Susan GriffinReseñas

Susan Griffin is a professional author who's written more than twenty books since before the dawn of popular Internet. This book is about her writing process. She tells us about what's important, about avenues to discover, the importance of letting go of pre-conceived notions about writing, etc.

I've read many how-to guides on how to write. Swedish author Bodil Malmsten wrote a book about how she wrote, which is named *Så gör jag*, which roughly translates to *How I do it*. The important thing about the book, she said, was that the book dealt with how *she* wrote, not how anybody else should write. I mention this because Griffin's writing is similar to that from Malmsten.

> The idea of a blank page can be daunting, frightening enough to stop you in your tracks. But, fortunately, the blank page is not really where most writers begin. With a few exceptions, that page usually appears much further along in the process, when you are better prepared to meet the challenge.

Griffin's forté is her ability to carefully craft short sentences that, per paragraph, pack considerable punch; she nearly leads the reader by means of Socratic method: she doesn't tell us how to do something: she opens a door to waft us into a sea of possibilities.

The worst kind of guide is the one that is written as though the author is God: they know all, you know very little, and the author's tone is from up-on-high. Griffin is clearly aware of this kerfuffle and has completely side-stepped all of that by playing with open cards.

Her writing not only pulls the reader in but engages them by constantly showing examples of what she thinks is important to do or not do, as seen in this paragraph that touches on inspiration.

> It may begin inauspiciously. A neighbor’s front porch light is always on at night, for instance, and two nights in a row, at three in the morning, you see a young man sitting on the steps. After a while, you find this observation turning into a story. Or perhaps you just have a hunch, an outlier notion, about a current minor political issue, in which no one else seems to be as interested as you are and to which, nevertheless, despite all your attempts to abandon this idea, your attention keeps returning. Bit by bit you find yourself formulating an argument. Then again it may start with a compelling dream. Or even with what seems like a fleeting observation, except that it stays in your mind, like the grain of sand that irritates an oyster (and let’s hope this results in a pearl). Or it might be a story you heard as a child and only dimly remembered until one day this tale suddenly comes to the surface, carrying with it a host of new insights. Or is it a story you come across when you are looking for something else? Yet again, perhaps you are obsessed with a celebrity, a film, a novel, a painting. (More than one book or film or story or poem has been inspired by previous works such as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice or Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard.) But perhaps it is not just a memory that moves you but instead a sensation, the taste, for instance, of a particular cookie, called a madeleine, dipped into a cup of tea.

I mentioned that Griffin touches on what's important to *not* do. Here's an example of this:

> It used to be, and probably still is in many classrooms, a common practice to chastise and humiliate any student who is caught looking out the window, fixed in a rapt gaze at seemingly nothing at all. But with all due sympathy to any teacher who wishes her or his lessons to be heard, such moments of reverie are known to yield many creative insights.

Griffin clearly has collected many of her points over time, and it's easy for even the most experienced writers to find themselves in her advice.

> You might eventually discard anything you write. You may produce only a sentence or two. Or nothing at all. What is important is that you are present to the process. Being there, while focusing on nothing else, will ignite your creative mind. The results may not appear immediately. Yet somehow out of sight, your mind will be working. The delay resembles those times when you are asked a question for which you cannot think of an answer until hours later, when the perfect response comes to you. If you keep showing up, eventually what you are seeking will show up too.

I think Griffin's advice is at its very finest when touching on how writing works from a human, psychological angle. I'm glad she hasn't spouted off business-like advice. An example of what I mean:

> As long as you are paying attention to your thoughts, be aware of your own mood too. Do you feel like Lillian Hellman, as she was portrayed in the film Julia, when, in exasperation, she threw her typewriter out the window? Then again, your own writing may be putting you to sleep. Whatever you are feeling as you write—whether you are bored, exhilarated, rapturous, solemn, studious, fascinated, angry, sad—will somehow make its way onto the page, and as a result the reader will feel what you are feeling as you write. Take time to find the words and images or ideas that please and excite you in some way. Don’t settle for less.

> Of course, you can try to think through what your true feelings are (as you will inevitably find yourself doing in any case). But writing itself can help you locate deeper and often less-than-conscious emotions. As you look for the right words to express this inner experience, you must become an exacting master. Instead of searching analytically, listen to the sound of your words to find out if they resonate. Let your inner experience be the tuning fork. You are not looking for the most pleasing or impressive words. You are searching for what rings true.

There are many beautiful paragraphs found throughout this book. Griffin draws from personal experience and paints pictures that are clear and sometimes funny, for the benefit of the book.

My only grumble about this book is not really a grumble: it's focused on fiction and not as much on non-fiction, but that's just personal. Most of the advice is, in some ways, applicable to non-fiction as well.

This book contains plenty of technical writing tips that are both tangible and helpful. Griffin radiantly casts off examples to clarify what she means.

> It’s easy to use common phrases when you write, and even at times preferable, where they fit or are accurate. (If you are constantly striving to be inventive, not only will you wear yourself out, your reader will soon get tired too.) And, speaking of “fresh,” it’s important that as you write, you listen to the language you are using with fresh ears. Recently linguist George Lakoff suggested to activists regarding the issue of student debts that they forgo the habitual phrase, which is to forgive debts, and use the phrase cancel debts instead. While this campaign argues that students should not be forced to incur debt in order to be educated, the use of the word forgive implies that having debt is a sin. Employing a habitual phrase, the organizers had failed to really hear what their words implied.

