Let love loose.

“Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it and it darts away.” – Dorothy Parker

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Image: Meanest Indian

The post You’ve Got to Believe appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnConscious life, hear me roar.

Two-Volume Novel

The sun’s gone dim, and
The moon’s turned black;
For I loved him, and
He didn’t love back.

– Dorothy Parker

My daughter came home from school the other day with this Dorothy Parker poem scribbled in 11-year-old penmanship down her palm and onto her wrist.

“I got in trouble for writing on myself,” she said.

“It’s that ink. They think it’s going to poison you,” I told her.

“Will it?” She asked.

“Not if you wash it off tonight,” I said, but by dinner time I could see only faint traces of blue ink swirls where Miss Parker had made her mark. I’ve never asked my daughter why she loves this poem, but she recites it out loud while walking, has written it into her own stories, and uses it as a reference point when talking about love to me.

What are these mantras we carry with us throughout life and how do they become personally significant? We all shoulder them, greet the new day and sip coffee with them, yet most of the time they stay buried and secret. You don’t have to be a writer, be well-read or even be an appreciator of the written word to have a phrase or two tucked away. You can learn them through other people, through song, through family blessings, through oral stories that seep into your being. We all hold a life language.

I started writing poetry seriously when I was around 16; my first time being published was in the high school literary magazine. By 25, I was published in three literary journals and had taken to carrying a Moleskine in my back pocket alongside my silver, monogrammed Drum cigarette case. I thought I was invincible. I’d been writing poems and short stories for as long as my hand could remember letters formed into words and sentences. What did I want to be when I grew up? A writer, always a writer. I was going to be a poetic boxer to knock people flat with visions of life they’d never seen. Bam.

American short story writer Raymond Carver described the writing profession as being a “witness” to life.

We do need them, don’t we?

When my son grows violent as his way of making a point, I say to him: “Always remember, ‘The pen is mightier than the sword.'”

When I leave a place behind and watch it turn tiny in a side mirror I hear Kerouac’s calming ending to On The Road.

I hear Ippolit all the time, talking to me from the pages of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, telling me we can never get to the core of what it is we truly want to say.

Walking in cities, I silently recite:

I have seen him in the markets of Africa,
and on the shores of New Orleans,
And though he wasn’t there,
I saw him in my dreams.

I wrote it when I was 19 and had just started traveling the world and I to this day walk in stride to the word beats. I remember those places and that I was stronger then. Even having found him, I search still for that place. Do you understand what I’m saying?

I can’t help but compare my own words with my daughter’s beloved Parker mantra and wonder: Is it biological for us to feel powerful from a lack of love, or is it the intangible soul searching for the power of the written word? Something that curls up comfortably like a cat in our hollows?

I asked my daughter later that night, “Why do you like that poem so much?”

“It symbolizes my life right now,” she said.

Looking at her snuggled there in bed, with her quilt pulled up to her ears, I knew I didn’t need to know anything else.

Between the Lines is a weekly column navigating the sometimes-sharp, sometimes-blurred lines of conscious life and culture between city and country, between inner worlds and outer.

Image: APM Alex

The post Between the Lines: The Power of the Written Word appeared first on EcoSalon.

Need some new ideas for what to read this summer? Here are some top picks from our EcoSalon editors.

Summer is a time to get outdoors, spend time with friends, take vacations and catch up on your reading. Here at EcoSalon we all have stacks of books on our bedside tables (or downloaded on our Kindle apps), waiting to be read on the beach or just on the back deck. We thought it would be fun to share our choices and give you a glimpse of our interests and what we read in our spare time.

Did you know that Amy DuFault reads Dorothy Parker to help fine tune her wit or that Vanessa Barrington even reads about food for fun? Scott Adelson and Katherine Butler can’t say enough good things about the same book, so be sure to put it on your must-read list. Although many tackle weighty issues – strong reviews, glowing recommendations or exceptional writing land them on our list. Here are the titles we can’t wait to start, and some favorites we think you’ll enjoy.

Happy summer!

Designers, Visionaries and Other Stories by Jonathan Chapman and Nik Gant
Ever since I wrote Top 15 Eco-Fashion Books We Love a while back I’ve been trying to chip away at reading all of them. As a sustainable fashion writer, as much as I say first-hand knowledge and experience with the industry is important, it’s just as important to take the time to read thoughtful insights from different members of the fashion industry. [Amy DuFault]

The Portable Dorothy Parker
I LOVE Dorothy Parker and whatever I haven’t read of hers I am sure I will find in this tome and I am hoping she helps me sharpen my wit. [Amy Dufault]

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Before she killed herself, Hannah Baker made seven audio tapes with thirteen reasons why she took her own life. The tapes are making the rounds to each of the thirteen people who played a part (knowingly or unknowingly) in her decision. I’m interested to see how Asher treats this issue, especially since reviewers, teens and parents alike rave about the story.  [Andrea Newell]

