Gayle King said “he’s a walking sound byte,” about Ocean Vuong, whose second novel The Emperor of Gladness (SOOOO GOOD!)is out now.
She’s so right. Any doubt will leave you when you watch the barely 7 minute clip via PBS below. There’s so much juiciness in it! But one gem that stood out to me is an idea I’ve been playing with for a while and is the theme of this Substack-
“History doesn’t leave us. History is something we pass through…like a spider’s web. We’ve been caught in it but we are also made by it.”
This is exactly what I’m doing with my memoir-in-progress and this Substack: exploring how personal history shows up in everyday life. Because what happens in Vegas never stays in Vegas; it remains with us. This is part of why “healing” from sexual abuse is a fantasy. We can’t ever truly leave it.*
But of course there are many pieces of our history that don’t leave us. Growing up poor or working class, as Ocean Vuong also talks about. I’ve wrote before about how second wave feminism messaging (you can do anything!) influenced my choices and struggling with scarcity thinking, stemming from never quite enough in my family home. But I wonder what you think.
How has your history made you?
*And that’s OK, btw. What we can do instead is understand and learn to manage that piece of our history and others that shape how we think and what we do.
Having grown up in Germany, I pretty regularly observe how my (school) education would lead me to different conclusions in many aspects of civic debate in the U.S. After all these years, I keep wondering how much my history is influenced by that of my native country.
I love how you looked close at one aspect of personal history. Which makes me curious about how others think school influenced them! I think you’ve given me a future Friday question :-)
Definitely been wrestling a lot with generational trauma and how that impact but also looking at ways to let go of my own history that maybe I've been holding on for too long. Good question!
Having grown up in Germany, I pretty regularly observe how my (school) education would lead me to different conclusions in many aspects of civic debate in the U.S. After all these years, I keep wondering how much my history is influenced by that of my native country.
I love how you looked close at one aspect of personal history. Which makes me curious about how others think school influenced them! I think you’ve given me a future Friday question :-)
Definitely been wrestling a lot with generational trauma and how that impact but also looking at ways to let go of my own history that maybe I've been holding on for too long. Good question!
That can be a lot of deep, hard work, Diahann. Good for you for being willing to take the look. Thanks for sharing here.