By: Stephen King
My favorite author is Stephen King. I don't see him as a simply horror writer but as a craftsman of Americana. His latest novel has been earning rave reviews from everyone and he's been making the rounds of interviews and getting great press (check out the podcast!). In my quest to live frugally I've been good about not buying books, utilizing the libraries, and waiting for paperback editions. However I will make exceptions for Stephen King. His last novel Cell I managed to wait, I checked it out from the library, and I haven't even gotten to his pulp paperback The Colorado Kid. So when I heard Lisey's Story was on it's way out I thought it could wait. It turns out I couldn't, lucky for me.
What happened was we did this play at the Rep called Eurydice, which was an amazing production and I am so proud to have been a part of it. My friend Linda saw the show and in turn has been inspired to sketch and blog about one of the central themes of the play which is messages from beyond the grave.
And here I will quote from her blog because she describes the idea better than I can: "Before Eurydice dies the first time, her dead father writes letters of advice and love to her from the underworld, and sends them up into the world of the living, though she doesn't see them. Later Orpheus sends her letters of music of despair from above, stuffing them into the ground. "I'll give this letter to a worm. I hope he finds you." The letters in the play manifest in the world they were sent to on actual sheets of paper. But it got me thinking. What if all these synchronicities, these funny coincidences that feel so much like personal correspondence, were actually messages from my lost loves? My grandfathers? My grandmothers? My friends? My father?"
As it turns out Lisey's Story is also about messages from beyond the grave. And I thought, (In keeping with synchronicity) I have to read this book right now when it's relevant to my immediate artistic life. So off I went to Borders with a 40% off coupon and a week later here we are.
Lisey's Story is a portrait of a marriage, and the grief one feels when one partner has died and the other must go on. Instead of using messenger worms Scott Landon has left a scavenger hunt (a bool) for Lisey to remember him by so she can move through her grief in stages, and as in all King novels no one can be just left alone to do what needs doing. In Lisey's case it's dealing with her sister's depression and psychotic break and dealing with a psycho who wants her dead husbands manuscripts. Interestingly as we see her look back on her 25 year marriage she has not only been the good woman behind her successful man, but she has also been his salvation. We come to find that while she saved Scott on numerous occasion he pays his due by saving her from beyond his death and letting her know that she was the one secret to his success and he knew it and appreciated it. The second secret is a place called Boo'ya Moon. An alternate reality where Scott could go to escape his troubled childhood, recover from his wounds, and find fresh ideas. It contains a 'pool where we all go down to drink, to swim, to catch a little fish from the edge of the shore; it's also the pool where some hardy souls go out in their flimsy wooden boats after the big ones. It is the pool of life, the cup of imagination.'
I am so impressed by the language of this book which is mostly written in the shorthand of Scott and Lisey's marriage, it has lot's of babytalk but it stays the course. I am so impressed by the metaphor of Boo'ya Moon, which we all have seen even if we only visit it at night when we are asleep. I am still astounded by the similarities to Eurydice. A pool of inspiration that hypnotizes in Boo'ya Moon, and the river of forgetfulness in the Underworld. Orpheus and Eurydice are Scott and Lisey, the famous man and the woman behind him. A Nasty Interesting Man tries to seduce Eurydice and a nasty nutcase named Dooley tries to harm Lisey. Even the Chorus of Stones in Eurydice appeared in Boo'ya Moon as the Lotus Eaters, 'Dip yourself in the river!' 'Be Quiet! We want to watch the Hollyhocks." I am floored by the fact that these two different stories are the same yet totally different. Told through specific poetic language, yet again totally different. And they both made me feel sad, but happy to experience something so beautiful. This is what Linda means by synchronicity and I am truly touched by it...
My favorite author is Stephen King. I don't see him as a simply horror writer but as a craftsman of Americana. His latest novel has been earning rave reviews from everyone and he's been making the rounds of interviews and getting great press (check out the podcast!). In my quest to live frugally I've been good about not buying books, utilizing the libraries, and waiting for paperback editions. However I will make exceptions for Stephen King. His last novel Cell I managed to wait, I checked it out from the library, and I haven't even gotten to his pulp paperback The Colorado Kid. So when I heard Lisey's Story was on it's way out I thought it could wait. It turns out I couldn't, lucky for me.
