Devotion: Why I Write

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Devotion shows rather than tells what it means to give a life to writing. "-Katherine Cooper, Hyperallergic We write because we respond because we dare because we dream: “What is the dream? To write something fine, that would be better than I am, and that would justify my trials and indiscretions. To offer proof, through a scramble of words, that God exists” (93). The writer steers the wheel when she can: “Fate has a hand but is not the hand. I was looking for something and found something else, the trailer of a film. Moved by a sonorous though alien voice, words poured” (27). And we must imagine that she is happy. Isn’t this what Camus taught us? In Devotion, [Smith] starkly shares and uncovers, through a spare, haunting prose, the reasons she is compelled to write; so evocative is Smith’s writing that we’re compelled to read it as her voices transfixes us with its bell-like clarity and ringing passion.”—Henry Carrigan, No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music This is what is so astonishing about [Smith's] career and what motivates Devotion -- the way that, as she has gotten older, Smith's vision has expanded, framing her self-awareness not as self-absorption but rather a deep dive into everything, the exhilaration and the terror and the transcendence that we all share."--David Ulin, Barnes & Noble Review Time passes and with it certain sensations. Yet once in awhile the magic of the field and all that happened there surfaces."

Este es muy distinto a M Train. Básicamente, son pequeños relatos, reflexiones y pensamientos sobre su infancia. In Devotion, [Smith] starkly shares and uncovers, through a spare, haunting prose, the reasons she is compelled to write; so evocative is Smith's writing that we're compelled to read it as her voices transfixes us with its bell-like clarity and ringing passion."--Henry Carrigan, No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music Most of the book’s first section describes Smith’s listless encounter with her Parisian publisher Gallimard, where she obliquely refers to conversations with journalists and takes a trip through the august publisher’s headquarters to do some high-culture tourism, seeing the place where Yukio Mishima once sat, the room where Camus once had an office, and tour a garden that only reminds her of OTHER gardens, including one where “Goethe was said to have planted a gingko tree.” We hear about her mornings at the Café de Flore, what she eats: “the eggs are perfectly round, set upon a perfectly round slab of ham” and what she thinks about what she eats: “I marvel how genius manifests, in a plate of eggs or the center of a rink.”

Summary

The third part of the book is an extremely short section, "A Dream is Not A Dream"--which echoed for me the music of her line from the song In My Blakean Year: "One road is paved in gold One road is just a road." I like the way she describes "why I write"--"to set oneself apart, cocooned, react in solitude, despite the wants of others." Her respect for the struggle: "We must write, engaging in a myriad of struggles... We must write, but not without consisted effort and a measure of sacrifice: to channel the future, to revisit childhood, and to rein in the follies and horrors of the imagination for a pulsating race of readers." Smith, a contemplative writer of gratitude and reverence, . . . deepens her inquiry into the nature of inspiration in this slender, trenchant volume. . . . Gracefully improvisational, as always, Smith offers an unusually poetic, mystical, and transfixing perspective on the mystery of literary creation.”—Donna Seaman, Booklist

oh my god this woman!!! ahhh what am i supposed to do?!! i need to get through my physical tbr but now i’m obsessed with patti and i want to read everything she’s written now 😭 HELP 😭

The Loomingu Raamatukogu (The Creation Library) is a modestly priced Estonian literary journal which was initially published weekly (from 1957 to 1994) and which now publishes 40 issues a year as of 1995. It is a great source for discovery as its relatively cheap prices (currently 3 to 5€ per issue) allow for access to a multitude of international writers in Estonian translation and of shorter works by Estonian authors themselves. These include poetry, the I enjoyed Dedication immensely and especially appreciated translator Paula Taberland's Afterword with its summary of Patti Smith's career and especially of her published work, of which I was previously only familiar with the terrific memoir Just Kids (2010). This tiny volume is divided into three parts. The first, "How the Mind Works" is not analytical but illustrative. It starts, "Somehow, in search of something else, I stumbled upon..." A film about Estonians deported to Siberian collective farms in 1941. Images from the film. The difficulty of capturing images in writing. "this was the beginning of that something else, but I didn't know it then." And of course this entire small book is an exercise in woolgathering, defined as indulgence in aimless thought or dreamy imagining (Oxford Dictionary).

Metinin yanında fotoğraf ve illüstrasyon içeren kitap Domingo Yayınları’ndan Emre Ülgen Dal çeviriyle çıkmış ve 80 sayfa uzunluğunda. The prospect of boarding a plane without a book produces a wave of panic. The right book can serve as a docent of sorts, setting a tone or even altering the course of a journey.’ Through her lyrical and mystical style, Smith gracefully shares her perspective on the mystery of literary creation."-- New York Spaces Alguien me preguntó si, Tejiendo sueños, podía considerarse un cuento de hadas. Siempre me ha encantado ese tipo de historias, pero no creo que lo sea. Todo lo que contiene este librito es cierto, y tal como está escrito ocurrió. Escribirlo me arrancó de mi extraño letargo y espero que en alguna medida llene al lector de una vaga y curiosa alegría" Conmigo, lo ha hecho, Querida Patti. Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice, a 2015 biography of Thomas J. Hudner Jr. and Jesse L. BrownHalbuki 'Glitter in their eyes' desem, 'Mother rose' desem... Güzel dizeleri sesinden dinlesem, bana yetermiş. a dream is not a dream”-idk how to classify this section. it’s kinda like a memoir/essay, on patti’s musings about writing and camus. Sometimes it’s enough to know it was a dark and stormy night. Great American literature is riddled with dark and stormy nights, so why shouldn’t Smith take advantage of those same telling, clichéd psychological details? Her story, “Devotion”, contains: a promising ice skater, the aforementioned mysterious man, a frozen lake, a small cabin in the woods, some trains and passports, and a good deal of feeling. Feelings include: surprise, gratitude, lust, and a death wish. Smith is telling it her way, but also in the ancient way. It’s recognizable to readers for its mythic proportion, accessible to all kinds of people for its brevity and intensity — and yet, it’s still distinctly Patti Smith. Las palabras que tenía ante mí eran elegantes, despiadadas. Me vibraban las manos. Imbuida de confianza, sentí la urgencia de levantarme de un brinco, subir las escaleras, cerrar la pesada puerta que había sido de Camus (Patti), sentarme delante de mi propio taco de folios y empezar mi propio principio.