“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
“The failure of protection, the importance of recognizing the ways in which we influence (and infect) each other - the fact that being an "individual" can't protect you - these are issues I've been thinking about for a while.” ThinkingWayFactsIndividualIssuesInfluenceProtectImportanceProtectionRecognizingProtect You Author:Laura Mullen
“Maybe one way to think about it would be in the context of the historical development of germ theory. The problem of childbed fever was not significant until the development of a male-dominated medical establishment made possible the situation in which a professional might move from touching a corpse (for the purposes of study) to putting his unwashed hands up against, or into, a woman in labor.” ThinkingWayMadeProblemHandsMightWould BeMovingPurposeSituationStudyTheoryDevelopmentLaborHistoricalMalesMedicalSignificantOne WayTouchingEstablishmentCorpsesFeverGermsHands Up Author:Laura Mullen
“Helen Vendler calls this kind of interrogation of a work "roads not taken," suggesting that it's useful, when writing critically, to consider what differences it makes to the work or the encounter with the work if changes are made. It's one way of better understanding your experience, comparing it to other possible experiences you can imagine having.” IfsWayWritingKindMadeUnderstandingDifferencesTakenImagineMade ItOne WayCompareEncountersSuggestingHelenInterrogationRoad Not Taken Author:Laura Mullen
“It's painful, but it's part of the recognition that makes real healing possible, if healing is possible (the jury is out on that, that's the usual phrase - should I say the jury is deadlocked?). Staying with the pain, attending to it, being present to and with it - that's the task, because that's the only (as far as I can tell) hope of finding a way forward.” IfsWayShouldI CanRealPainHealingFindingsTasksPainfulRecognitionPhrasesStayingUsualShould IJuryAttendingWay Forward Author:Laura Mullen
“Star Wars film is breaking all previous box office records. (Why might we want to revisit those characters, that narrative, those jokes and tropes again, in this way, right now? I wonder what it will turn out to reveal about the economics and politics of this moment.)” WayWantWarMomentsCharacterMightFilmTurnsStarsWonderRecordsRight NowOfficeJokesEconomicsBoxesNarrativeBox OfficeTropes Author:Laura Mullen
