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| Lia Purpura Visits SU October 2012 |
Later in the review, Walker comments that "Purpura's language is her scissor and her sword." She also notes that Purpura is "careful to point the sharp edges away from herself" and that the writer remains "a safe distance" from that which she observes. However, Walker concludes: Purpura "does her looking with an amazing capacity to see the unseen, to bring word to the unspoken." Her final suggestion is that "For these essays, the most ethical response is an aesthetical one. Redemption comes from looking. Just look, she pleads."
As I read and reread these essays (sick at home in bed as I am), I first felt wary of the peeking self, the "I" that emerges and then hides. I wondered about her, wanting her to reveal herself in the manner of most nonfiction, even as I remain at a safe, blanketed distance. Then I realized that this nonfiction is different from much of what I've read. Purpura's lyrical "I" could very well be a character in literary fiction, defined mostly by the way she looks at the world. It's a fascinating thought, that what we might really need for expert characterization is clarity about the way the character perceives his/her world. That character might let us know something about the way we perceive, or how might develop our perception.
Lia Purpura’s use of language and descriptions pertaining to sight were simply incredible. As I read through the three essays, I followed along with the “I” narrator, as he/she explained how they saw the world around them. It was, to say the least, different, and interesting compared to other things I’ve heard before. Her perceptions of things like death and family are presented in such a deeper way that it wakes you really think in a new light.
ReplyDeleteThe essay that stood out to me the most was “Autopsy Report.” Judging from the title one can infer that it’s about death, but right from the beginning her descriptions just strike you: “I shall stand beside sharp pelvic bones, his mod hip-huggers stretched tightly between them. His ribs like steppes, ice-shelves, sandstone.” (pg.1) I really liked how she went on, adding to her descriptions, and then shifted gears to asking how she will perceive the body differently after the autopsy. I think that that is very relatable to everybody, in the sense that death can change how we perceive things. I think all of her essays in some way embody that question: How do we perceive death? How do we perceive what’s right, and how children should be treated? How do we perceive not only our own bodies, but also each other’s? What Lia Purpura succeeds in is not only language, but using that language to express a larger question underneath.
While reading Lia Purpura, I began immediately attached to the narrator. I felt very close to each one, like they were sitting me down and explaining he world through their eyes to me. In "On Aesthetics" I felt like the narrator was depicting this story to me and wanted me to envision it, yet through her eyes, how she saw it. To me that tone and structure worked and I found that I enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteWhen it came to the meaning of her writing, I have to say I found myself lost. Like her language became an opened ended question that I could explore. When she is telling the story of the young mother and son, I had to re-read it a couple of times to try to grasp the meaning.
In "Autopsy" her images are strong and she depicts the body and shows us the "sharp pelvic bones" and "His ribs like steppes." I love the way she shows us this body, and the way the narrator tells us that she laughs when she shouldn't, and when know one is looking she touches the limbs. For some reason her narrative voice seems much more intimate to me than any other we have read. I really like.
The first thing that I noticed about Lia Purpura’s writing was the fact that it was definitely the most poetic we’ve read so far this semester. My roommate was telling me how Lia Purpura was going to be coming to her poetry class next week, and that made a lot of sense to me. The way she played with her words was brilliant, especially in the section that was mentioned in Catherine’s post. “The laser on the baby’s head was a cherry lozenge, a button, a tack. The color of holly berries, chokeable, dangerous, we keep from out son.”
ReplyDeleteHer word choices work perfectly and fit the particular section of On Looking. I thought that the first piece we read, Autopsy Report, was actually really gross. I thought of all these slimy body parts and it was slightly disturbing and I didn’t enjoy imaging that. She did a good job of showing, but it was an unpleasant image. Purpura did this with all of the pieces we read and did a wonderful job about it. With all of her word choices, I could definitely see the poetic side of Lia Purpura.
