Last month I signed up for an online writing class. Unfortunately, I'm finding the class to be less inspiring and considerably less critique-oriented than I had hoped it would be. This means that instead of being engaged in the world of a short story I'm creating, I'm finding myself struggling to care about what even happens to these people. Not the best angle from which to write. But..... I very much want to write and am hoping that perhaps I could pick up the slack here on Love Invents Us. I've got some post ideas swirling around in my head, but I so very much enjoyed the participation on my Whatcha Reading? post, that I'm going to try that again.
So, if you're reading this I am talking to you. Is there any particular topic that you'd like to read about or are there any questions that you've had while reading this blog that you'd like to have answered? I'm open to at least entertaining any ideas you have and hope that you will play along. You can leave your idea in the comments or send me an email at loveinventsus@gmail. Thanks in advance for humoring me. ;)
Parenting Right Now
2 years ago
4 comments:
What a great picture!
What I would like to know is how being at home all day with Yogi feels...what, if any, plans you have to return to "work" (as opposed to the *work* of staying home with a child) are, and, most especially, how these changes have affected your view of yourself. We are such a career/job-obsessed society that identity and employment often seem inseparable. I ask because in my heart of hearts I think I might want to do the same and am wondering what expected and unexpected changes it entails...
I've been off the grid this week (finishing an eighty-one page chapter draft, which I turned it yesterday!), but I saw this and wanted to respond. I love that you're writing, and I love that you're doing it with an educational background outside of the Creative Writing culture. I have several friends who are a part of that scene (MFAs and CW PhDs), and who are exceptional writers, so I would never want to speak ill of it. But sometimes I think that the prominence of that world in the U.S. right now makes it difficult for American writers with different life/educational experiences to participate.
This seems problematic to me, if for no other reason than the fact that very few of my favorite writers are products of that system. Anyway, all this is to say that I adore that you're using your talent and education this way right now. Even my psychology *undergrad* helped me when I started in the literature world. I was afraid that not having an English undergrad would put me behind, but it didn't at all. This may not all pertain to you (you may have both English and psychology degrees, or any number of others), but for what it's worth, I can only imagine that - with your natural ease as a writer, your education, and your subject position - you are poised to say a number of things that need saying right now.
As to what those things might be: as a contemporary lit scholar, and a queer woman, I find that there's a HUGE absence of really good texts about alternative families. T Cooper is one of the few to do this at all, and when he transitioned, I sort of felt like we lost him (this is obviously complicated, but I feel like he sacrificed his voice as a masculine female). I teach an American Culture and Lit course, and, when it comes time to choose texts to represent the queer movement, I always feel a little stymied. I usually use /Angels in America/ and /Lipshitz 6/, but even these texts reify some of the assumptions I'm trying to get students to move beyond. I would love to read something that refused the necessity of biology to motherhood. I'd love a text that forced me to put down gender assumptions. And I'd love to hear more about your experiences with that stuff here. My father was adopted in the 1930s, and I think it was pretty clear to him that if his adoptive parents could have made more children, they would have preferred that. I wish I could say that has changed, but I don't think it has. 80% of American women give birth to children. Most of the remaining 20% remain childless. So what of the 2-5% of mothers who don't share biological material with their children? I think you're especially positioned to explore this because, as I understand it, that was your choice from the beginning. Which means that somehow, you never internalized that cultural mandate. So I think it would be really lovely if you used your voice to help other women learn how to un-internalize it.
Anyway, if this doesn't make sense, blame my draft-addled brain. ;) And regardless, good luck in this worthy pursuit!
I know it was awhile back, but thanks for chiming in. Your idea is a good one. I'll get on that. ;)
Yay for you and clearing the chapter hurdle!!!
Thanks for saying what you did here. I've been feeling a bit invisible lately and your words were bolstering.
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