If arranging things is a form of communication, as Leonard Cohen argues in "Arranging Things: A Rhetoric of Object Placement," and I have the most beautiful bed side table in the world, does that mean I can rest easily?
Arranging Things Is A Form Of Communication
If arranging things is a form of communication, as Leonard Cohen argues in "Arranging Things: A Rhetoric of Object Placement," and I have the most beautiful bed side table in the world, does that mean I can rest easily?
The Pleasure of Exclaiming
My boyfriend told me that his fourth grade teacher told him that he should never use an exclamation point unless he wanted it to sound like he was screaming. Similarly, an English teacher of mine, the same one who played us Beatles songs on his worn out guitar and encouraged "floating free writes," told us never to use more than one exclamation point per story. In other words, our teachers have bred us to use our better judgment with our more profound punctuation; we should not exclaim too much.
While reading a Sarah Manguso story today, one of her short little ones that make you do an internal laugh and then wonder why you are laughing because it wasn't really funny but more just accurate about life, an exclamation point popped up out of nowhere and made me jump. What delight there was in seeing that excitement, that thrilling line-dot combination, in the most unexpected of paragraphs! I grew giddy just looking at it. I remembered what my teachers had said, how they had warned us, and wondered if Miss Manguso had ever received similar advice. I secretly hoped that she had, and that she had gone against it with the kind of confidence and authority that I know she must have in order to write stories so small and punchy that they're much like exclamation points themselves.
While reading a Sarah Manguso story today, one of her short little ones that make you do an internal laugh and then wonder why you are laughing because it wasn't really funny but more just accurate about life, an exclamation point popped up out of nowhere and made me jump. What delight there was in seeing that excitement, that thrilling line-dot combination, in the most unexpected of paragraphs! I grew giddy just looking at it. I remembered what my teachers had said, how they had warned us, and wondered if Miss Manguso had ever received similar advice. I secretly hoped that she had, and that she had gone against it with the kind of confidence and authority that I know she must have in order to write stories so small and punchy that they're much like exclamation points themselves.
You + Me + Cake = Fun
Come see me read at the Cakeshop on December 5th! Lots of other lovely people will be reading, hand selected by Miss Melissa Broder. Everyone's poems will be based on a song from Radiohead's Kid A album. Let's get EMO!!!
Microfiction Mania
Just got a new story published in Staccato, a journal for microfiction, titled Mondays at the Metropolitan Pool. It's about swimming. Dive in!
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