Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard is a writer who asks the same questions that I ask. I first heard her name years ago, but I never seriously looked at her work. Last Saturday, I went to the library and found her book For the Time Being. I can hardly read it because ... it's too rich with thoughts like my own. It's unsettling to meet a stranger in the pages of a book, and feel like you already know her. It's also comforting to know that someone out there asks the same seemingly unanswerable questions.
When I read her words, I feel ashamed of not writing more. I feel anxious and afraid that time is short, and I won't be able to write enough to tell my story. I feel motivated, compelled to find the right words, right now, and put them down on paper.
When I read her words, I feel ashamed of not writing more. I feel anxious and afraid that time is short, and I won't be able to write enough to tell my story. I feel motivated, compelled to find the right words, right now, and put them down on paper.
posted by Wordsmyth at
9:33 PM
4 Comments:
I wonder if I'd like her work. Could you give an example of a couple of her questions so I could have some idea?
The book I'm reading now is a nonfiction first-person narrative. It explores a number of things like: birth defects in humans, a natural history of sand, and "quizzical" encounters with strangers. Dillard writes of her experiences/observations of these things, and explores how God fits into the equation.
I think she is trying to make sense out of the suffering that we experience and see in the world. It's difficult for me to describe the book because I've never seen anything like it before. It's almost like a random journal. She addresses a number of different topics, in no particular order, but it's not exactly willy-nilly either. She comes back to the topics again and again.
Scholars describe Dillard as a mystic. I would agree. And I don't use that word pejoratively, which I think is common in evangelical circles.
Now I AM intrigued...
she's a writer who elicits from you a strong emotional response--you said you felt anxious, afraid, unable to write enough...but also motivated and compelled.
go annie!
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