGROUND by Richard Powers
About emotional responses while reading. Time is controlled in a way reality rarely allows. The feelings can fall and rise, fly and sink, as in a warp. Fear, anger, sadness and joy can occupy the same moment and the experience mined for varied nuance, combinations savored and explored. Or, the onrush of insight afforded by the elevated point of view of observer can allow the tears to well, willingly or resentfully, toward release. How we release is our secret measuring tool of the reaped rewards of reading.
Notes:
Monday, October 21, 2024
Sunday, October 13, 2024
Tuesday, October 01, 2024
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Friday, July 19, 2024
HAIDUN
http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/haibun.htm
The haibun is prose (or a prose poem) interleaved with one or more haiku:
The prose is not an explanation of the haiku.
The haiku is not a linear continuation of the prose.
Make each word count in the prose text, as in a prose poem.
Compact micro-haibun limit the prose text, such as to 20-to-180 words. Most commonly only one haiku is included, placed after the prose, and serving as a climax or epiphany to what came before.
Many haibun include more than one haiku and longer text than the above range, as long as the resulting work is strong enough.
The juxtaposition of prose and haiku is important.
The prose should add to the depth with which we experience the haiku.
The haiku should add meaning to the prose.
You could think about getting some "air" (as the skate-boarders and snow-boarders say) between the prose and the haiku.
Robert D. Wilson, editor of the e-magazine Simply Haiku, includes these features for a haibun:
"a linked form. The link is between narrative, prose sections and one or more haiku."
wide range of styles and content.
minimal repetition of words and phrases; "what is written is tightly constructed".
strong haiku that can stand alone as poetry.
"Haiku ... relate to previous prose sections yet not be an extension of the prose. The oblique but relevant association between haiku and prose is the defining moment of the haibun. ... The haiku link offers readers a springboard to multiple, and often unexpected, meanings."The haibun is prose (or a prose poem) interleaved with one or more haiku:
The prose is not an explanation of the haiku.
The haiku is not a linear continuation of the prose.
Make each word count in the prose text, as in a prose poem.
Compact micro-haibun limit the prose text, such as to 20-to-180 words. Most commonly only one haiku is included, placed after the prose, and serving as a climax or epiphany to what came before.
Many haibun include more than one haiku and longer text than the above range, as long as the resulting work is strong enough.
The juxtaposition of prose and haiku is important.
The prose should add to the depth with which we experience the haiku.
The haiku should add meaning to the prose.
You could think about getting some "air" (as the skate-boarders and snow-boarders say) between the prose and the haiku.
Robert D. Wilson, editor of the e-magazine Simply Haiku, includes these features for a haibun:
"a linked form. The link is between narrative, prose sections and one or more haiku."
wide range of styles and content.
minimal repetition of words and phrases; "what is written is tightly constructed".
strong haiku that can stand alone as poetry.
"Haiku ... relate to previous prose sections yet not be an extension of the prose. The oblique but relevant association between haiku and prose is the defining moment of the haibun. ... The haiku link offers readers a springboard to multiple, and often unexpected, meanings."
Sunday, July 14, 2024
Sarah Hall's BURNTCOAT
p39
There is art, the item, or the concept. And there is the story of art, which is not its interpretation, its meaning.
p110
It's all art, even thought, everything is.
Saturday, June 15, 2024
Saturday, May 11, 2024
AI web page on bibliotherapy?
Bibliotherapy: A Four-Stage Process
In bibliotherapy, participants are lead through a four-stage process of identification, catharsis, insight, and universalization with a character or theme in a story. I’ve also heard it described as a four-stage process of recognition, examination, juxtaposition, and self-application. With some analyzation, you can probably see the similarities behind these two schools of thought regarding the process. For example, identifying (or recognizing) yourself in a character describes a similar internal event.
1. Identification/Recognition
Have you ever been reading ardently for a while when suddenly an event in the plot or a character’s remark “strikes a chord,” causing you to pause and reflect on your own life? (I personally spend half of my time reading staring off into space.) At the moment you pause, you become aware of something about yourself or about life that has always been there but never been articulated thoroughly. During such a moment you are making a text-to-self connection (and you are entering the first stage of bibliotherapy).
2. Catharsis/Examination
The word “catharsis” is Greek for “cleansing.” In this step, we arouse and release what has been suppressed after identifying it. For example, we often read, watch movies, and tell our own stories because we feel better afterward (even under paradoxical conditions, such as when there is an ending we don’t agree with). Even if the story itself doesn’t spark an emotional release, sometimes dialogue with others can serve this purpose. Our spontaneous responses (and the spontaneous responses of others around us) can reveal a lot. We often use storylines to release strong reactions to previously ambiguous issues.
3. Insight/Juxtaposition
Without guidance, a lot of us naturally stop the bibliotherapeutic process after identification and emotional release. (Well, the movie is over. Back to the dishes…)
Entering the stage of juxtaposition takes mental effort because it involves putting two concepts (or two storylines - your life and the life of a character) side by side in order to compare and contrast them. If taking on this task, it’s important to conduct it in an environment that encourages creative thinking (aka - not with pessimists). If role-models for behavior are possible in the characters, this should be discussed with an openminded person (or group of people) in a situation designed to stimulate original thinking, original connections, and playful attitudes. Creative writing activities can be assigned to solidify new understandings.
4. Universalization/Self-Application
If you find yourself able to integrate insights from the first three steps into your life (while truly sensing the human condition at work in your own story and in your own problems), you have successfully used the power of abstract thought to make bibliotherapy effective. If you take it further to face challenges with awe, cultivate an accurate sense of self-importance, and garner a new level of critical examination towards yourself and the outer world, the story choice and your participation in the reflection are a gift that will keep on giving.
Keep in mind, this can take months or years. Continual reflection and identity formation may develop as your mind wanders back to the story time and time again. Ultimately, you can use the process repeatedly to dive into yourself (while healthily distancing yourself from your life at the same time).
Final Clarifications
The four-stage process mentioned above is what makes bibliotherapy distinct from regular guided reading groups and book clubs. Educational professionals who have studied the process implement bibliotherapy in small group settings.
Sunday, February 18, 2024
Saturday, February 17, 2024
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Joanna Biggs A LIFE OF ONE'S OWN
Nine Women Writers Begin Again
Biggs has truly used reading as a way to heal. In the ideal bibliotherapeutic scenario, she has read, processed and re-envisioned herself in light of her reading experience.
Some quotes. (Reading digitally allows for snapshots of pages ut page numbers are more or less irrelevant given the size of typeface as well as the device can change pagination.)
Revisiting a book this way is a shortcut, some might sight a cheat, but I see it as another lifehack in this brave new digital frontier. Yea, we may eventually be faced with fallout, but in the meantime, let's enjoy all the ways it enhances our experience.
Authors explored:
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin
George Elliot
Zora Neale Hurston
Virginia Woolf
Simone de Beauvoir
Sylvia Plath
Toni Morrison
Elena Ferrante
and the author makes nine : )
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
BookTherapy
$50 online certificate?
https://www.booktherapy.io/en-us/collections/online-bibliotherapy-courses/products/bibliotherapy-literature-and-mental-health?goal=0_ed359f248a-8dad64535a-357157300&mc_cid=8dad64535a&mc_eid=2dd2dc4883
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Pure Gold
In his classic bibliotherapy treatise, THE STORY SPECIES, Joseph Gold says in his Appendix II:
Literature is the most important tool in the kit for constructing identy and building the whole story that connects the "I" to the "not-I" across space and time...but writing does something that cannot be achieved in any other way.
Literature is a major source of building materials...(re)construction is how writing functions in the healing process (because) the brain cannot process the reading of material we have written in the same way as it processes the writing of the material in the first place: Outside-in is not the same to brains as Inside-out.