What happened was we did this play at the Rep called Eurydice, which was an amazing production and I am so proud to have been a part of it. My friend Linda saw the show and in turn has been inspired to sketch and blog about one of the central themes of the play which is messages from beyond the grave.
And here I will quote from her blog because she describes the idea better than I can: "Before Eurydice dies the first time, her dead father writes letters of advice and love to her from the underworld, and sends them up into the world of the living, though she doesn't see them. Later Orpheus sends her letters of music of despair from above, stuffing them into the ground. "I'll give this letter to a worm. I hope he finds you." The letters in the play manifest in the world they were sent to on actual sheets of paper. But it got me thinking. What if all these synchronicities, these funny coincidences that feel so much like personal correspondence, were actually messages from my lost loves? My grandfathers? My grandmothers? My friends? My father?"
As it turns out Lisey's Story is also about messages from beyond the grave. And I thought, (In keeping with synchronicity) I have to read this book right now when it's relevant to my immediate artistic life. So off I went to Borders with a 40% off coupon and a week later here we are.
Lisey's Story is a portrait of a marriage, and the grief one feels when one partner has died and the other must go on. Instead of using messenger worms Scott Landon has left a scavenger hunt (a bool) for Lisey to remember him by so she can move through her grief in stages, and as in all King novels no one can be just left alone to do what needs doing. In Lisey's case it's dealing with her sister's depression and psychotic break and dealing with a psycho who wants her dead husbands manuscripts. Interestingly as we see her look back on her 25 year marriage she has not only been the good woman behind her successful man, but she has also been his salvation. We come to find that while she saved Scott on numerous occasion he pays his due by saving her from beyond his death and letting her know that she was the one secret to his success and he knew it and appreciated it. The second secret is a place called Boo'ya Moon. An alternate reality where Scott could go to escape his troubled childhood, recover from his wounds, and find fresh ideas. It contains a 'pool where we all go down to drink, to swim, to catch a little fish from the edge of the shore; it's also the pool where some hardy souls go out in their flimsy wooden boats after the big ones. It is the pool of life, the cup of imagination.'
I am so impressed by the language of this book which is mostly written in the shorthand of Scott and Lisey's marriage, it has lot's of babytalk but it stays the course. I am so impressed by the metaphor of Boo'ya Moon, which we all have seen even if we only visit it at night when we are asleep. I am still astounded by the similarities to Eurydice. A pool of inspiration that hypnotizes in Boo'ya Moon, and the river of forgetfulness in the Underworld. Orpheus and Eurydice are Scott and Lisey, the famous man and the woman behind him. A Nasty Interesting Man tries to seduce Eurydice and a nasty nutcase named Dooley tries to harm Lisey. Even the Chorus of Stones in Eurydice appeared in Boo'ya Moon as the Lotus Eaters, 'Dip yourself in the river!' 'Be Quiet! We want to watch the Hollyhocks." I am floored by the fact that these two different stories are the same yet totally different. Told through specific poetic language, yet again totally different. And they both made me feel sad, but happy to experience something so beautiful. This is what Linda means by synchronicity and I am truly touched by it...
"I will give this letter to a worm, I hope he finds you."
"I will holler you home"
2 comments:
Ah, decisions = depression. I buy that. I hate hate making decisions, and my synchronicity-following has been so joyful because I've let them make a lot of my decsisions. But recently they've seemed to be in conflict with each other, thus I need to make decisions again, thus I've been depressed.
For good magazines that just can't possibly be GOP-controlled, try Harpers and Bust! Bust rocks.
I hate decisions so much I can't even spell the word right.
thank you for your post on this book (which i found through linda's link.) it isn't a book i would have found on my own. it was so interesting, esp. thinking of it in relation to the myth.
the other part of this book which struck me particularly was about writing a book--that writing a book is having the faith & courage to follow a string to its end. and if the string doesn't break, the book is the prize (not the money you get for it.)
standing as i am holding the first few yards of a string of my own, the idea gives me a little push to keep going.
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