Orner, Peter. "Writing about What Haunts Us." New York Times 12 Jan. 2013. Opinion. 15 Jan. 2013
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/writing-about-what-haunts-us/?ref=opinion.
I just recently read “Writing about What Haunts Us” by Peter Orner. One reason why I got hooked into this article was because it started with a sort of anecdote that I could relate to. Peter writes fiction and often feels like he is “dressing up” the truth. He tells a story about his father who got these new lambskin leather gloves and how a week later Peter stole the gloves from his father. “I learned for the first time how easy it is to just grab something.” Peter hid the gloves for a while and then took them with him everywhere he went—but he never once put them on. This is because Peter didn’t steal the gloves because he actually wanted them…he stole them because he was afraid of his father and since they had so little in common, the gloves seemed like a part of his father that Peter could hold on to. Although it seemed like Peter was trying to contort his theft in a made-up story, I also got the feeling that he was trying to convey an important message: That “well-made things eventually deteriorate.” Peter describes the gloves as “no longer baby soft” because “all the handless years had dried them up” and then compares it to his father—“pulling on the beautiful gloves with a rare stillness in his face and a kind of hopeful calm.” Peter now thinks to himself, “Was this what I wanted to steal?”
By comparing the gloves that eventually got dull and lost its softness to his father who was still hopeful and full of free spirit, Peter definitely wants the reader to remember the elements in our lives that don’t deteriorate. Peter also writes in his article, “Our imaginations sometimes fail us for a reason. Not because it is cathartic to tell the truth but because coming clean may also be a better, if smaller, story.” I found this line really deep and thought provoking. I think it’s telling us that writing fiction and disguising the truth isn’t always a bad thing to do, but sometimes you have to just face the pure truth to move on.
I think this is a really important message because often times we tend to ignore our fears or the ugly truths and push them farther away, pretending they don’t exist. Over the last year I have started to write a lot of poetry to express myself and my feelings. Sort of like how Peter contorts his fears through made-up stories, I find it much easier to disguise my fears beneath the symbolism and depth in my poems.
I skimmed through that article while searching for my own! You make a good point in your post. I think everyone has their own way of hiding fears, secrets, and emotions. It's important to express them, though, because then you can receive help or encouragement from your friends. When we shut ourselves inside, it's hard for people to reach out to us and become friends. Great post!
ReplyDeleteVery good job on your post! I thought your message was very true! Most of the time, people prefer to believe a beautiful lie than an ugly truth. I even do this sometimes, it's just much easier and often, I don't have the energy to put up with otherwise. Also, the poetry thing? I love it!! Your poems are beautiful, and I liked that you managed to bring them up without getting too far off topic. Very nice work.
ReplyDeleteHey Sophie!! This is such an interesting post. I really thought that the story about Peter has an extremely important message. We need to hold onto people, not their things. Personalities can never soften, but things without their owners become meaningless since they lose their purpose. I think Peter wanted something small that was a part of his father constantly, but without the people to use it, it just becomes a useless memory of theft, not of his father.
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