The Silent Land by Graham Joyce
The summary had me at “hypnotically dark story.” A couple is caught by an avalanche skiing, and after they dig themselves out, they find that the world is empty. But is it? A friend couldn’t put it down, and I love page turners while I am at the beach listening to the waves.   [Andrea Newell]

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
This is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read. Janie Crawford is a black woman in the early twentieth century South who marries three men, but only one for love. She lives her life unapologetically, even when she is judged for daring to pursue passion and happiness, and accused of murdering one of her husbands. “The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.” [Andrea Newell]

Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook
Few people know or would believe that the ubiquitous tomatoes we find on our fast food and deli sandwiches could possibly have been produced by enslaved workers in this country. Even worse, the tomatoes are so tasteless and mealy; they are not even worth eating. A waste of labor and resources, even if slavery is not part of the equation. Someone has finally written a book about what modern agriculture has done to an iconic fruit that should be delicious, juicy, and full of flavor and the workers who harvest it. It’s about time. [Vanessa Barrington]

Day of Honey by Annia Ciezadlo
A food memoir of an American woman who marries a Lebanese man, spends her honeymoon in Baghdad and, through her marriage learns to navigate the world of Middle Eastern food and culture. I’m dying to read it because I’ve heard that it’s exquisitely written, but more so because it shows us different aspects of a part of the world that we rarely see other than through wartime images on the news. [Vanessa Barrington]

A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
Why? Because it’s a classic about one of England’s favorite topics, class distinctions. Though this one has the distinction of taking place over an extended holiday. Plus, it’s funny (in that subtle Forster way) and biting, cutting to the frivolities of what it is to have and have not. Or perhaps better put, to want and want not. I picked this book up again last summer after Diane Rehm featured it in her NPR book club. [K. Emily Bond]

Another Country by James Baldwin
This is a story about the downfall and subsequent suicide of a black jazz musician named Rufus Scott, his relationship with Leona, a white woman from the South, his mentor Richard’s relationship with his wife Cass, his best friend Vivaldo’s relationship with his sister Ida, and his first gay lover’s relationship with Cass. Who, again, is Rufus’ mentor’s wife. Lots of sex – of the straight and gay kind – characterizes Another Country, but it’s very much a book about racial tension, denial, ambition and jealousy. It is an insanely absorbing portrait of bohemian 1960s New York vs. the rest of the world, just as relevant today as it was then. Truly, this and Giovanni’s Room are my two favorite Baldwin works. [K. Emily Bond]

I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere and Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda
These might seem a bit obscure, but this contemporary French writer is one of my favorites, and the two books are always good summer reads, because they’re smart, witty and very French. I Wish Someone Were Waiting For Me Somewhere is a collection of short stories, which is ideal for when you’re on the road or simply in need of some brain candy. [Anna Brones]

Astrid & Veronika by Linda Olsson
A heavy but beautiful book that takes a new friendship from the harsh winter months and into the Swedish summer. Olsson is a Swede living in New Zealand, and although she writes in English, her Swedish roots are clear in her writing, which is probably why I am a sucker for her books. [Anna Brones]

Just Kids by Patti Smith
Art, music, love and romance, all as acute and true as can be in an irrepressible late-60s and 70s New York City backdrop. Rock Shaman Goddess Patti Smith takes us with her on an escape from New Jersey to an anything-can-happen art and rock (and art rock) world as is taken form in the desperate nooks and crannies of The City where pure invention was being begged at every turn. Most of all, perhaps, Just Kids is the story of her deep personal connection with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe, who passed away from AIDs in 1989. Together they negotiate an extreme transition from poverty and youth to success and fame, while never surrounding their hard-driven addiction to creative authenticity. A super read that bears the texture of Smith’s magical and poetic voice. How many people do you think went to see Jim Morrison perform and walked away thinking “I can do that.” Of those, how many could? [Scott Adelson]

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This Side of Paradise’s exploration of hard-to-like Amory Blaine’s evolution in the face of The Man is as powerful and poignant today as it must have been when it was a sensation at the birth of the Jazz Age. How relevant is it today? Check out this riff: “We want to believe. Young students try to believe in older authors, constituents try to believe in their congressmen, countries try to believe in their statesmen, but they can’t. Too many voices, too much scattered, illogical, ill-considered criticism… Any rich, unprogressive old party with that particularly grasping, acquisitive form of mentality known as financial genius can own a paper that is the intellectual meat and drink of thousands of tired, hurried men, men too involved in the business of modern living to swallow anything but predigested food.” Fitzgerald’s masterpiece changes its tone and structure along with the experiences of Blaine, giving the book a modern feel a nearly a century after it was first published. [Scott Adelson]

