Has anyone else read “Ariadne Sends a Message,” an Atwood poem from Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems 1961-2023 shared on Lithub last month?
See how easy it is to participate in MARM? Just one click and a few verses. (And, if you’re playing Bingo, those “lion skins”—poor lions—can be included as the FURRED square. It looks like I might complete the top row!)
Y’all have been busy MARMing, making the most of this November. (You can see what I was reading in the Old-Babes-colour-coordinated schedule box. #fancy)
- Brona was inspired to read “The Dead Interview” which fits beautifully with her George Orwell Project.
- WhisperingGums also chose a story from the same collection, available online: “Widows”.
- And Kaggsy finished the third part of the essay collection Writing with Intent.
(I know several of you have been making selections and resetting intentions, and juggling busy reading schedules, so if I’ve missed someone, please add your link in a comment section, so other Atwood readers can enjoy reading your contribution.)
MARM 2024 PLANS
Launch (November 1)
Dancing Girls, “Training” (November 5)
Old Babes in the Wood, “My Evil Mother” (November 7)
Week Two: Update and Check-In (November 10)
Dancing Girls, “Lives of the Poets” (November 12)
Old Babes in the Wood, “The Dead Interview” (November 14)
Week Three: Update and Check-In (November 18)
Margaret Atwood’s 84th Birthday (November 18)
Dancing Girls, “Dancing Girls” (November 19)
Old Babes in the Wood, “Impatient Griselda” (November 21)
Week Four: Update and Check-In (November 24)
Dancing Girls, “Giving Birth” (November 26)
Old Babes in the Wood, “Bad Teeth” (November 28)
Wrap-Up (November 30)
I read another essay from Burning Questions myself: “What Art Under Trump?” from 2017.
“It’s probably fair to say, however, that…” #45’s (and, now 47’s) “interest in the arts, gauged on a scale from 1 to 100, is somewhere between zero and negative 10—lower than any president in the past fifty years. Some of those presidents didn’t give a hoot about the arts, but at least they found it politic to pretend.”
Atwood suggests that this might work in favour of artists and writers; they might be overlooked in a McCarthy-era-style persecution. But she also comments on how some will participate (willingly or otherwise), will roll over to authoritarian pressures and supply and propagate the narrative.
But there will be resistance, she reminds us. Artists and writers will join protest movements: “It will be their moral duty—or so they will be told—to lend their voices to the cause. (Artists are always being lectured on their moral duty, a fate other professionals—dentists for example—generally avoid.)”
It was really interesting to read this essay at this juncture. Every question she has posed remains relevant. Perhaps even more so today than when the essay was originally written.
We are heading into Week Three, which is really just halfway (although it does include a birthday, which makes the second half of the month seem even more important!)
And I find myself wondering if I will actually get to the other MARM reading I planned. This feels like one of those times when simply staying in motion feels like an accomplishment.
And, you? What has your reading been like this week? Have you been reading to find stillness? Or have you been reading to galvanize yourself into action?
Margaret Atwood
‘Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.’
That’s a clever quote. Based on experience, I’d say some of us have to work at it harder than others.
I avoided the Trump essay because of recent events, but what she says about artists being “lectured on their moral duty” more so than other professions is interesting… I never thought of that before!
Heheh Perhaps that’s true.
She’s written quite a bit about this (maybe in what was titled Negotiating with the Dead in Canada?) She’s the reason I added a Responsibility category to my collection of writing quotes (and, then, noticed it’s a theme for many writers when they write about their craft).
I really like the way you worded those last questions, because it really crystallized something for me – I read to find stillness. Stillness in my mind, in my body, and in my constant running to do list in my head. Thank you for that! I’m going to keep that phrase in my mind as long as I can. Especially when I sit down to read, to remind me to stay still a bit longer.
That’s particularly funny given how many of your books are stabby-stabby in nature. heheh But I know what you mean, this idea of entering a story to temporarily exit your everyday reality. Do you find that your exercise routine offers a similar escape, or is it the opposite…a good time to review “All the Things You’re NOT Doing”?
Hmmm yah that is a good point – why do I love mysteries so much? Maybe they help me find stillness in some way too? haha
Sometimes I get distracted during my exercise for sure, but if it’s hard enough, I’m usually just praying for it to be over soon, which really helps me live in the moment LOL
It’s a little addictive, the idea that everything is resolved in the end…perhaps that is another form of stillness for you. A conclusion.
I don’t think I try that hard LOL so my workouts are often a ticket to cyclically reviewing my to-do list so I guess I need to try harder.
I have Paper Boat but haven’t cracked it open yet, so thanks for the pome link. It’s a good one! I do think it will be different this time around with Trump. He doesn’t care about art himself, but Project 2025 and the people he is appointing do and they will likely attempt to go in on censorship in a big way. Trump is already going after journalists, news organizations, and publishers with huge lawsuits.
I had planned to randomly stick a finger into the mix and see what poem came up, but I started in the middle with a collection that Rebecca is reading.
That initial set of suits he’s launched does seem to indicate a broadened set of priorities (compared to 2016). Link for anyone curious who’s not familiar.
And the WaPo’s decision not to endorse in the final days before the election suggests that the newspapers have already been making decisions on that basis (not that their strategies are the same, from what we can glean on the outside looking in).
I think the ‘moral duty’ of artists is that we give them a platform and we expect them to use it – and I must say they often do. I’m not sure about the moral duty of dentists, but there are scores and probably hundreds of doctors, ambulance drivers (and journalists) doing their moral duty in Gaza and getting killed for it.
For the next two years at least, the laziest US president of all time needn’t say a word. There’ll be plenty of emboldened Republicans accusing liberals of all sorts of ‘crimes’ and calling for their jailing. So, will artists be overlooked? No, they will not! I hadn’t thought about McCarthyism in connection with this presidency, but I’m sure it’s coming.
I just listened to a podcast about journalists in Gaza (no mention of dentists!) and it was gut-wrenching.
I remember watching a documentary about McCarthyism, and how it affected Hollywood in particular, on one of the Criterion Collection discs, about twenty years ago, and it seemed so solidy a “thing of the past”.