Horton Hears a Who

May 03, 2011 12:08

I love Laura Lippman. that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who reads these posts, since I talk about her a lot, but I talk about her so much because I really do think her books are genius. they reach me in ways I never thought books could...or rather, they help me see things about myself and feel a little more normal knowing that everyone ( Read more... )

reading obsession, i am insane, books, 50 book challenge, i am a freak, laura lippman, reading, i am crazy

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Comments 5

nabba May 3 2011, 18:02:22 UTC
Things touch us all in different ways - hang onto what you can :)

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quirkytizzy May 4 2011, 22:17:18 UTC
Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Crap's been crazy in my head lately. But I have missed you.

It does me so much good to hear you talking about this. (With as crazy as I've been feeling, hearing you say it out loud makes me feel like I'm not the only one.)

And the excerpt from the book makes a POWERFUL statement. The last two paragraphs...just....wow....

(Because you and me and other people like us - we hear the voices and we are the ones who have seen what goes on. We can't hide from it like the rest of the world.)

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malakijr May 5 2011, 12:25:36 UTC
THANK YOU! Those last two paragraphs were like a knife in my gut, because you're right, people like us, we're the ones who hear the voices and read between the lines and know the deeper stories that never get told in the paper, and we see what goes on that no one else seems to see. One of my therapists once said we're residents of the deep end of the pool...we're underwater, and everything above looks blurry and wave and out-of-focus, so we stay under the water, reachingout for others there like us, who we can touch, but we can't breathe under there, so every once in awhile we need to come up for air and see everyone else gathered around the surface, and they may get splashed with the water and get a small glimpse of our experience, but they'll never know what it's like to be UNDER that water unless they experience it for themselves ( ... )

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quirkytizzy May 5 2011, 22:20:35 UTC
OMG. THAT. What you said! That literally made me gasp, the way you put it! Lillian, you are a poet! Thank you!

And I LOVE what your therapist said, I think I am going to start using that. I like the underwater/friends by the pool analogy because that fits. It is exactly what it is like.

And hope - I'd forgotten about that until you mentioned it. I'm really glad you reminded me.

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malakijr May 6 2011, 14:18:38 UTC
I love the analogy about the deep end of the pool, too. My therapist didn't say the part about people getting splashed when we climb out (I expanded on what she said) but I've always thought that was a good way of putting it when people have some understanding of our experience because they've come into contact with us, but they've never experienced it themselves. I tend to be a visual person, so the image of being underwater and trying to talk and having it all come out garbled to those standing outside the pool always appealed to me. It helps me not beat myself up so much when people don't understand me because I "take things too seriously." Like I can just stop doing that. This is how I am, not something I do for fun, people ( ... )

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