rubber baby buggy bumpers
June 9, 2008
Pamela Paul calls it the anxiety of underspending. She’s referring to the cold sweats that parents experience when they don’t spend enough on their children. Like, maybe, as parents, we aren’t providing our children enough opportunities to develop into the potential uberchild and eventual super-achieving teen/adult that they can and should be. Paul’s book Parenting, Inc: How We Rare Sold on $800 Strollers, Fetal Education, Baby Sign Language, Sleeping Coaches, Toddler Couture, and Diaper Wipe Warmers–and What It Means for Our Children was quite interesting and addressed the reason for the anxiety I experience each time I enter a baby superstore.
Basically her book critiques the manufacturers of baby products and the marketing of their products to new parents. Marketing efforts prey upon our insecurities, as well as our need to give our children all the advantages that we can purchase. Then too, there’s the keeping up with the Jones’s aspect of buying bigger and better baby buggies, $35 onesies, and exclusive membership to baby country clubs.
Paul describes this new type of parenthood where “what we choose to register for comes to symbolize the type of parent we want to be and the way in which we want to raise our children.” Of course, this ultimately backfires because children learn from parental observance that their identity is tied up in what they own, or what they buy, or what kind of style/taste they display from their consumer purchases, and that’s ultimately rather sad and false. Somehow parents “throw out their healthy skepticism when it comes to shopping for their children because such decisions are deeply emotional,” and Paul goes on to write that when we’re wrapped up in nurturing our children, often logical thinking flies straight out the window. That’s how come we end up with far too much stuff.
Why are parents so anxious? Paul writes that many new parents live far away from their families and thus have no regular and ready support system to turn to when baby won’t latch on or sleep through the night. And most children of my generation (X, that is) were not breastfed because formula was pushed so heavily in the 1960s and 1970s. Not until 1982 did breastfeeding make a comeback. My mom won’t be a resource for any breastfeeding issues I may have because she bottle-fed me formula. Should I experience problems, I’ll need to hire a lactation consultant, which probably isn’t a big deal and won’t be a great expense, but still, I wish I could solely rely upon my mother’s wisdom. And yet, I have several friends, as well as my SIL, who can advise me about dicey breastfeeding problems as they occur.
Apparently the pressure to have an early-achieving child is immense. From what I read of Paul’s book though, it seems more geared toward urban parents. Getting their child into the “right” pre-school is key to baby getting into the “right” private school, ad infinitum. Since I live somewhere that there are few options, I’m not worried about whether my child will be accepted at a pretentious preschool, though I’ve long bemoaned the absence of a Montessori school (and possibly Waldorf, though it is not something that I have any familiarity with). And while I’m terribly skeptical of the current effectiveness of public schools, given the No Child Left Behind debacle, as a product of public schools, I have to say that I did okay, that Ian did okay, that we are both college graduates who can support ourselves, and thus public schools are where my child will grow and flourish. Ideally, I always hoped to homeschool. But the financial realities don’t allow for that.
So there’s a push for pre-natal education from the manufacturer’s of baby products. Crazy, I know. And there’s no research to support any claims that pre-natal education really works miracles. And there’s a push for all children’s play and activities to be educational, to be serving an objective. Parents push their children to read before they are ready, and learn their numbers and colors, too, all by age one, believe it or not. Because, apparently, it’s a status thing to boast to the other mommies and daddies that your baby einstein is so far ahead of the others. All of this over-education robs children of their childhood and their time at play. Toys and play are supposed to be for fun, not to reach certain objectives by a certain month.
Much of of the under two or three years old’s education, or edutainment, as Paul refers to it, comes via TV, or educational DVDs. Somehow popping a child in front of an “educational” DVD is preferable to popping baby in a playpen while parent showers or tends to dinner. The playpen option is what I was raised on. That’s how my mom made time to do all that she needed, unhindered by me. But somehow playpens don’t appeal to today’s parents. They liken them to jail and cannot imagine any useful purpose to playpens. And so that explains the popularity of baby in front of educational DVD. I’ll take the playpen, thanks. Our household currently doesn’t revolve around the TV, and I may be exceptionally naive, but I don’t expect for it ever to. Edutainment DVDs were originally marketed toward parents as a way for them to have a short break from baby. But now, they’re marketed differently. Baby and parent are supposed to watch together, learn together, interact together. And most early childhood development experts say that it’s ridiculous to learn about a flower from a TV set. That the logical thing to do is for baby and parent to explore those things together in real life.
