Memoirous

At AROHO Marilyn Robinson spoke about this. Of course I’m aware of today’s paranoia over borders, terrorists that have turned many people inside out to the point of demonizing the “other”, this was just the first time I’d seen it used as a verb, as in “othering” others. Basically the other is someone other than you. I know pretty broad. Yet it is only in the broadest language that one can describe something as all-encompassing as the universe outside of our self. Some people have attempted to mitigate this generalization by saying something like this: I’m not racist, I’m just not comfortable with a black president or what’s wrong with profiling—we need better border security. Well this is all fine except it is “othering”. A great example of this is in a book I referenced earlier this month: Wendy McClure’s The Wilder Years , where Wendy and her beau traveled to downstate Illinois to attend a weekend festival revolving around farm skills ie putting up tomatoes, canning peaches, making...

The Wilder Life is a new non-fiction book just published by Wendy McClure Wendy is a Chicagoan and a fellow blogger and SCBWI member. This book is her memoir about Laura Ingalls Wilder's fictionalized memoir. Basically the Little House books are a house of mirrors. I'll let you read Wendy's book for the REAL STORY. Truthfully, Wendy's reflections are not all that unique--and that's the genius of it. WE CAN ALL RELATE. I, too, had the dream of being BEST FRIENDS with Laura. I also had a plan where I would travel to all the Little House sights and document them. I was also aware that there were some inconsistencies shall we say with the story. snip from book You mean Laura Ingalls Wilder was bullshitting? Another snip "I guess Laura never figured that there'd be people sitting around and able to look up every little detail of her life . . . " The books have stood the test of time--just not of veracity. Of course for Laura, (she published th...

I've just discovered a columnist I enjoy reading @ Salon--and no, it isn't Annie Lamott, who I wish still wrote for them. Well, I think she does sometimes. Anyway, Laura Miller wrote a review for Wendy McClure's new book, The Wilder Life--her memoir of wishing she was Laura Ingalls Wilder. It's like she's copped MY own fantasy. I was always playing Little House in Suburbia and wishing I had someone to call Ma and Pa. My own parents didn't cotton to such endearments. In fact they were about as far away from homespun as one can get--as they liked to say, we grew up during the Depression for Godssake! That experience alone gave them the right to consume and the fact that Dad had pulled himself up by the bootstraps--on the GI Bill--meant that all those other schmucks should do the same. They were and still are virulently anti-government--while they have enjoyed the fruits of the "greatest generation." Anyway! Again back to Laura Miller. Here is a link ...