Reading Purpura's essays felt a less like reading an essay and more like having a conversation with the author. In a way, it almost felt like Purpura was unburdening herself to me, through a very intimate but at the same time distanced conversation. I say this because, while her essays were very intimate, I got the impression that she was only telling us what she wanted us to know, and was forcing us to fill in the spaces ourselves. I really liked this technique, because it left me wanted more, while still coming away from the essay with a feeling of satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteI also loved her use of concrete details- a few people already have mentioned her descriptions of the bodies in the morgue, which really stuck out to me. I think the think that stuck out to me most was her description of the laser on the baby's head. At first the way she described it was so abstract that I couldn't understand what was happening (just like the mother couldn't understand what was happening). I also liked how she used very innocuous things (like a button) to describe in reality something that could be very dangerous. To me, it really helped set the scene and made it very effective.
I have to admit, I did not realize that Lia Purpura's On Looking Essays were nonfiction. I guess I should have realized this from the title "Essays." Looking back, when I read through the "Autopsy Report," I thought that the amount of detail she included was incredible (and also disgusting).
ReplyDeleteWhen reading the lines, "I shall..." I felt like I was being placed in the "character's" shoes (except now I know that it was Lia's) because I was given a clear image of what the narrator was experiencing. "I shall touch, while no one is looking, the perfect cornrows, the jacket's wet collar. Soaked black with blood, his stiffening sleeve." I enjoyed being placed in this position because it allowed me to experience what the narrator has experienced for myself, yet still see the things she saw. I also agree that the language of each essay was poetic. "Their lashes white with river silt."
I truly admire prose writing that is written in poetic language. People often associate poetry and prose as two unique forms, but I think they compliment each other really well. One of my favorite lines, which was in “Autopsy Report,” is, “Did I expect, finally, the solemnity of procession? Death gowned and dancing, scythe raised and cape blowing, leading the others, at dusk, over a mountain. In silhouette. Fully cinematic.” This language is so vivid and strong that it brings the writing to life.
ReplyDeleteI do like how the “I” in theses stories comes from an observational standpoint. It allows the reader to see the world in these stories from the narrator's eyes and envision everything in the same way. This may seem like a common goal for most writers, but with Purpura's poetic language we are able to see this world naturally and clearly.
The part of Liz Walker’s review that stuck out to me was when she said: “Associations here are fluid, circumscribed, and dangerous. The language is poetry's process of accumulation, but it is in the folding that makes these pieces essays. The book enacts its aesthetic by circumscribing, cutting, outlining its vision rather than explicating, connecting or declaring.” Associations really do feel crucial to these essays. We see the physical, literal associations, especially in “Autopsy Report”, all over the place like “his ribs like steppes, ice-shelves, sandstone”. We see this in the mental associations as well. In “On Aesthetics” she gives us the association of ‘mother’. She herself is a mother, and she speaks to the teenage mother with the reminder that this is something (maybe the only thing?) that they share in common. But it’s a big similarity. And it structures how the narrator thinks, speaks, and then later on it shapes how she reflects on herself.
ReplyDeleteAs Liz Walker also said, “Purpura's language is her scissor and her sword". Someone had written in my book before me saying “Why is this there?” and “I hate the switching back and forth”, but I was already pretty aware of the switching between scenes and comparisons. I liked the way she cut up her thoughts and layered them together, making them, as Walker said, essays rather than poetry. I still consider her language rich and poetic nonetheless. One of my favorite lines is about the corpse, when she says “as his body is—beautiful now, for nothing.”
Honestly, I didn't realize that they were nonfiction either. The fact that someone can write so poetically about true events, such as "Autopsy Report," blows my mind. The imagery was fantastic. I couldn't believe what I was reading, with sentences like "It was calm that came forth while the brain was removed, while the brain, heavy and grey and wet, was fileted with an enormous knife, one hand on top to keep it from jiggling." The words are chosen so carefully, I can imagine this happening right in front of me as I read it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know everyone has been talking about "Autopsy Report," but there is something so raw about it. To me, it showed people in their truest, most open form, which is what the narrator talked about. How familiar it is for the body to be open. It really is, too, so natural for the body to be open. That is how humans function, and in light of death, we are completely opened for the last time. Something was so comforting and chilling about that thought while I read the story. I am completely blown away by Purpura.