Paul also suggests that new parents’ anxiety stems from their lack of experience around babies and children. While that is not the case for me, a whole generation of women, and men, didn’t babysit, or didn’t spend time taking care of younger siblings. And so the inexperienced impulse is to over-comfort baby, to want to be our child’s friend, which then leads to real issues with boundaries and authority. The over-comforting of baby goes hand in hand with wanting to create a perfect environment for our child, one in which she/he knows no pain, no germs, no failure.
And quite without having read Paul’s book, I felt that wasn’t the right path to take. Sure, parents wish to protect their children, but Ian and are are firm believers in the School of Hard Knocks. It worked for us. We both had working mothers who didn’t coddle us. Neither of us were happy all the time, for various and different reasons. Paul writes that trying to shield children from discomfort shouldn’t be a goal because it’s as if we’ve forgotten the essence of human experience. If we solve all our children’s problems for them, how will they learn to self-soothe? How will they learn to solve problems for themselves? It seems that the new parenting is actually creating a generation of completely lost children. And that’s scary. Paul mentions “problem-solving deficit disorder” which describes this generation of children who enter school without critical thinking skills or even the desire to problem solve. Children are easily frustrated when asked to work on projects alone because they are so used to having their parent do it for them. We actually see a lot of this at my university with Millennials who want we librarians to essentially complete their assignments for them. Coincidentally, Paul quotes from another source that Millennials have near zero-resistence to consumerism.
Expectant mothers are targeted for a glut of marketing materials from the start. Last week I bought a maternity top and two of those belly bands at a maternity shop. I received a starter pack from the cashier which contained samples of lotions, etc., as well as a Playtex bottle; our first. When she ran my credit card through her register/computer, she asked for confirmation of my mailing address. Creepy that it was already in the system. Now I expect to receive tons of crap in the mail targeting me and my baby as future consumers of unnecessary products. Basically, it seems, that companies use a hard sell and try to frighten parents into buying their products, otherwise they are not being the best parents or giving their children the best foot forward. Companies also rely on brand loyalty and are expanding their products to grow alongside baby.
One of the positive aspects of this boon of baby products is that mompreneurs are starting businesses that fill a need. And I’m all for mom’s going into business for themselves to make things easier for subsequent generations of parents. Often, they fill a need, a niche, that the mega-companies overlook. That’s how Baby Einstein (sold to Disney for $25 million) and Giggle developed.
Surely, the thing I liked best about the book is that Paul affirmed my thoughts about the necessity of toys, DVD, animatronic devices, etc. for the development of baby’s skills. There is no research proving that any of these thing help babies grow into smart beans. In fact, most media are detrimental to baby’s development. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that children under two not be exposed to TV, computers, or video games.
Here are two reasons why TV and babies don’t mix: “Studies show that high levels of television viewing before age three are associated with subsequent bullying, impaired reading and mathematical proficiency. A 2006 study in Pediatrics found that the more television children under five watch, the less likely they are to engage in curative play.”
And then this: “Early exposure to TV and video games conditions the developing brain to expect very high, unnatural level of input. Real life by comparison becomes boring.”
Perhaps its my Gen X skepticism at work, or something else, but honestly, what was good enough for me, is good enough for my children. In fact, Paul says that children get more out of playing with ordinary household (but safe!) objects than with all those expensive, expendable plastic gadgets with all their bells and whistles. So many parents are guilty about working too much or not spending enough time with their children that they buy buy buy. The average American child receives seventy new toys each year. How excessive is that? Companies rely upon parental feelings of guilt and manipulate parents into spending outrageous amounts on their children.
Yeah, I feel like I’ll be one of those nazi parents. Don’t let my child watch tv. Don’t buy my child plastic toys. Don’t over-protect my child from germs and falls and spills and such. And none of those cheesey singing animatronic holiday toys, either. I hope I won’t be too unbearable. No sugar, either! Haven’t even explored the issues around feeding baby.
In closing, I highly recommend this book. While Paul doesn’t necessarily offer solutions to warding off the problems she describes, awareness of them is the first step. Librarian that I am, I found the lack of bibliography disappointing. But she mentions books throughout its pages, and if you note them as you read, you’re all set. Paul does include several pages of notes documenting her sources, and that was reassuring. And by the way, the book was so well-written as well. Very easy to read.
