Comments on: You Helped Me

By: Justine

Justine — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:19:50 +0000

Kirsten: Well put. I totally agree with you. Doing something meaningful is very frequently tied up with stuff. Especially, for you and me and others, with books.

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:12:22 +0000

Okay—I was being silly: I’m sorry. Now I’ll be serious. Books are indeed things, just as are textiles: the things through which art, like a story or a ball gown may be communicated to other human beings. It’s the art that’s tranformative, but how do artists share it beyond their own firesides without the **things**?

In the days of scribes and woodcuts, could a Romanian political prisoner have kept the light of hope and resistance alive in her fellow prisoners’ lives by recounting Heyer’s Friday’s Child over the 12 years she was jailed? (p. 155 The Private World of Georgette Heyer) Or teen readers around the world find Reason Cansino’s life speak to theirs? Could a small-town librarian like me be able to step away from her desk to pull down a reference from an extensive collection?

The entire industrial revolution, the J.C. Penny-izing and Walmart-ization that makes stuff easy to buy and sell and own in the Western world is driven by people wanting to have the things they love. Including books!

Oh the irony!

By: Marie Devers

Marie Devers — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:36:03 +0000

I don’t have the trackback feature on my blog, but I wanted you to know that you helped me, so I passed your inspiration onto others over at my place.

Thanks for the pep talk,

Marie

By: Carrie

Carrie — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:39:16 +0000

Fantastic post — thanks. I think it’s easy as a writer to get bogged down in the negative and you’re pointing out the very best that can happen to an author. I got an email yesterday from someone who said she wasn’t a reader and that changed when she read my book. I’m still astounded — that someone out there could find the joy in reading that I’ve had my entire life and that I could somehow be involved is mindblowing. I’m so thankful to you for reminding me that these are the things to focus on and not the negatives!

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:48:09 +0000

I knew comments on this thread would make me teary. And they have.

Well except for Kirsten.

Kirsten: Books aren’t THINGS. Neither are Vivienne Westwood ballgowns. Honestly.

By: Victoria Dixon

Victoria Dixon — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:21:47 +0000

Not only did you help me during our conversation in the Kansas City libary, but you continue to wow me. I was revitalized after Magic or Madness and so look forward to reading the rest of the series. I wanted to ask if you knew this month’s main story for National Geographic was on Angkor Wat? I saw the issue’s cover picture and thought of you!

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:23:20 +0000

“…owning more stuff does not actually make us happy. Or not for very long.”

Unless they’re, yanno, ***books***

Heh. Paging irony, there’s a call for you on this blog…

By: Hoolie

Hoolie — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:18:37 +0000

One of the best things David Sedaris ever wrote wasn’t in one of his own books, but in a short story collection he edited called CHILDREN PLAYING BEFORE A STATUE OF HERCULES. Somewhere in his introduction he said, “…because I believed then, as I believe now, that stories can save you.” I don’t remember the rest of that sentence off the top of my head, but it’s never mattered to me. I’m stopped cold every time I think of it, not least because of the scope of his language: stories can help, of course. But they can, quite literally, save your life. And that’s rather miraculous.

By: Caroline

Caroline — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:26:31 +0000

This is so true. I’ve done a lot of work with youth since I was young myself. There are so many times when I get stressed and I feel like all the work I’m doing isn’t worth it all. But then when some one comes up to me and says those words: You Helped Me, all of the stress, pain, and wondering if any of this is helping anyone at all, all of it is washed away in that one second it took them to say You Helped Me.

Books are also SO important to me. Whenever I read a book where the hero/heroine overcomes a huge obstacle I want to become more like them, and I realize that I truly want to succeed and I have bigger dreams than I thought. Thank you writers for your hard work.