All in all, this is a wondrous book that deserves a spot next to those by Verlyn Klinkenborg, Joe Moran, William Zinsser, Robert Graves, and Peter Ginna.

1.5 stars

Aburrido, escrito en un lenguaje denso, falto de equilibrio en los casos que aborda, lo cual hace pensar en desidia y comodidad en ka investigación. Además trabaja una peculiarísima, y confusa concepción de qué o quiénes fueron cortesanas.

Read this.

I realize this is considered a classic in feminist literature, but it is not anything like what I was expecting and I found Griffin's stream of consciousness style to be very distracting. This is not a coherent narrative of any sort, and might more properly be described as "prose poetry," at times somewhat in the direction of beat poetry. There were parts I found quite profound, when some aspects of traditional misogyny were contrasted, by free association, with cows and other domesticated animals. Women have traditionally been subjugated in ways that make them more animal than human in terms of the way that men seem to view their role, and this is where Griffin speaks powerful truth. My problem is that these moments of insight were lost in the tangle of, at times, numbing tumble of words and ideas.

Das Brüllen in ihr

My primary response to this work was gratitude - it's easy to forget, forty years later, the monumental nature of the silence that was broken by second wave feminism, and this torrent of well-chosen words is the sound of the dam breaking. Much of it should be read aloud, I think, for full impact. "Because we know we are of this earth" - Griffin's work will only cease to be relevant when and if this realization fully dawns on humanity.

A major collection of writings from c. 113 authors and traditional sources regarding progressive paths toward transforming and moving beyond violence and terror in our contemporary world.

The Book of the Courtesans is Susan Griffin's love letter to women of loose morals. For a book designated nonfiction, I found Griffin's writing to be more romance than history; she only peppers her daydreams of rags-to-riches courtesans and women of delightful freedom and tenacity with biographical information of the women themselves.

The title suggests a structured look at the "virtues" of courtesans throughout history, so the author's bias is neither unexpected nor unappreciated (after all, I purchased her book because of my own personal interest in the subject). For the most part, the virtues she lists are what a reader would expect from the subject matter: beauty, wit, grace. However, the author takes numerous liberties with her own structure, and includes "virtues" such as timing (which I wouldn't necessarily call a virtue), and even includes "Her Pink Rabbits" under the chapter on "Brilliance". Hhmmm.

The Book of the Courtesans is an exercise in purple prose and presumption as opposed to reliable research and true biography. While the reader will be treated to some information about the women who inspire Griffin's work, what they will largely encounter is Griffin's own romanticized imaginings of the world that these women create.

I read this book out of an immense curiosity about what would make a woman choose to become a courtesan during the 18th and 19th centuries -- especially when she might, in many cases, become a governess instead. It turns out that many of these women didn't really have that choice, and instead were forced or obliged to become courtesans due to life circumstances OR because their mothers were courtesans and that was the only life they knew.

It's fascinating history, especially because there are few books that chronicle the darker sides of women's history in a respectful way. In fact, after reading this book, I'm aching to read Governess by Ruth Brandon so I can see the OTHER side of things.

While I very much enjoyed reading this book, my main issue with it is the flowery language that the author uses to describe the women and their lives -- the prose becomes exceedingly overwritten in places, and you wonder which parts are fact and which parts are the author's gushing adoration seeping through. To Griffin's credit, she does tell us about some negative aspects of the women's lives, but it didn't feel entirely balanced in the end.

The book is presented in chapters that each focus on a particular virtue -- Charm, Grace, Poise, etc. -- and I wouldn't say that was the best choice for organizing things, because it seems to be a bit of a stretch in some cases. I also took a bit of issue with the 'modern' courtesans that she chose to write about -- women who lived beyond the time of the courtesans but whom the author believed displayed their virtues -- such as Klondike Kate. I don't think 'courtesan' when she comes to mind, and even the author herself seems to admit that it's a bit of a stretch at times.

Still, on the whole the book gave me a lot of insight into these women's lives that I hadn't know about before, and I'm very interested in learning more about them and the society in which they lived. These women were a prominent part of their society, but their presence has been largely swept under the carpet... and yes, while a woman who sleeps with men for money or gems is a prostitute no matter what social circle she runs in, I find the psychological aspect/the circumstances that caused each one of them to enter this life to be fascinating and a very telling glimpse into the female psyche and the society of the day.

If this is a subject you might find interesting, I do recommend the book. Just be aware that the author seems a little less than objective at times, and you may need to supplement the reading with a bit of your own research when you're done (not that that's a bad thing, really).½

This book is helpful to me when I'm having what one neighbor called "fat & ugly& days. I love to read of silk & satin & power. I also need the reminder of how many more choices I have than these women who sound so much like me.½

When I taught Advanced Composition, I used this book as a primary reader. Griffin has created a brilliant new form of essay, merging multi-disciplinary research, journalism and personal reflection. Her insight is so profound it's breathtaking. She should be required reading for being human.

reading this is an experience in itself, not a passing of the time

SG