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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
This was such an important an affirming read for me. The discussion of how, as an author, one goes about unpacking and communicating their trauma through writing was so relevant to me as a debut author. Gay discusses the importance of not using literature as a roadmap for trauma or thinking that explaining your trauma is merely enough of a reason to write for an audience. The relationship she defines between author and audience is so clear and respectful of the journey that each take to arrive at the work and I really appreciated this outlook. I wish it was a bit longer because I think there was more to explore - it also ended rather abruptly - but one of my most valuable reads this year. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.
It might be time for my yearly re-read of Hunger . Roxane Gay remains such a huge inspiration; the aforementioned memoir remains one of the truest and richest and most piquant accounts of trauma I have ever read. What I wouldn't give to do a workshop with RG! Maybe one day.
TW: trauma, sexual assault, police brutality
I was hoping I would get the chance to heal from the previous year by reading Roxane Gay's words about our shared trauma: a global pandemic and a sickening presidency. As someone who one day hopes to be a nonfiction writer, I was captivated. This perceivably short yet seemingly infinite essay discusses Gay's writing process when managing her trauma in her work. I was heartbroken at the realistic aftermath of navigating those vulnerabilities in interviews and press. She notes that writing trauma is ten-fold, as you don't want to traumatize the reader or re-traumatize yourself. Other topics include BLM protests, climate change, a class at Yale about writing trauma, her anxieties surrounding Bad Feminist and Hunger, her elopement and it's COVID safety precautions, her writing, her fear, her learning, her understanding, her misunderstanding. I highly recommend taking a moment to listen to this one hour long essay. You can find the audiobook on Scribd with a 60-day free trial using this link: https://try.scribd.com/roxanegay60/ - read by Ms. Gay herself.
I was hoping I would get the chance to heal from the previous year by reading Roxane Gay's words about our shared trauma: a global pandemic and a sickening presidency. As someone who one day hopes to be a nonfiction writer, I was captivated. This perceivably short yet seemingly infinite essay discusses Gay's writing process when managing her trauma in her work. I was heartbroken at the realistic aftermath of navigating those vulnerabilities in interviews and press. She notes that writing trauma is ten-fold, as you don't want to traumatize the reader or re-traumatize yourself. Other topics include BLM protests, climate change, a class at Yale about writing trauma, her anxieties surrounding Bad Feminist and Hunger, her elopement and it's COVID safety precautions, her writing, her fear, her learning, her understanding, her misunderstanding. I highly recommend taking a moment to listen to this one hour long essay. You can find the audiobook on Scribd with a 60-day free trial using this link: https://try.scribd.com/roxanegay60/ - read by Ms. Gay herself.
Short and sweet - not the topic, but Roxane Gay's writing. Funnily enough I came across Roxane Gay through our shared love of all things Bravo. It makes me feel OK about liking 'Real Housewives' if someone as smart as Roxane Gay likes them too! This is an essay about writing on/about trauma. I listened to the audio version, read by the author herself and was mesmerised. These are just some of her words that I found inspiring:
“To change the world, we need to face what has become of it. To heal from a trauma, we need to understand the extent of it.”
“There is no pleasure to be had in writing about trauma. It requires opening a wound, looking into the bloody gape of it, and cleaning it out, one word at a time. Only then might it be possible for that wound to heal.”
“Not all writing about trauma is created equal. As with most subjects, writers can be careless with trauma. They can be solipsistic. They can write concerned only with what they need to say and not with what an audience might need to hear. They assume that their trauma, in and of itself, is the only story they need to tell, or that having experienced trauma is inherently interesting. Or trauma serves as pornography - a way of titillating the reader, a lazy way of creating narrative tension, as if it is only through suffering that we have a story to tell. We see trauma as it unfolds but are rarely given a broader understanding of that trauma or its aftermath.”
“To change the world, we need to face what has become of it. To heal from a trauma, we need to understand the extent of it.”
“There is no pleasure to be had in writing about trauma. It requires opening a wound, looking into the bloody gape of it, and cleaning it out, one word at a time. Only then might it be possible for that wound to heal.”
“Not all writing about trauma is created equal. As with most subjects, writers can be careless with trauma. They can be solipsistic. They can write concerned only with what they need to say and not with what an audience might need to hear. They assume that their trauma, in and of itself, is the only story they need to tell, or that having experienced trauma is inherently interesting. Or trauma serves as pornography - a way of titillating the reader, a lazy way of creating narrative tension, as if it is only through suffering that we have a story to tell. We see trauma as it unfolds but are rarely given a broader understanding of that trauma or its aftermath.”
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced