Everyday Magic: How House of Spirits Has Influenced My Thinking
You lucky LJ(haha) readers - This was the essay I just mailed off today as part of my Grad school Portfolio. I'm applying for admission to Rollins - Masters of Liberal Studies program. The essay question - what book other than the Bible has most influenced your thought processes.
For a life time compulsive reader to isolate one book was a very hard thing to do. I challenge you all to do the same.
There have been many books over the span of my forty-six years that I could describe as having influenced my thought processes. To narrow the field down to one required some heavy contemplation on my part. I set out on an expedition to isolate or define the one book that I felt influenced my thinking. While meandering up and down the aisles of Barnes and Noble, I chanced upon a copy of Isabel Allende’s memoir Paula, a letter to the author’s daughter while she (the daughter) lay in a coma. I bought the book and began to read. Her memoir made many references to the parallels in Allende’s own life that influenced the writing of her first book, House of Spirits. I was reminded that Allende’s book has started me on a creative path that has spanned nearly twenty years.
I discovered Allende’s House of Spirits as a young mother in the late eighties. With little in the way of money, I would often go to the downtown Orlando public library and search for books to read. Thanks to the library, my eclectic tastes required nothing from me but the investment of my time. I read richly and widely, books of all sorts-biographies, fiction and non-fiction.
In one of my forays I took home the House of Spirits without fully understanding how deeply the book would influence my thinking. The story was a multi-generational, sweeping saga of a 19th century Peruvian family. The setting and the culture were alien from my own Western European roots, yet I found an odd similarity in the capacity for women the world over to not only survive but to thrive in the face of challenges. The book provided a matriarchal cast of figures from which I drew inspiration, and the characters lived with me long after I closed the book. I did not know then that a seed had been sown. House of Spirits has provided an inspiration that has whispered to me now over the span of about two decades-long enough to raise a new generation and begin the process of thinking about my own creative desires.
House of Spirits was the first step on a path that also directed my reading choices over the span of nearly twenty years. After reading Allende’s novel I was drawn to other books that fall into the category of magical realism; among them, Joanne Harris’s Chocolat, and Edward P. Jones' The Known World. It-they-changed the way I think by giving me a new lens through which to view the world. Through Allende's storytelling, I was given the opportunity to experience the concept that the feminine and intuitive processes of thinking are not only acceptable, but a valuable resource-an idea that was foreign to me before reading House of Spirits. Her characters may seem downtrodden, subjugated by the male figures, yet they emerge as indomitable. Through passive strength each of the primary female characters are victorious over the arc of the story.
Through the years I found myself reading House of Spirits several times, and each time I would harvest new insight. As a young mother I read through one lens. As a mother approaching my mid-thirties I gained much reassurance from the cyclic nature of the story events. In my mid-thirties to mid-forties, the nature of the renewable aspects of life becomes much more apparent. We lose a parent and become the eldest generation. I’ve stepped into those roles bolstered not so much by my own knowledge as by what I know to be true intuitively.
House of Spirits and books like it have provided a deeper understanding of life. Through reading and experience I have determined that while times may be hard currently, they will always turn up for the better. We may grieve, but we do recover. The magic of House of Spirits is daily magic, and with it as inspiration, my life remains filled with color and hope, no matter what may be happening. Allende's characters thrive, partly because of their attention to beauty and magic, and so do I. Without her work, it would have taken me much longer to realize that awareness creates increase. To be aware of magic and beauty increases our experience of it. And so, this noticing would eventually provide the fodder for my own creativity.
Each book we read is like a tile of a mosaic placed into a much larger picture. Each tile has a particular home that defines its place among a great design. House of Spirits occupies part of a pattern set into place at a point in my impressionable twenties. I was nourished by its uncharacteristic uniqueness. I could not comprehend at the time how thoroughly the House of Spirits would affect me. Perhaps this is how many things work in our lives. I would have been unable to understand how important one book-picked up at random on a trip to the library-could be, without the distance of time and life experience to provide a reference point. And yet, if I'd discovered House of Spirits later in my life, it would have had a different meaning. As it is, I found the right book at the right time, when it could be something of a naissance to influencing my thinking. A beginning that would ultimately compel me to find my own creative way in life.
