Memoir in the moment: live blogging Jeannette Walls talk 1/26/2009
Written by Joe Lucia as real-time response to Jeannette Walls talk: ******************************************************************* What follows are some quick notes that follow along with Jeannette’s talk in the Pavilion on Monday, January 26, 2009. Some more structured reflections on her visit and One Book will follow in the next couple of days. She starts fast, with an anecdote about "living in Pennsylvania," when the family car broke down on the way through the state and they spent several nights here. Just like the book, which opens with that image of a homeless woman, her mother, rooting through a trash bin in Manhattan. She then recounts her shame at seeing her mother and avoiding her in that moment. But when several days later Walls encounters her mother again, her mother counsels her to "tell the truth" about her life. She confesses that the ongoing shame about her past made her life seem a sham. The power of secrets. The difficulty of breaking through to tell the whole story, unvarnished. If she could make a rich kid understand the shame at poverty, that would make the book worth it. Also, the hope that the book might help others who grew up like her face & accept face their lives. A story shared with her by a teacher about a boy who hated books but loved Glass Castle as a "fine white trash story." That is why we share our stories -- to know our commonalities – she aspires to reveal some of those commonalities for her readers. The truth is a liquid, not a solid. To tell our stories, we need to discover our truths. So when her father "gives her" the planet Venus high up in the desert sky for Christmas, it was at once a great gift and a meaningless gesture -- a wonderful act of imagination and an act of desperation because he had nothing else to give. The Glass Castle -- her father's image -- represents a hope and a dream for the future. Hunting for the old demon Jeannette imagined under her bed -- facing it as if it was real and chasing it away through an equal and opposite act of imagination, that was to discover the strength of truth. In Amazon review of GC, she encountered comments from a reviewer named Becky, who was one of the people who had taunted Jeannette when she was growing up in West Virginia. Becky faces up to her demons and demonstrates a kind of powerful moral self-redemption. Back in WV, Sam the "bad kid" was destined to turn out "bad" because he was never given the gift of love by his parents, which, poor as they were, the Walls kids received from their parents. At a certain point, pragmatism takes over -- acceptance is far more useful than bitterness & anger when it comes to dealing with harsh experiences. The first seventeen years of her life were an Outward Bound experience. "Rich people need to pay for their hardships." Parents in taking away obstacles took away the gift of learning to navigate those obstacles. Anecdote of snooty question in the WV cafe from the snooty New Yorker. She asks the waitress about the special of the day on the menu, which says it's "fish." Jeannette asks, "What is the fish" -- waitress answers, "it's an animal what swims in the water," teaching by implication that the snootiness was empty, proved nothing but a lack of empathy. Jeannette admits that she still hasn't come to terms with everything in her past. Her mom can still embarrass her. When she goes to Oprah interview with her mother, her Mom has a steak from the hotel room service meal in her purse. Her mother denies having been homeless because even when she was living under the George Washington Bridge for six weeks, that was her home. Mom says "things always work out in the end." Jeannette says, "what if they don't" & her mom answers, "that means you haven't reached the end yet." The gift from her mom through this was a sense of optimism. After food and shelter, the most important human need is for dignity. This is what her mom seeks in her insistence upon finding the good inside of even the most absurdly difficult circumstances. Mom taught her "how to fall" and to see in it a gift. Because of her experiences growing up, Jeannette knows the different between luxuries & necessities -- how little we really need to survive. Don't ever apologize for your scars. Those scars make you interesting. They are marks of your strength -- they provide texture. Smooth is boring. Don't ever think that texture makes you less of a person. Just tell the truth & don't worry what anyone else is going to think of it. "How could you possibly forgive your parents?" "The one person I had to forgive was myself." "Secrets are like vampires. They thrive in darkness & suck the life out of you. Once exposed to live they vanish." You've created that monster. Confront it. It might turn out to be tour best friend.
Posted at 03:40PM Jan 27, 2009 by Catherine Kolongowski in General | Post a Comment
Glass Castle Blog
Welcome to the Glass Castle Blog! Please feel free to post questions or comments regarding the Glass Castle. If in your comments you include remarks which might give away part of the story, please include a ****SPOILER**** alert so that if a person has not read that far in the book, it does not ruin the story for them. The first story Walls tells of her childhood is that of her burning herself severely at age three, and her father dramatically takes her from the hospital: "You're safe now". Why do you think she opens with that story, and how does it set the stage for the rest of the memoir?
Posted at 07:47AM Oct 28, 2008 by Catherine Kolongowski in General | Post a Comment
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One Book Events
The One Book Program handed out The Glass Castle books to all students on and off campus in exchange for writing a note to home bound senior citizens. Breakfast bags were prepared by volunteers for the seniors and distributed to homes in the area. Faculty were asked to donate canned goods and $5 towards their books. The One Book events are underway.
Posted at 08:46PM Oct 23, 2008 by Marybeth Avioli in General | Post a Comment
Welcome to our new Villanova University One Book Blog Site
Our new One Book Blog will enable readers to voice their opinions and ideas on our One Book Selection. This year's selection - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls - will provide much discussion and ideas as we develop programs based on the reading. Please stop by and visit often. Share your thoughts! Participate in our various events scheduled throughout the year for our One Book Program.
Book distribution will take place October 7th at the Oreo (rain location: Dougherty Hall)on campus from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Students, please bring a canned good or sign up to volunteer to fill bags for Aid for Friends throughpout that day - faculty and staff - books will be $5 and request a canned good or volunteer time in exchange for department purchased books.
Thank you and enjoy reading!
2008-09 One Book Committee
Posted at 06:34PM Aug 25, 2008 by Marybeth Avioli in General | Post a Comment
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