“I love that "furious and gorgeous barrage." That helps me see the relation between the introduction and the book's final section, where writing about a fire (and about the attempt to understand the event), also becomes an attempt to understand how writing might get closer to the fire, in so many ways.” WayWritingBookHelpingMightFireEventsRelationFinalsHelp MeSectionsGorgeousIntroductionFurious Author:Laura Mullen
“When I encountered "The Lady of Shallot" (to take a "for instance" allusion from the many in the book, this one from the "Etiology" section) it was still considered a "great poem." What does that poem - or rather a particular presentation of that poem (hey, admire this!) - do to a young woman?” DoeStillsBookYoungParticularAdmireInstanceHeyYoung WomenSectionsPresentationAllusion Author:Laura Mullen
“The boundary between expert and amateur was an imposed social-cultural "protection" which actually exposed a number of women to a fatal disease, because decaying matter, as the fireman said of fire (cited in the book's final piece, "Torch Song") "ain't got no rules on it."” SaidBookMatterSongSocialNumbersFirePiecesDiseaseFinalsProtectionBoundariesExpertsExposedTorchesFireman Author:Laura Mullen
“It seems all "protection" has to be monitored, considered, weighed and justified - I am suggesting we do that (but it's something Mary Shelley (and Gertrude Stein) also suggest). "Torch Song," the book's final section, looks at an arson committed by someone hired to protect the wilderness from fires, a catastrophic failure of protection!” LooksBookSeemsSongFireProtectFinalsCommittedProtectionWildernessMarySectionsJustifiedTorchesSuggestingGertrudeShelleyArson Author:Laura Mullen
“I can tell that I shaped the book very deliberately, after a great deal of thought, and that I insisted this piece function as a prologue, but I find the word "intention," confusing ("trust the art," as D.H. Lawrence said, "not the artist"). These speculations are perhaps better responded to by text and reader, rather than author.” ArtSaidI CanBookArtistDealsPiecesReaderFunctionIntentionConfusingSpeculationPrologue Author:Laura Mullen
“I had Paterson, and The Art Lover, to guide me for The Tales of Horror (written from 1988-'97 and published in 1999), but I still was so lost, back then, as I tried to understand what I was writing and how it went together. There was a draft of that manuscript that had all these brightly colored paper clips on the pages so I could visualize what I saw as the book's themes and threads - that was a long time ago.” WritingLongArtStillsBookTogetherLostSawsWrittenLoversHorrorPaperPagesLong TimeGuidesTalesThemeThreadLong Time AgoManuscriptsClipGuide MeArt LoversPaper Clips Author:Laura Mullen
“The most important aspect of writing the pieces that make up this eighth book was yielding to my obsessive side, letting my own "complicated grief" in on the process. You can imagine how tempting it is to try to fight the part of you that loops and loops, caught up in tangled sorrow from which it seems there's no escape.” WritingTryingImportantBookSeemsFightingProcessSidesMy OwnGriefPiecesImagineSorrowAspectCaughtComplicatedCaught UpObsessiveTemptingLoopsTangledComplicated Grief Author:Laura Mullen
“In the "Intervention" section of the book we go into that looping from a battery of positions (where healer and sufferer are blurred). I'm very interested in "repetition and revision" (to use Suzan Lori-Parks's phrase) and in the culture's desire to loop or repeat.” BookUseDesireCulturePositionPhrasesRepeatsParksRepetitionSectionsInterventionHealerBatteriesLoopsRevisionSufferers Author:Laura Mullen