For a life time compulsive reader to isolate one book was a very hard thing to do. I challenge you all to do the same.
There have been many books over the span of my forty-six years that I could describe as having influenced my thought processes. To narrow the field down to one required some heavy contemplation on my part. I set out on an expedition to isolate or define the one book that I felt influenced my thinking. While meandering up and down the aisles of Barnes and Noble, I chanced upon a copy of Isabel Allende’s memoir Paula, a letter to the author’s daughter while she (the daughter) lay in a coma. I bought the book and began to read. Her memoir made many references to the parallels in Allende’s own life that influenced the writing of her first book, House of Spirits. I was reminded that Allende’s book has started me on a creative path that has spanned nearly twenty years.
I discovered Allende’s House of Spirits as a young mother in the late eighties. With little in the way of money, I would often go to the downtown Orlando public library and search for books to read. Thanks to the library, my eclectic tastes required nothing from me but the investment of my time. I read richly and widely, books of all sorts-biographies, fiction and non-fiction.
In one of my forays I took home the House of Spirits without fully understanding how deeply the book would influence my thinking. The story was a multi-generational, sweeping saga of a 19th century Peruvian family. The setting and the culture were alien from my own Western European roots, yet I found an odd similarity in the capacity for women the world over to not only survive but to thrive in the face of challenges. The book provided a matriarchal cast of figures from which I drew inspiration, and the characters lived with me long after I closed the book. I did not know then that a seed had been sown. House of Spirits has provided an inspiration that has whispered to me now over the span of about two decades-long enough to raise a new generation and begin the process of thinking about my own creative desires.
House of Spirits was the first step on a path that also directed my reading choices over the span of nearly twenty years. After reading Allende’s novel I was drawn to other books that fall into the category of magical realism; among them, Joanne Harris’s Chocolat, and Edward P. Jones' The Known World. It-they-changed the way I think by giving me a new lens through which to view the world. Through Allende's storytelling, I was given the opportunity to experience the concept that the feminine and intuitive processes of thinking are not only acceptable, but a valuable resource-an idea that was foreign to me before reading House of Spirits. Her characters may seem downtrodden, subjugated by the male figures, yet they emerge as indomitable. Through passive strength each of the primary female characters are victorious over the arc of the story.
Through the years I found myself reading House of Spirits several times, and each time I would harvest new insight. As a young mother I read through one lens. As a mother approaching my mid-thirties I gained much reassurance from the cyclic nature of the story events. In my mid-thirties to mid-forties, the nature of the renewable aspects of life becomes much more apparent. We lose a parent and become the eldest generation. I’ve stepped into those roles bolstered not so much by my own knowledge as by what I know to be true intuitively.
House of Spirits and books like it have provided a deeper understanding of life. Through reading and experience I have determined that while times may be hard currently, they will always turn up for the better. We may grieve, but we do recover. The magic of House of Spirits is daily magic, and with it as inspiration, my life remains filled with color and hope, no matter what may be happening. Allende's characters thrive, partly because of their attention to beauty and magic, and so do I. Without her work, it would have taken me much longer to realize that awareness creates increase. To be aware of magic and beauty increases our experience of it. And so, this noticing would eventually provide the fodder for my own creativity.
Each book we read is like a tile of a mosaic placed into a much larger picture. Each tile has a particular home that defines its place among a great design. House of Spirits occupies part of a pattern set into place at a point in my impressionable twenties. I was nourished by its uncharacteristic uniqueness. I could not comprehend at the time how thoroughly the House of Spirits would affect me. Perhaps this is how many things work in our lives. I would have been unable to understand how important one book-picked up at random on a trip to the library-could be, without the distance of time and life experience to provide a reference point. And yet, if I'd discovered House of Spirits later in my life, it would have had a different meaning. As it is, I found the right book at the right time, when it could be something of a naissance to influencing my thinking. A beginning that would ultimately compel me to find my own creative way in life.