Naturally I fed off the author’s vibe because I agreed with her assessments of the burgeoning baby market. Every other paragraph I was “Right on!” after reading “Parents who discuss the content of traditional books while reading to their children promoted early literacy, while electronic books encourages a slightly coercive parent-child interaction and were not as effective. The researchers described parents and children reading electronic books together as a severely truncated experience.
Two of the areas Paul wrote about that I didn’t address in this very lengthy post are the outsourcing of parenting and celebrity baby culture. Paul describes the plethora of services that baby and mom can take at upscale centers that include spa and cafe for parents and courses in which to enroll baby. Such centers seems as much an avenue for ending the isolation of new mothers as true educational opportunities for babies. Since the media focuses such extreme attention on celebrity babies, an entire luxury market opened up to serve them, thus $800 imported baby buggies and designer baby duds by Escada and Marc Jacobs.
Here’s a list of books from which Paul drew many of her statements:
Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Childrearing in America
The Hurried Child: : Growing Up Too Fast, Too Soon
Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety
Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture
The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind
What Kids Really Want Money Can’t Buy: Tips For Parenting in a Commercial World
cross-posted at bekka.
painful pushing
October 23, 2007
Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Materinity Care (2007) is one of the most fascinating books I’ve read all year. Jennifer Block presents a convincing case against the over-medicalization of the natural process of birth and advocates that women with low-risk pregnancies stay as far from hospitals as possible.
Birth plans give mothers-to-be a sense of control over an essentially control-less event. Most pregnant mothers are not informed that hospitals will not honor their birth plans. Once the hospital has the laboring mother inside its walls, she is doomed. Doomed to an unnatural process of drugs and monitoring and medical intervention.
Choice is thrown out the door once you roll through the sliding entry doors:
“It’s a illusion, she says. “No matter what anybody tells you in prenatal classes, or what your friends say, or what you read in books, the bottom line is, you will follow the rules of the hospital, and you will do what your doctor wants you to do. No matter what you think going into it. Sometimes I say your choices are very limited, but in point of fact, I don’t think women have any choices.” (166)
Much of the book’s focus is on the increasing rates of cesareans births. Across the nation, hospital’s cesarean rates should be around 10%, but most are around 30% or 40%. Cesareans have increased since the 1990s for many reasons. Hospitals and physicians claim that they’re scheduled because their patients request it. But actually its because there is less risk and liability for obstetricians when they surgically remove the baby. Obstertiricians can have a more normal life when they schedule their patient’s L&D between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The only way obstetricians make a living is to deliver babies. Their malpractice insurance is the highest of any medical specialty.
Then, another great concern of the book is women who want VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). Most hospitals and obstetricians refuse to let VBAC occur. In fact, Block cites Amber Marlowe’s case. In 2001 Marlowe waited at home until she was in active labor, with her seventh child, then drove around to several hospitals in order to avoid a section and being hooked up to fetal monitors, etc.
But, the first hospital said no to vaginal birth and told them to go elsewhere. At the second hospital hospital attorneys and judges petitioned for custody of her fetus in order to force a cesarean birth, while Marlowe labored for 14 hours. But before the order was handed down, Marlowe and her husband escaped and found a third hospital where she pushed her baby out vaginally. Marlowe’s was not the only frightening case in which the mother’s rights were disregarded mentioned by Block.
Gosh, this was an excellent book on the state of maternity care in the United States. Eye-opening, really. Block points out how feminists and women’s rights groups like NOW don’t support mothers; they’re only interested in abortion/choice. But what about mothers? Do their choices suddenly dry up while they labor and deliver? Women are medically assaulted by their physicians and nurses when they are given unwanted episiotomies and sections.
desegregating conn.’s schools
October 18, 2007
Sometimes I cannot recall why I’m drawn to a book, especially The Children in Room E4: American Education on Trial (2007). I’m not a teacher. I don’t live in Connecticut. Perhaps it’s because the book’s publisher is Algonquin Books. Good stuff.
Susan Eaton covered the education beat for the Hartford Courant and met many teachers, educators, administrators, and students. Her book describes the state of Hartford schools before and after the Sheff vs. O’Neill case which sought to desegregate the state’s schools. Naturally, Connecticut never had explicit laws segregating black children from white children. And the state’s school district lines are somehow different than those of other states in that townships are associated with school systems. I still don’t have a clear idea of that. But basically what it meant was that Hartford’s schools, and other urban cities in the state, were 90% minority enrollment. Connecticut suburbs were about the same percentage white.
Lawyers and educators pursuing the case wanted the schools district lines re-drawn and schools desegregated. They sued the state because it did nothing to prevent it’s schools from limping along in this manner. Like most cities after WWII, Hartford’s white population moved out to the ‘burbs because government loans made it possible to do so. Hence “white flight” and the decline of urban centers.
Very educational book. Eaton brings her readers inside the classroom to see what teachers and students withstand each day under the oppressive No Child Left Behind mess. Teachers can only cover what students are tested on. Students aren’t taught science or social studies. There isn’t any time for music, art, or recess. And students don’t learn critical thinking skills or exercise their powers of creativity.
An eye-opening look at our educational system. It’s probable that Connecticut’s problems are widespread. It’s upsetting to learn that despite legislation like Brown vs. Board of Education, that our schools remain essentially segregated. Children learning in and growing up in homogeneous environments are at a serious disadvantage when they get out into the “world.” It’s not only Black or Latino students who fail to thrive in the middle class work environment. White students lack perspective and have not the fainest clue how to relate to people who grew up in different circumstances. White emanate a strong sense of entitlement.
on photography
September 6, 2007
After finishing the Diane Arbus biography I dug out a collection of essays Susan Sontag wrote called On Photography (2001). Bought it ages ago and it rested on my bedside table at various times in many queues. There may be at least four separate essays included within its covers.
Struggling through the first one was enough to put me off. Probably won’t ever complete this book. Sontag’s writing is dense. And theoretical/philosophical. The best sentence or two that I read in that essay was a break from the heavy topics. It was anecdotal. If only much of the essay/collection was anecdotal.
Though I understood little of the essay’s content what I took from it was that Sontag mostly found the purpose and output of photography evil, manipulative, and aggressive. Since that’s not my feeling on the subject, I’m not thrilled to continue with such contention.
the business of crafts
August 9, 2007
Devoured Craft Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby Into a Business (2007) last night/this morning. It’s probably the best book I’ve read on the subject. Loved its cover; it’s so mod. The fonts, graphics, and colors inside were fabulous, as well. And that meant a very aesthetic read. Ilasco’s tone was nice and easy, yet informative. And who knew? I’ve been reading her blog for months and didn’t connect the two.
There’s a quiz you can take to test whether you are entrepreneurial material. I answered all questions correctly except the first one. It asks your approach to snowboarding. Would you (1) sign up for a class ahead of time, (2) wimp out and go sledding instead at the last minute, or (3) throw caution to the wind and go for it? I picked the last answer, but the first was the correct one because entrepreneurs aren’t reckless and are always knowledgeable and skilled. Or some such.
Anyway, Ilasco covers all the basics and then some specifics. So it’s the perfect book for those just starting out, or crafters needing to find their way out of a pickle. Or those wishing and dreaming for a creative job where they could produce and sell their handicrafts. Kind of like me.
Here’s a list of what all she covers (and much, much, more): work space, your business identity, naming your business, marketing, the role of blogs, legal structures, record keeping, mission statements, market research, protecting your work, vendors, manufacturing, pricing/line sheets, trade fairs, consignment, retail shops, advertising, marketing, publicity, salespersonship, dealing with huge orders, burnout, balancing your business with parenthood, and quitting.
One of the features I appreciated most about the book was her Q & As with successful craft-to-businessfolk like Lotta Jansdotter, Jill Bliss, Sunshine’s Scarves, Denyse Schmidt, In Fiore, port2port press, and Jonathan Adler, among others. And there was a bit of variety in the questions she asked each businessperson as well as variety of medium, so it wasn’t like they were all tote bag makers or ceramicists, or jewelers. Although, I would have really loved to read answers to questions specifically dealing with designing, producing, and distributing a line of fabrics. Too bad she didn’t interview Amy Butler or Heather Bailey.
One of the errors I found was in regards to Amy Butler’s fabrics. You may recall the hubub surrounding copyright laws and use of fabrics that swarmed the crafty blogosphere a while back. Page 65 reads:
For example, Amy Butler’s Design web site clearly states that her fabric is for noncommercial use only.
When in fact, her FAQs read:
Can I use Amy’s fabrics to make projects to sell or use in manufacturing finished goods?
YES.
So. But those kinds of mistakes are easy to make. You know? Books go to press months in advance and a minimal change such as this cannot always be corrected. Also, at the back of the book, Ilasco includes helpful internet resources.
Cross-posted from my other blog entry of 31 July 2007.
and still more horses
July 11, 2007
Rounding out my recent spate of horsey reading was Horsewatching: Why Does A Horse Whinny And Everything Else You Ever Wanted to Know (1989). Since it’s been a few weeks since I read this one, recalling what I learned from this book is difficult. But maybe it was the breath trick. When you meet a horse, you blow into its nostrils. This is how horses greet one another. Their sensory memories are incredible, so the horse will retain and recall your exhalations and remember you by them.
Understanding Horse Behavior: Your Guide to Horse Health Care and Management (1999) was rather basic. At this point in my equine education its contents was a refresher. But early on, no doubt, this book would have been helpful and of great interest.
Carried Bloodlines:A Horse Racing Anthology (2006) around with me for a week or two before I found time to read from it. A mixture of fiction and essay, determining what was make-believe and what was real challenged me a bit at the beginning. Read several charming short stories about horses, or racing, or betting on horse races. Sometimes I don’t think there are enough good books about horses out there. I feel as though I’ve gone through most of them. And I’m eager for more. More, please.
And yet I discovered the writing of Joe R. Lansdale. His story in Bloodlines, whose title I have since forgotten, was raucous, vulgar, and offensive, but I loved it so much, perhaps because it was so different from the other stories. It was about racing a feral mule in East Texas. The mule was white and its best friend was a thousand pound pig. Much of the story centered around the protagonist’s failure to find a steady mount for the mule race, and so he and two friends head out for the East Texas wilderness to find the white mule and pig of local legend. Compared to his work, the other contents of Bloodlines was just plain boring.
Then I turned to the quiet, serious chronicle of a man’s journey to find a horse to train and ride and perhaps pass along to his son one day. One Good Horse (2006) followed a year or so of Tom Gronenberg’s life in Montana. He wrote about looking for and finding a colt he named Blue. He remembered earlier experiences as a cowboy on various ranches. And shared the confusion surrounding the birth of his twin boys, one who was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Interspersed with Gronenberg’s experiences are biographical sections from the life of Teddy “Blue” Abbott, after whom Gronenberg’s horse is named. Abbott epitomized the late-nineteenth century American cowboy experience and pulished tales of his days spent driving cattle in We Pointed Them North; Recollections of a Cowpuncher (1939).
slow read through june
July 11, 2007
June was a slow month for reading. Only read eight or nine books, and didn’t write a bit about them. Pretty heavy into horses this month, you see.
Oh, and the Female Brain (2007). Quite an interesting book. All about hormones and how they affect a woman’s behavior and life to an astonishing degree. It also explained some very basic biological differences between men and women. Hormonal again. Guess it comes down to wiring and priorities. But I feel as though I’m better prepared to understand how and why men and women act the way that they do.
Telegraph Days (2006) was the first Larry McMurtry book I read. Had Cheyenne checked out and got through a few pages, but it didn’t speak to me. Returned it to the library a few days ago. Actually bought this one, it was mass market paperback. And it was okay. Had a female character. She was spunky, and lascivious, so that made her life a bit more interesting. She knew and loved many of the famous gunfighters and personalties of the Wild West. This was fiction, by the way. But not a bad novel at all. Chapters were short. I’ll likely give it to my grandfather. He’s big into westerns and usually buys old used ones when he can at the flea market and such. He may not know this one, yet.
What else? Horses, of course. A good, basic book describing the intricacies of horse behavior is Body Language of Horses: Revealing the Nature of Equine Needs, Wishes and Emotions and How Horses Communicate Them–For Owners, Breeders, Trainers, Riders, and All Other Horse Lovers. I learned a few cool tips about my equine friends from this one. I think the biggie, that was completely new to me, is that watermelon rind is a special treat for horses.
horse limbo
May 3, 2007
Reaching the end of Horse Heaven (2000) was a long time coming. I’ve read on this book almost two weeks. That’s a way long time for me. Probably the most time I’ve ever spent on a book. Five hundred and sixty-one pages. I thought it would never end. I’ve carried that book across four state lines so I could read it in bits and pieces; keep the momentum going.
Bascially I liked it. Never knew where it was going. There were so many characters and plot lines that keeping up with them all was difficult. There were people I read about, Leon and DeeDee, for example, that appeared out of nowhere. But all those people were involved in some aspect of the horse business.
