Thinking of you at this time of grief and sending love! I found your poems about your mom quite moving - thank you for those. Also I reread your HuffPost essay and was struck again by every detail of your experience. It's a great essay (and so relatable to me, obviously.) I'm interested (and dismayed) to hear the essays empathizing in some way with your mom haven't been met with enthusiasm yet. I worry that the only story many want to hear is the "familiar" one, if it can be called that - the story of the hypocritical parents or other authorities and how they harmed us. A story in which there is a villain and a victim, in which we can be angry at the villain. When the truth is that it is so much more complicated than that - and there is an individual story to be told for each human. There are commonalities to our experiences for sure but there is individuality as well and certainly room for empathy for the trauma our own mothers experienced. I'm working on a novel as you know and l hope there will be room in the publishing world for complex characters. Anyway, thanks again for all this!
Thank you! And so true—intergenerational trauma is an issue in so many families. I’m exploring in braided essays—maybe there are too many threads. I’ll have to revisit (again—I’ve been over them many times). I do believe there is room for complex characters—both in fiction and nonfiction. I put the essays away and will have the next look after the holidays.
Thinking of you at this time of grief and sending love! I found your poems about your mom quite moving - thank you for those. Also I reread your HuffPost essay and was struck again by every detail of your experience. It's a great essay (and so relatable to me, obviously.) I'm interested (and dismayed) to hear the essays empathizing in some way with your mom haven't been met with enthusiasm yet. I worry that the only story many want to hear is the "familiar" one, if it can be called that - the story of the hypocritical parents or other authorities and how they harmed us. A story in which there is a villain and a victim, in which we can be angry at the villain. When the truth is that it is so much more complicated than that - and there is an individual story to be told for each human. There are commonalities to our experiences for sure but there is individuality as well and certainly room for empathy for the trauma our own mothers experienced. I'm working on a novel as you know and l hope there will be room in the publishing world for complex characters. Anyway, thanks again for all this!
Thank you! And so true—intergenerational trauma is an issue in so many families. I’m exploring in braided essays—maybe there are too many threads. I’ll have to revisit (again—I’ve been over them many times). I do believe there is room for complex characters—both in fiction and nonfiction. I put the essays away and will have the next look after the holidays.