Language, as an organizing principle, produces the controlling activity experienced in story formation by the writer. Writing creates a brain association that was not there before. We feel better when we move emotion to our language center, where we can name and control it. Writing is being seen and heard, and even though we are the one who has written, we must decode and interpret the writing. When we write about how we feel, we are both learning and clarifying how we feel. Writing is an exercise in self-efficacy and self-knowledge.
Health and balance require us to move away from overwhelming emotions toward organized objective reality. Feelings converted into language, establish order and control.
Through the medium of lanuguage, chaos and confusion is tamed and can be used as an informative, manageable reference tool.
How does writing therapy work?
1. Emotion moves between different areas of the brain--subjective versus objective--as it becomes language.
2. Objectivity creates a sense of "otherness" and provides distance necessary for critical analysis of experience.
3. Recording emotions frees us from carrying the sometimes overwhelming load of their chaotic influence, through the writing process, thus acknowledging and releasing them as history.
Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Monday, May 01, 2023
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Bibliotherapy? OK...sure, why not.
https://www.capegazette.com/article/bibliotherapy-sessions-start-march-9/254097
Utilizing a self-help book is not what I normally think of when I think about bibliotherapy, but sure, could be.
This group is charging $175 for four sessions where they will be reading:
Thich Nhat Hahn’s “Peace is Every Step: The Path to Mindfulness in Everyday Life.”
It's being offerred by a Delaware wellness organization whose intentions are good. Using self-help books as bibliotherapy,
as opposed to using literature, has been proved once again to be more digestible by the mainstream.
Or maybe, people are as likely to want to read a work of literature for their health as they are to want
to eat their vegetables.
Saturday, February 11, 2023
Friday, January 27, 2023
Reading Wallace Stevens: The Palm at the End of the Mind
I.
Look in the terrible mirror of the sky.
Oh, bend against the invisible and lean
To symbols of descending night; and search
The glare of revelations going by!
Dreaming feet
Mythy mind
Music is feeling, not sound
In witching chords.
Whispered refrains
Like willows swept by rain.
Death is the mother of beauty; from her,
Alone, comes fulfilment to our dreams
And our desires.
She searched
The touch of springs,
And found
Concealed imaginings.
She sighed,
For so much melody.
Upon the bank, she stood
In the cool
Of spent emotions.
She felt, among the leaves,
The dew
Of old devotions.
Death is the mother of beauty, mystical.
Beauty is momentary in the mind--
The fitful tracing of a portal;
In the flesh, immortal.
The body dies; the body's beauty lives.
So evenings die, in their green going,
A wave, interminable flowing.
The sun ... sets ... pacing
Death, ... knowing
Grieves.
Opening roses
The mind supposes
Floating colors;
Closes.
Noon a turning--
a Burning
a Yearning
For endless summer.
Changing autumn mellows
Moons glance
When night comes
Coloring
The cry of peacocks.
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing.
And it was going to snow.
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes.
I was of three minds:
Three blackbirds
In a tree.
I know a blackbird
Is involved
In what I know.
Friday, January 13, 2023
Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow...
https://www.amazon.com/Tomorrow-novel-Gabrielle-Zevin/dp/0593321200/ref=asc_df_0593321200?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80058314545423&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=m&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583657839528169&psc=1
So many things I enjoyed while reading...
learned about William Morris design known as "the Strawberry Thief."
and some cool quotes to give you a taste 🍓...
"Love is both a constant and a variant at the same time."
"Dead was OK."
"You can watch if you want. I'm going to play until the end of this life."
"There is no purity in art."
And discovered:
Tsuguharu Foujita, artist
and
Terry Riley, composer
https://youtu.be/aX96z7AuICs
Monday, December 12, 2022
Tuesday, December 06, 2022
Monday, October 24, 2022
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Friday, September 09, 2022
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
most last lines
https://www.flavorwire.com/167171/famous-last-words-our-20-favorite-final-lines-in-literature
more last lines
https://www.flavorwire.com/167171/famous-last-words-our-20-favorite-final-lines-in-literature
last lines
https://www.flavorwire.com/167171/famous-last-words-our-20-favorite-final-lines-in-literature
Friday, July 15, 2022
Find eBook Resources mostly with annual fee
https://www.aworldadventurebybook.com/blog/libraries-with-non-resident-borrowing-privileges
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Friday, May 20, 2022
Roethke's Waking Personal Edit
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
We think by feeling what there is to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
What falls away is always. And is near.
