For those interested in how the pieces in "Notes on Another New Life" get written--the craft and form elements I think about--I offer monthly Zoom conversations, and this month it's on Saturday August 24 from 3 to 4 EST. To RSVP and to learn more about it, please email me at: lauriestone@substack.com.
💘🙏🏻💘🙏🏻💘🙏🏻“I'm okay with rewriting every story ever written that serves the interests of obstructionist and stupid men. All you have to do is allow the female characters who have been lying for the last 10,000 years to tell the truth of how they really feel.”
I absolutely agree about Wicked Little Lies, and it's colour blind casting. I was once at a senior University Governor conference discussing diversity and positive discrimination, and stood up to say I was all in favour, as positive discrimination had worked so well for white men for so long.
"Back in England, where he should feel he belongs, he’s unmoored."
Yes, this exactly. I left England before Richard in 1979 but for the same reasons. It was stifling. And, like him, I'm fine being stateless as long as I'm not there. Contemplating the same potential four-year apocalypse, we couldn't move to England, not even Dorset, which I love. Maybe Scotland, but better France.
Congratulations, both of you, on your anniversaries, and enjoy the cake!
Wonderful to hear from you. I think we won't have to move. I hope we won't have to move. R. still wants to go for an extended visit. Who knows why, but the answer is yes. We will never find a fossil.
Oh thank you for this piece, Laurie and I can relate to so much here but especially Richard feeling "unmoored." I'm a Canadian living in Canada but spent 5 hugely emotional years in the UK (Northern England parents btw)in the seventies and I have never truly felt I belong anywhere. Not completely. I get that 1984 apprehension of his. It's very rattling, a kind of yearning with no real name but presents in a occasional keening for Hovis bread or weeping over All Creatures Great and Small on PBS. Tell Richard no one is making fun of Fiona Hill's accent lol and she's going back to be involved in new Brit government I hear, which is encouraging because she is amazing. Loved this piece!
And this: "The great freedom of moving forward is there’s no meaning in it. There’s only meaning if you attach it to something looking back." Thank you for this!
I love Laurie’s essays. I am glad I saved this for the weekend when I can savor it slowly when I am relaxed. I love the sensibility here, which I can relate to. I never have met anyone in my life who also loved Ted Mooney’s “Easy Travel to Other Planets.” I even forced the book on my own college lit classes as a teacher in the late 80s. And I agree about Griffin Dunne in that movie, which I saw on a Christmas Day 1979 flight from JFK to Fort Lauderdale to visit my parents. Somehow Dunne is the actor I most identify with—probably because he liked and dated my close friend/ex-girlfriend. I just rewatched him in “I Love Dick,” a short lived Prime TV show based on a fabulous book. See, what I love about Laurie’s writing is that she gets me thinking about different things. I left the country for a while during Trump’s last term and my little studio apartment is waiting for me if need be.
Thanks! We will visit for sure. We hatched the plan before Kamala was able to run. It’s looking good here for her to win. We are working for that outcome. xxL
Thank you for the memory of Easy Travel to Other Planets and for situating it in time. I loved it and remember a dinner party conversation about it, but I didn’t remember the title. Perhaps will spark an essay for me.
Prose like a skeleton key—and I always want smart, creative women 25 yrs younger (and older) in my life who are neither my mother/s nor my daughters. Thank you for this subtle stunner.
“ The great freedom of moving forward is there’s no meaning in it. There’s only meaning if you attach it to something looking back. The easiest way to defy gravity is walk past mirrors. As I get older, more and more my inner life is a museum of my parents.”
A chain of sentences strongest in the sum of it’s parts.
Watched Wicked Little Letters on the plane recently and could not believe what a great find it is. Everything about it—everything—absolutely perfect. xo
For those interested in how the pieces in "Notes on Another New Life" get written--the craft and form elements I think about--I offer monthly Zoom conversations, and this month it's on Saturday August 24 from 3 to 4 EST. To RSVP and to learn more about it, please email me at: lauriestone@substack.com.
💘🙏🏻💘🙏🏻💘🙏🏻“I'm okay with rewriting every story ever written that serves the interests of obstructionist and stupid men. All you have to do is allow the female characters who have been lying for the last 10,000 years to tell the truth of how they really feel.”
“Every closet is a portal to outer space.” Mine certainly is. How is it possible I never formed the thought. This is why reading exists.
I was just about to say the same! This sentence tells so much 😊
I absolutely agree about Wicked Little Lies, and it's colour blind casting. I was once at a senior University Governor conference discussing diversity and positive discrimination, and stood up to say I was all in favour, as positive discrimination had worked so well for white men for so long.
Totally agree.
"Back in England, where he should feel he belongs, he’s unmoored."
Yes, this exactly. I left England before Richard in 1979 but for the same reasons. It was stifling. And, like him, I'm fine being stateless as long as I'm not there. Contemplating the same potential four-year apocalypse, we couldn't move to England, not even Dorset, which I love. Maybe Scotland, but better France.
Congratulations, both of you, on your anniversaries, and enjoy the cake!
Wonderful to hear from you. I think we won't have to move. I hope we won't have to move. R. still wants to go for an extended visit. Who knows why, but the answer is yes. We will never find a fossil.
I found an ammonite at Kimmeridge Bay, but no dinosaur bones.
Jealous.
Oh thank you for this piece, Laurie and I can relate to so much here but especially Richard feeling "unmoored." I'm a Canadian living in Canada but spent 5 hugely emotional years in the UK (Northern England parents btw)in the seventies and I have never truly felt I belong anywhere. Not completely. I get that 1984 apprehension of his. It's very rattling, a kind of yearning with no real name but presents in a occasional keening for Hovis bread or weeping over All Creatures Great and Small on PBS. Tell Richard no one is making fun of Fiona Hill's accent lol and she's going back to be involved in new Brit government I hear, which is encouraging because she is amazing. Loved this piece!
Great comment! Thanks!
And this: "The great freedom of moving forward is there’s no meaning in it. There’s only meaning if you attach it to something looking back." Thank you for this!
I love Laurie’s essays. I am glad I saved this for the weekend when I can savor it slowly when I am relaxed. I love the sensibility here, which I can relate to. I never have met anyone in my life who also loved Ted Mooney’s “Easy Travel to Other Planets.” I even forced the book on my own college lit classes as a teacher in the late 80s. And I agree about Griffin Dunne in that movie, which I saw on a Christmas Day 1979 flight from JFK to Fort Lauderdale to visit my parents. Somehow Dunne is the actor I most identify with—probably because he liked and dated my close friend/ex-girlfriend. I just rewatched him in “I Love Dick,” a short lived Prime TV show based on a fabulous book. See, what I love about Laurie’s writing is that she gets me thinking about different things. I left the country for a while during Trump’s last term and my little studio apartment is waiting for me if need be.
I loved the book I love Dick, but struggled to get through the show. I might need to give it another try.
Wonderful comment. Many thanks. Griffin has very good hair.
Brilliant read, thank you. Oh and do come and live in Edinburgh, we’d love to have you 💖
Thanks! We will visit for sure. We hatched the plan before Kamala was able to run. It’s looking good here for her to win. We are working for that outcome. xxL
🤞🤞🤞
Thank you for the memory of Easy Travel to Other Planets and for situating it in time. I loved it and remember a dinner party conversation about it, but I didn’t remember the title. Perhaps will spark an essay for me.
Maybe begin writing it Saturday!
Prose like a skeleton key—and I always want smart, creative women 25 yrs younger (and older) in my life who are neither my mother/s nor my daughters. Thank you for this subtle stunner.
What a delightful read this morning. Thank you for sharing your talent.
Profound…
“ The great freedom of moving forward is there’s no meaning in it. There’s only meaning if you attach it to something looking back. The easiest way to defy gravity is walk past mirrors. As I get older, more and more my inner life is a museum of my parents.”
A chain of sentences strongest in the sum of it’s parts.
Watched Wicked Little Letters on the plane recently and could not believe what a great find it is. Everything about it—everything—absolutely perfect. xo
“I can be in love with two sides of a contradiction at the same time. So can everyone. It’s the human condition.“ …another WoW!
I just found you through Oldster. I’m so very glad I did.
Me too!