I’ve been thinking about memory of late, reading the Lais of Marie de France—narrative poems of courtly love. The stories are fascinating, in the way that centuries-old stories so often hold a sense of magic and mystery. The lais—courtly romance narratives that were a somewhat new genre at the time—focused often on transformation, with talking androgynous animals, werewolves, and women who not only had agency but often had some means of escape from a bad marriage, often with the help of other women.
This line jumped out at me: "The act of writing in such formats requires less conviction—the doubt and smallness that can seep into the human psyche also seep into the medium we use to now process thought, with tweets and posts."
It's that word conviction. Are you familiar with the book, "The Great Cosmic Mother" by Monica Sjöö and Barbara Mor? In the introduction, Mor writes about her commitment to the book, living as a houseless person in Tucson toting the manuscript around trying to find a home for it. I admire that so much, that level of dedication to the story, to the work. Totally different from how most of us creatives give up so much for comfort in the face of challenges to our efforts to bring art into the world. Thank you for this post.
This line jumped out at me: "The act of writing in such formats requires less conviction—the doubt and smallness that can seep into the human psyche also seep into the medium we use to now process thought, with tweets and posts."
It's that word conviction. Are you familiar with the book, "The Great Cosmic Mother" by Monica Sjöö and Barbara Mor? In the introduction, Mor writes about her commitment to the book, living as a houseless person in Tucson toting the manuscript around trying to find a home for it. I admire that so much, that level of dedication to the story, to the work. Totally different from how most of us creatives give up so much for comfort in the face of challenges to our efforts to bring art into the world. Thank you for this post.
Wow I had no knowledge about this illusive piece of literature. How incredible! I'm bookmarking this lit for later read. ❤️