To you and me; so take the lively air,
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I feel I think I learn I go I fall I hear
My sleep and fear the more the end can care
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
THE SENTENCE
Louise Erdrich's novel is an ideal bilbliotherapeutic experience on so many levels. As a post pandemic, post Rump reader (though honestly, it's hard to know how post), I am moved by the depictions of emotional shock and confusion. Having felt those same things so recently personally, while reading, I felt catharsis bubbling up like peroxide from an infected wound.
The year we had our faces shoved into unspeakable fascist reality captured on cell phones and could not look away... The year I Can`t Breathe was heart- stoppingly impressed in our minds and our consciousness was forever changed.
However, Erdrich doesn't stop at social awareness for these two overwhelming issues alone, rather they are presented as an aside almost, as backdrop to issues that are all part of the sociological mess embroiled in the summer Minneapolis burdened with its rascist/colonial history.
So much to say about the rightness of this book for helping us process the fear, anger, despair but instead I just encourage all to read it for yourselves instead of my rambling review as diatribe.
As a (retired) librarian and obsessive/compulsive reader : ), I soaked up book and author referals sprinkled throughout gleefully and feel they need sharing as widely and indiscriminately as possible.
Reading can help us work through our tumultuous histories, both cultural and personal. We are all connected on the space time continuum. We rise and fall as one magnificently complex living organism sharing our breath as one inhalation/exhalation until our spirit is free.
Saturday, February 19, 2022
Saturday, December 25, 2021
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Sunday, November 21, 2021
Saturday, October 09, 2021
Sunday, September 26, 2021
Monday, August 30, 2021
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Rabbits by Terry Miles
Recommended by Cory Doctorow, loved discovering a new author and one also born in Sakatchewan. Add to that, the setting for the novel is right here in the neighborhood, main character born in Olympia with action in and around Seattle.
Gaming history melds into conspiracy theory with a sprinkling of quantum philosophy for good measure, RABBITS is flush with questing portals. "Look it up" is one of my librarian favorites and prompts side search jaunts into Wikipedia and Duckduckgo while reading. Not only did it fill in informational holes I didn't even know were there but extended my novel reading time. And this was one I was in no hurry to finish while not being able to put it down.
On that note, let us review:
Baader Meinhoff Phenomenon aka Frequency Illusion
Wednesday, July 07, 2021
Poetry and Psychotherapy
https://stenenpress.com/thoughts-on-poetry/
"The very poetry and party of the universe are reflecting back in tiny versions across the tiny minds strewn on earth."
"The untranslated that must be addressed in the psyche needs relation to a human, in real time, to be actually translated."
"In other words, we are all the “reader” and the potential “writer.” We
mutually create one another’s projected shit. “It requires two minds to
think a person’s most disturbing thoughts,” Wilfred Bion said. We make
it real. We mutually transmute it. We continue its life and add to it.
We make one another eternal."
Saturday, June 19, 2021
Poetry Will Process Emotions
https://www.firstpost.com/art-and-culture/as-poetry-charts-a-pop-culture-comeback-a-look-at-how-rhyme-rhythm-and-verse-help-us-express-emotion-9702931.html
"Words contagiously move us. As neuroscientist Christian Keysers explains in The Empathic Brain..."
"Of particular interest is the role of mirror neurons.
These brain cells fire when an action is observed or performed, and
they tell us a lot about how we understand the actions of others. They
suggest understanding comes from mirroring or imitation that takes place
in the brain but is acted out or felt in the body."
