What caught my attention most in the first part of this reading was Lamott's use of understatements. When she describes the series of moments that led to her resolution to get sober, she states two horrific deaths in one sentence and her "point of resolve" in another four words:"Two of my best sober friends...shot themselves in the head and died. This got my attention"(188). She writes from a later perspective but keeps the thought processes like those she had as an alcoholic, which makes the first section candid and real.
I never knew why alcoholics became and stayed alcoholics until I read this: I knew they were alcholics and that they perhaps didn't want to quit, but Anne Lamott shows us how frustrating the cycle of 1.becoming an alcoholic, 2. deciding not to drink alcohol ever again, 3. drinking it again, 4. staying an alcoholic, 5. deciding not to drink alcohol ever again...is. It's almost as though alcoholics work really hard to justify their alcoholism--or ignore it. Her sentence,"I love to hear of their efforts not to see what was as plain as day" gives us a sense of how preposterous it is that alcoholics try so hard to remain blind.
Lamott keeps a very honest tone into the next section. I love the names she gives certain moods ("Butt Mind"), and how she describes how comfortable she was with herself...until something happened one day at the beach--something we don't find out about right away. I laughed out loud when she said "I had decided I was going to take my thighs and butt with me proudly wherever I went" (202). From this telling line we see that SOMETHING bad is going to happen at some point in the near future. We wonder: when is it going to happen? What's going to happen?
Then it happens, and I laughed out loud when I read how she compares the four teenage girls to "dogs from hell."Her incident is unexpected: will she lash out at the teenagers? Will she continue to feel awful about herself? She doesn't and that's surprising and wonderful! She instead feels sorry for them that they are already so self-conscious and will be for awhile--until they realize that they've got to let it go (IF they ever realize it. From what I see on television, many older women never let go).
Her conclusion--that she has a "wry fondness" for herself instead of a "desire to disguise" herself is meaningful and unpredictable. It is a cross between the two ways this story could have ended: she could have said we should overwork our bodies and always try to make them look amazing, OR that we could just totally ignore our images and 'let go.' She chooses the middle path: don't OVERwork it, but work it a little. Don't let go COMPLETELY, but let go a little. How wonderful is that?
--Laura Strawn Ojeda
It sounds like you enjoyed the pieces as much as I did, maybe the second one a little more than the first. I also noticed the use of understatements and the enormous amount of honesty she includes in her writing. I don't know if the magazines we are writing for in this class have a place for pieces like this, but I am glad there IS a place somewhere, like this book. I think one of the biggest things in creative nonfiction is relating to the audience and I think Lamott achieved that in both her pieces. Even though I'm not an alcoholic or a middle-aged mom, I was able to see things from her point of view and appreciate and relate to them.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I also loved the reference to "Butt Mind," I think a lot of girls have modes of comparison like this. I think mine is more "Hair Mind" haha.
-Katie Huffman
I loved them! The second one was great and a little more relatable to me--that's maybe why I came off as liking it more :) I bet there are a lot of places out there where this kind of writing is accepted and written. Poor Adventist world hasn't quite caught up yet! I, too, saw life from her point of view, and I'm not an alcoholic or middle-aged mom, either. I think I have a 'Hair Mind,' too! I think the one thing girls obsess most about on their own bodies is the 'mind' they have for comparing themselves to others.
ReplyDeleteLaura Strawn Ojeda
Hi Laura,
ReplyDeleteThe understatements are the driving force behind her voice it seems like. What I like most about her understatements, is the ability to out the reader in the moment. She makes the deaths of her two friends seem so abrupt, yet normal and passing. I can imagine that at the time, that's how it was when she found out about the deaths: abrupt, but almost normal in that community.
I agree that her conclusions are a surprise. I didn't expect her to say at the end of "The Aunties" that she thinks everyone should work out and get tighter, but I didn't exactly expect her to take pity on the teenage girls either.
Her voice is refreshing. I should learn from her how to be honest without being awkward haha!