I really like Lia Purpura’s writing style. Unlike what most people are saying, I don’t think it’s necessarily unbelievable that these are works of nonfiction, but these are definitely more poetic pieces of nonfiction than I am used to reading. I also liked the amount of detail we get about the “I” narrator as if these were pieces of fiction. I enjoyed that she was really just somebody looking at a situation, perceiving it, and I think we learn enough about her form the way she perceives certain situations either similarly or differently than how we would perceive the same situation. Her details are great and they help with this. Sometimes her details were even disturbing and I think that is exactly what she had intended.
ReplyDeleteI'll agree with pretty much everyone that Purpura is the most poetic author we've read so far and I loved reading her. The descriptions of the bodies in "Autopsy Report" were, like everyone else is saying, so evocative and just filled with imagery. I think "On Aesthetics" was my favorite piece. Like Fran, I appreciated the fact that she wasn't so concrete at first when describing the laser point on the baby's head and I didn't completely understand what was going on. Later on though, it becomes more obvious, but she doesn't drop the imagery and poetic language.
ReplyDeleteThe imagery is "Autopsy Report" was fantasically grotesque. I think I actually cringed a few times while reading it, which just goes to show how awesome the language is that it actually evoked a physical reaction. Overall, I think Lia Purpura is one of my favorite authors out of those we've read this semester.
“On looking” is so unlike the usual stories that I read, with its broken up parts of observation and thought instead of a constant plot or scene. But it was really refreshing to read Lia Purpura’s work in this way—and I agree, her characterization here with the lyrical “I” does provide a unique and important way of reading a text from the eyes of the character herself. In “Autopsy Report,” I felt the same way as she did when after witnessing the autopsies, she thinks “never again will I know the body as I do now” (3).
ReplyDelete“On Aesthetics” seems to indicate the same personal perspective, but to each his or her own. The teenager tells her story and the narrator gives her the reason why the boys would do such a thing: “because they’re idiots” (16). But she knew it was more than that—that it was all about how one perceives something, whether it is funny or stupid or completely wrong. Purpura encourages her readers to develop their own views on a story when she writes, “But that’s my take. My story, not hers” (14). This perspective on a character is also present in “On Form” when she notices a dark image on the pale face of a girl as beautiful, as something that is incapable of being perceived as anything else: “But I could not get the color to be unlovely. And I could not remove the mark from her face” (23).
I really enjoyed reading Purpura because like everyone above stated her writing was so poetic and just beautiful really. Never have I ever read any stories written as great as hers and I think you can really tell that she put a lot of thought into each and every single word in each sentence. She does a great job making the words on the page come alive, not only through description but also through thoughts in the narrator's head. In "Autopsy Report," I was drawn to the way in which she wrote and I loved how she described each organ or part of the body as it was being taken out. I found it disgusting because I could imagine it as she went on in the story, but at the same time I really appreciated it because not many people could accomplish such a vivid level of description like her. Overall, I can't wait to read more of her short stories and I think that her style of writing is one in which everyone should read or experience because it definitely is a treat to those that are reading.
ReplyDeleteI, too, found Purpura's writing to feel like prose written by a poet. I kind of wasn't surprised, since for my poetry class we're reading her book, King Baby. I can see lots of similarities between the two. The descriptions, for example, are always spot on. It's easy to see inside the human body in "Autopsy Report," even if you never have seen another representation or real life cadaver. It was gruesome, and sweet, and weirdly intimate. It was awesome. That one is definitely my favorite of the three.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I just saw somebody above say these are nonfiction? What? That can't be right, not because these stories feel fake, but because they are dressed up so nicely in description and told so much like any of the other stories we have been reading that I am really surprised. That's also interesting because even her book of poetry is nonfiction. Or at least as nonfiction as poetry can be. It is all about this weird little wooden sculpture thing her son finds in the river. Even that gets described so well that it feels as though it's so much better than real life that it couldn't possibly be nonfiction.
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