Wednesday, June 09, 2021
Writers Dream
Katherine Mansfield dreams of Oscar Wilde
Vladimir Nabokov dreams of seeking butterflies with a spoon
Ernest Hemingway dreams of war. . . and also sex
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Cinquain
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/cinquain-examples.html
Originally, Adelaide Crapsey created the form for the American cinquain with five lines. Each line is stressed in a specific way. Additionally, as the form progressed, a syllable structure was added.
Stresses Per Line
Explore the composition of each line by looking at the specific stressed and unstressed syllables.
- The first line has one stress, which was usually an iambic meter with the first syllable unstressed and the second stressed.
- Line two has two stresses.
- Line three has three stresses.
- Line four has four stresses.
- Line five has one stress.
Syllables Per Line
Following the invention of this form, writers made changes to the form and included a certain number of syllables per line.
- Line one has two syllables.
- Line two has four syllables.
- Line three has six syllables.
- Line four has eight syllables.
- Line five has two syllables.
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Philosophical Resource
Informationphilosopher.com
"Perhaps the most amazing thing about information philosophy is its discovery that abstract and immaterial information can exert an influence over concrete matter, explaining how mind can move body, how our thoughts can control our actions, deeply related to the way the quantum wave function (randomly) controls the probabilities of locating quantum particles"
Tuesday, May 04, 2021
Friday, April 30, 2021
Friday, April 23, 2021
Wednesday, April 07, 2021
Thursday, March 04, 2021
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Friday, December 11, 2020
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Monday, August 17, 2020
Friday, August 07, 2020
Friday, July 17, 2020
Monday, July 13, 2020
Monday, July 06, 2020
Friday, July 03, 2020
Robert J. Sawyer and the p-zeds
Oh wow, discovered new Robert J. Sawyer's QUANTUM NIGHT in ebook from library 💟 and am enthralled. Written soon after our last election, this theory of consciousness near future scifi novel explains much about the psychopath we have sitting in the WH, as well as his p-zed followers. Sawyer is one of the best, and Canadian to boot!
Thursday, July 02, 2020
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Sunday, June 07, 2020
Friday, June 05, 2020
Prompts from chapter headings...
Ideas for prompts from chapter headings of
This is how...
If I could...
Everywhere I turn...
Beyond the telling...
Before I die...
Being in time...
Complicated things...
How to empty...
A life of questions...
Inside the darkness...
Near the center...
Giving way...
Of course you can come...
The golden thread...
Instructions to my smaller self...
Inheriting now...
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Literary Terms
Major Literary Terms
allegory
- device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an
abstraction in
addition to the literal meaning
alliteration
- the repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more
neighboring words
(e.g., "she sells sea shells")
allusion
- a direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly
known, such as an
event, book, myth, place, or work of art
ambiguity
- the multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word,
phrase, sentence, or
passage
analogy
- a similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship
between them
antecedent
- the word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun
aphorism
- a terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or
moral principle
apostrophe
- a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or
a personified
abstraction, such as liberty or love
atmosphere
- the emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established
partly by the setting
and partly by the author's choice of objects that are described
clause
- a grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb
colloquial
- the use of slang or informalities in speech or writing
conceit
- a fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or
surprising analogy between
seemingly dissimilar objects
connotation
- the nonliteral, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested
meaning
denotation
- the strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion,
attitude, or color
diction
- refering to style, diction refers to the writer's word choices, especially
with regard to their
correctness, clearness, or effectiveness
didactic
- from the Greek, literally means "teaching"
euphemism
- from the Greek for "good speech," a more agreeable or less
offensive substitute for a
generally unpleasant word or concept
extended
metaphor - a metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or
throughout a work
figurative
language - writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and
is usually meant to
be imaginative and vivid
figure
of speech - a device used to produce figurative language
generic
conventions - refers to traditions for each genre
genre
- the major category into which a literary work fits (e.g., prose, poetry, and
drama)
homily
- literally "sermon", or any serious talk, speech, or lecture
providing moral or spiritual advice
hyperbole
- a figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement
imagery