The stories: There were stories about horse trainers, horse owners, bettors, young girls who dreamed of having their own horses, breeders, shifty veterinarians who wanted a bigger piece of the pie, and horse trainers who found and lost Jesus. Sometimes the horse’s perspective appeared, and that was cool enough.
Unsurprisingly, I liked reading the horse’s perspectives better than most human goings-on. There’s an education in that book. I’m sure I picked up a lot of lingo, like maiden races/earnings, and… there was more. Let’s just say that when I turned on ESPN today and saw that the races at Hollywood Park were being broadcast, I looked at the lineup and knew what everything meant. I know about Santa Anita and Saratoga and most major racetracks.
Haven’t been to a racetrack, and going to the Derby has always been on my list of things to do before I die, so perhaps that is in the cards.
But I still think the manner in which those jockeys ride the horses is unnatural; just looks strange. Or, they ride standing up. It’s better for the horses. Don’t want to damage their kidneys.
Before that I read Nature of Horses: Exploring Equine Evolution, Intelligence, and Behavior (1997). Actually skimmed the last chapter or two. It was highly scientific. Not my cup of tea. I wanted a good book on horse psychology or horse sociology or horse culture, but this was evolution and gaits and diet and genetics; fairly complex and not so much fun reading for me. If you want scientific horses then this is for you. The graphs, diagrams, and formulas made my brain ache.
luck be a horse tonight
April 23, 2007
Jane Smiley is one of my favorite writers. Believe it or not, my mouth breaks into a smile when I hear her name or hear tell of a new book of hers. Heck, her books contain agricultural themes, and I can’t say no to a good ag novel. As I recall, the first of her books I read was Moo (1995). And that was at the suggestion of my most beloved library school professor who said it was an accurate depiction of academia. His initials are JC.
He said this in the academic library course (you could take one for public, academic, or special, depending on where you wanted to work), so it seemed like a great way to prepare me for my eventual life in academia. It was a toss up between the three, really. I’ve worked in all three types of libraries and they all have their perks, and downfalls as well.
A Year at the Races: Reflections on Horses, Humans, Love, Money, and Luck (2004) is not new, but new to me. What with all this horse obsession I stumbled upon her chronicle of a year at the races. She tries to cultivate a winning horse in Hornblower, who’d prefer to be called Wowie. It’s kooky and fun. She consults a pet psychic to communicate with Hornblower. That’s how she learns how he doesn’t like his name and wants to be called Wowie. He races and places, but doesn’t ever win, unfortunately. Much of the book had to do with him, though she has another horse that she races, too. A mare, I think.
I enjoyed it. Publisher’s Weekly said “it has too many flaws to be a perfectly enjoyable read.” And I can’t be so sure about that. I ate it up. There was a fair amount inside about horse psychology and culture. About Smiley betting on races. The winning. The losing. The jockeys.
I started Horse Heaven (200) before I started this one. Read six or eight pages. But decided to back off. just not ready for it yet. There’s a list of characters in the front of the book and I find that daunting. It seems like one of those epics in which each chapter follows a completely separate story.
needing wide open spaces
April 23, 2007
I found The Solace of Open Spaces (1984) by accident, but was fortunate that my public library had a copy. Sometimes I worry about “older books,” you know, more than twenty years old, and whether they’ve been weeded or otherwise forgotten about.
Gretel Ehrlich, its author, blurbed a book I read a few months ago having to do with sandhill cranes. And this Solace of Open Spaces is not so much about sandhill cranes, yet mentioned them twice. It’s more a catalogue of the author’s transition from where she’s from, and I can’t quite recall; maybe NYC or thereabouts, definitely an urban center, to living in Wyoming. She was making a film there and stayed.
She recounts her experiences roughing it. But it’s not a straight-out memoir, all-anecdotal-like. It’s contemplative and philosophical and most of the language is lovely. There’s a spartan tone to it, too. Call it a love letter to the state of Wyoming. Or something.
This was one of my favorite passages:
Walking to the ranch house from the shed, we saw the Northern Lights. They looked like talcum powder fallen from a woman’s face. rouge and blue eyeshadow streaked the spires of white light which exploded, then pulsated, shaking the colors down–like lives–until they faded from sight.
Can’t wait to read more of her writing. But, must. Wait, that is. My public library is going through a transition with their opac and I can’t do callslip. That’s my favorite thing to do. I find the library record of the book I’m interested in, request it, and they pull it off the shelf and hold it for me at the circulation desk until I pick it up.
