The Power of Place September 3, 2008
Posted by Becca in Write On Wednesday.trackback
For the past week, I’ve been immersed in reading Bridge of Sighs, a novel by Richard Russo. The novel is set in Thomaston, New York, a small industrial town that finds itself struggling to stay alive during the post WWII era. Lou (Lucy) Lynch, the novel’s protagonist, is doggedly loyal to Thomaston, even though chemical laden river is probably responsible for the cancer which kills his father. This town, with it’s clear demarcations of social strata, it’s racial tensions, it’s lack of expectation and promise, becomes a focal point not just in the lives of Russo’s characters, but in the story itself.
Reading this novel has set me thinking about the way our sense of place effects our writing. Russo also wrote about small town life in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel Empire Falls, so it’s clearly something that preoccupies his writers’ mind. His view is not the idyllic scene made popular by writers like Jan Karon in her Mitford series. Russo’s characters often seem stuck in place, as if their location were quick sand sucking them under. They suffer, with their unfulfilled hopes and dreams tied like albatross around their emotional necks.
Writer’s are often advised to write about what you know, and I imagine this refers to locale as well as subject matter. Certainly it’s possible to write effectively about places you’re never lived, although to do it well would require much research and surely some personal visits. But I think we are drawn to write about the places that have touched our hearts, that dwell within us, sometimes more deeply than we even know. I think we develop a realtionship with the place we live, it’s geography, it’s society, it’s history, and that relationship is reflected in the way we write about place, in the location of our stories, and the environments we imagine. Our readers will feel this deep relationship, and it will transport them more directly into the setting about which we write.
I lived my entire life in the midwest, in the suburbs of Detroit, surrounded by working class people who live comfortably, but don’t have a great deal of “extras.” Although my physical roots are here in the midwest, I also have spiritual roots, places that seem to call to me even though I’ve never spent much physical time in them. The American south, home to my maternal ancestors, holds a great fascination for me, and I occasionally feel a surprising longing to be amidst the great Smoky Mountains, or wander barefoot through cool Kentucky bluegrass. And the three weeks I spent traveling in the South of England, staying in little towns scattered throughout Kent and Sussex, felt oddly comfortable, as if I were returning to a place I’d once lived rather than visiting a foreign country for the first time.
It makes me wonder if our spirits have a memory, if the places we’ve come from over time become engrained in souls. Toni Morrison wrote, “You know they straightened out the Mississippi River in places, to make room for houses and livable acreage. Occasionally the river floods these places. “Floods” is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding, it is remembering. Remembering where it used to be. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place.”
In her book, Writing Begins With the Breath, Larainne Herring asks “What does your piece of the earth talk about? What stories are hidden in the houses? The unpaved streets? The rusted mailboxes? You don’t have to travel the world to find your landscape. You’ve grown up in one, and whether you connect with it or know without a doubt you’re in the wrong place, you’re still affected by it. We’ re all people. It’s the place we’re living in that shapes our behavior, attitudes, desires, and activities.”
How about you? How does place figure in your writing? Do you feel comfortable in the place you live, or do you feel at odds with your atmosphere? Do you convey that in your writing? What stories does your location have to tell?
Write On This:
“The loss of a place isn’t really so different from the loss of a person. Both disappear without permission, leaving the self diminished, in need of testimony and evidence.” Bridge of Sighs, Richard Russo
Write about a place you’ve lost….
Hi, Becca, I just checked in to pick up the weekly prompt. And saw the “Write on this…” about a place you’ve lost.
Wow. Not sure I can do that one. It rings deeply. Must ponder. But first, the prompt…thanks as always! I”ll be back when I’ve got it. Honestly, with the holiday weekend, I keep thinking it’s Monday.
And btw, loved your entry on this one, your many “places” that you feel akin to … What is it about England? Were so many of us there, perhaps, in another time? Or, maybe it’s the childhood reading on which we were reared with its rhymes and poetry and pictures…
Hi Becca,
I am new to your Write On Wednesday, but I’ve been poking around your blog and it looks great, so I just combined your last two prompts as a way to introduce myself and plunge in. So here’s the link to my blog:
http://blk1.edublogs.org
Oh – I know…writing about a lost place really goes deep, doesn’t it? And I do think a lot of us have Celtic roots that come back to haunt us!
Bonnie -Welcome! I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with!
What was the name of that place? Integral isn’t it?
http://over-it.blogspot.com/2008/09/write-on-wednesday-power-of-place.html
Place or me equates to nostalgia!
Loved your thoughts. Here is mine:
http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com/2008/09/taking-myself-to-places.html
Here’s my link:
http://mymuseandme.blogspot.com/2008/09/write-on-wednesday.html.
Great prompt!
Becca, your gorgeously written post deserves far more reflection than I seem to possess just now. Your longing for the American South, and especially Kentucky, speaks deeply to me. I’d love to see those villages in the south of England.
This is absolutely wonderful. I resonate to England — for me, WWII England, for some reason or maybe a bit before and after.
I’ve not written a separate piece about a place lost — much to think on. But I did write about the first prompt — you can find it at http://www.themarmeladegypsy
Cheerio!
Still pondering the “Write on this” challenge but for now, my reply to the primary prompt, writing about “place” is posted at http://westcobich.wordpress.com.
I’m pokey, but then that’s what I wrote about so . . . here’s my post. Thanks. http://www.andilit.com/?p=258
Sometimes, place has a number, rather than a name. This was a wonderful prompt that helped me give words to something I had been pondering for some time.
You can find my response at http://shoreacres.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/the-latitude-of-fear-the-longitude-of-love/
Becca this sounds a great challenge – have only just got back from ‘being away’ and so will ponder and try and write something soon, but I’ve definitely missed the Wednesday now, haven’t I?
The last sentence: ‘It’s the place we’re living in that shapes our behavior, attitudes, desires, and activities’ that strikes an immediate chord!
I’m pokey, too, but I have a little something up…
Becca, I decided to jump in on this one. Hope I can do the link correctly. Fingers crossed. Mine is here
http://red-um-brella.blogspot.com/2008/09/write-on-wednesday.html
I know what you mean about spiritual memory of a place, I felt like that when I visited Italy. Place is in general very important to me, especially the natural ecology of place. I’ll try and write something for this to post tomorrow, I hope that’s not too late?
Yes, I posted something on this and you can read it here:
http://craftygreenpoet.blogspot.com/2008/09/power-of-place.html
I was just thinking of this very topic today as I revised a chapter in my novel. I am concerned that I strike a balance between not enough description to provide the reader with a sense of place, versus too much and risk bogging down the pacing of the story.
At the moment, I think I am erring on the side of not enough description.
Hi Becca,
School has begun, along with the new position that goes with it. I can’t tell you how much I miss Write on Wednesday!! I haven’t even had time to read any of the posts for this weeks prompt, other than the lovely one you wrote.
I did force myself to take the time to write a short response. Each week your prompt helps me focus and write on something that turns out to be very important to me. Thanks for taking the time to put this together.
http://qugrainne.com/2008/09/08/write-on-wednesday-timbuktu-lost/
I remembered this prompt last night . . . and finally began writing in response.
Happy Holidays!