- the sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion,
or represent
abstractions
infer
(inference) - to draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented
invective
- an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive
language
irony
- the contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant
verbal irony - words literally state the opposite of speaker's true
meaning
situational irony - events turn out the opposite of what was expected
dramatic irony - facts or events are unknown to a character but known
to the reader or audience or
other characters in work
loose
sentence - a type of sentence in which the main idea comes first, followed by
dependent grammatical
units
metaphor
- a figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or
the substitution of
one for the other, suggesting some similarity
metonomy
- from the Greek "changed label", the name of one object is
substituted for that of another
closely associated with it (e.g., "the White House" for the
President)
mood
- grammatically, the verbal units and a speaker's attitude (indicative,
subjunctive, imperative);
literarily, the prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a word
narrative
- the telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events
onomatopoeia
- natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words (e.g. buzz, hiss)
oxymoron
- from the Greek for "pointedly foolish," author groups apparently
contradictory terms to suggest
a paradox
paradox
- a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense
but upon closer
inspection contains some degree of truth or validity
parallelism
- from the Greek for "beside one another," the grammatical or
rhetorical framing of words,
phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity
parody
- a work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the
specific aim of comic effect
and/or ridicule
pedantic
- an adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly
scholarly, academic, or
bookish
periodic
sentences - a sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at
the end
personification
- a figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts,
animals, or
inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions
point
of view - the perspective from which a story is told (first person, third
person omniscient, or third
person limited omniscient)
predicate
adjective - one type of subject complement, an adjective, group of adjectives,
or adjective clause
that follows a linking verb
predicate
nominative - another type of subject complement, a noun, group of nouns, or
noun clause that
renames the subject
prose
- genre including fiction, nonfiction, written in ordinary language
repetition - the duplication, either exact or approximate, of any
element of language
rhetoric
- from the Greek for "orator," the principles governing the art of
writing effectively, eloquently,
and persuasively
rhetorical
modes - the variety, conventions, and purposes of the major kinds of writing
(exposition explains
and analyzes information; argumentation proves validity of an idea;
description re-creates, invents,
or presents a person, place, event or action; narration tells a story
or recount an event)
sarcasm
- from the Greek for "to tear flesh," involves bitter, caustic
language that is meant to hurt or
ridicule someone or something
satire
- a work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and
conventions for reform or
ridicule
semantics
- the branch of linguistics which studies the meaning of words, their
historical and psychological
development (etymology), their connotations, and their relation to one
another
style
- an evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction,
syntax, figurative
language, and other literary devices;
or, classification of authors to a group and comparison of an
author to similar authors
subject
complement - the word or clause that follows a linking verb and complements,
or completes, the
subject of the sentence by either renaming it or describing it
subordinate
clause - contains a subject and verb (like all clauses) but cannot stand
alone; does not express
complete thought
syllogism
- from the Greek for "reckoning together," a deductive system of
formal logic that presents two
premises (first "major," second "minor") that
inevitably lead to a sound conclusion (e.g., All men are
mortal, Socrates is a man, Socrates is mortal)
symbol
(symbolism) - anything that represents or stands for something else (natural,
conventional, literary)
syntax
- the way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences
theme
- the central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life
thesis
- in expository writing, the thesis statement is the sentence or group of
sentences that directly express
the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition
tone
- similar to mood, describes the author's attitude toward his material, the
audience, or both
transition
- a word or phrase that links different ideas
understatement
- the ironic minimalizing of fact, presents something as less significant than
it is
wit
- intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights
Poetic Feet
U
- unaccented syllable, A - accented syllable
amphimacer
- AUA
anapest
- UUA
antibacchus
- AAU
bacchius
- UAA
chouambus
- AUUA
dactyl
- AUU
iambus
- UA
pyrrhic
- UU
spondee
- UU
trochee
- AU
breve
- symbol for unstressed syllable
macron
- a "-" symbol to divide syllables
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