The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Chopin was exploring women’s “problem with no name” almost a century prior to the 1970s American feminist revival. Gorgeously describing the hot sultry climate of New Orleans and Grande Isle, it’s a great read for summer. [Katherine Butler]

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
What an outstanding read — Egan compiles a group of amazing characters past, present and future. And she gives us a slightly-chilling view of ourselves ten years down the line. [Katherine Butler]

Having won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, many believe Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad is a true modern masterpiece. Magnificent craftsmanship and a unique use of postmodern technique give this novel a cross-time, cross-genre sensibility, and a certain humanity that you might find lacking in the cooler works of Don DeLillo, Paul Auster and other well-known, male Postmodern masters. Egan’s book opens with a story of a kleptomaniac woman and jumps from chapter to chapter, each one bringing new characters into the spotlight without regard to chronology or consistency of style. What emerges is a sense of time, realism and emotional breadth that could not come from your usual “once-upon-a-time” experience. [Scott Adelson]

Enjoy!

image: Michela Castiglione

The post Editor’s Picks: EcoSalon’s 2011 Summer Reading List appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnWhere celebrity becomes conscious.

Before her death in 1967, Dorothy Parker had perfected the art of satire. With her wit and wisecracks, this poet-turned-screenwriter cut into the heart of modern day foibles – and then she served it up with a nice scotch. Born in 1893, she sold her first poem to Vanity Fair in 1914 and grabbed her first desk job at Vogue. A few years later, she’s shared the Algonquin Round and had developed a national reputation for satire.

And then, in the 1930s, Parker moved to Hollywood and became a screenwriter. She made her mark with films such as A Star Is Born (1937), The Little Foxes (1941), and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Saboteur (1942). Here, she brought to life strong, smart, and even sinister women of the screen embodied in the likes of Bette Davis. You did not mess with Dorothy Parker’s heroines, lest you end up crumbled on the staircase, reaching for you medication while she stood watching you die. Parker’s screen heroines were, at times, Badassus Extremis women. One would think they would have set the stage for Hollywood’s Modern Career Woman, a pinnacle of strength and conviction and an easy seductress when it suits her own terms.

Right?

Yeah, not so much. Flash forward several decades and the likes of Katherine Heigl, Kate Hudson, and Jennifer Aniston reign as Rom Com Queens over a landscape of neurotic relationships and quests for bridal glory. Career women are cold and prudish, begging to be undone by an obnoxious playboy who has to help Ms. Icy Pants loosen up just a little to find love. With him, of course.

And so, we ask: What Would Dorothy Parker Do? What would the famed wittiest witch of the west have to say about the whining, preening, marriage-obsessed screen heroines dotting the early twenty-first century landscape? Naturally, we had to find out. Putting the space-time continuum aside for a moment (there’s nothing we won’t do for you), we asked Ms. Parker to share her thoughts on the modern movie heroine.

What do you think of the modern screen heroine?
She’s a lady with all the poise of the Sphinx but little of her mystery. I’d call her Dumb Dora, a skirt looking for a Sugar Daddy to make things nice. Take the characters played by this Jennifer Aniston doll and mush her into one big choice bit of woman. I’d like to take this woman out, get her properly ossified on some good scotch, and make her vow she’ll never do another sad-sack thing as long as she lives. That Aniston seems like a swell girl, got gams up to here. I don’t know why she doesn’t take a stand and stop acting like such a dowd. He’s Just Not That Into You? How about he’s not worth your time. Love Happens? Not when you’re mealy-mouthed. Face it, sister. The cure for boredom is curiosity, and there’s no cure for curiosity. The modern film heroine needs to smarten up and take charge of her own destiny.

But you’ve also mentioned that “Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.” So doesn’t that enforce the role of the modern screen heroine in that a girl’s gotta play dumb to get her man?
(At this question, Miss Parker blew a steam of Chesterfield smoke straight at me, stubbing out her cigarette in my saucer.) I also said that brevity is the soul of lingerie, darling. A gal can play any game she wants to catch a fellow, but in the end she’s just going to end up with her marbles and jacks spilled all over the floor. She needs to smarten up nicely and put herself before any boy. Happiness doesn’t come from a trip down the aisle. It comes from burning up the aisle and sitting out the flames with a good martini.

So how does a modern woman balance work and love on film?
Ha! Love. See this manacle on my finger? (She points to her wedding ring.) I was married three times, twice to the same lollygagger who was just after my money. We need tough cookies who put themselves first. So what if some man wants to get his wiggle on with her? She can have her nookie, a career, and her man.

Do you think your flouting of society’s conventions contributed to the FBI-compiled 1,000 page dossier in the 1950s? After all, you were blacklisted for Communist sympathies during the McCarthy era.
Probably, darling. Joe McCarthy just didn’t like any woman who could hold her liquor better than he.

Are there any women in Hollywood today you can get behind?
(“Butt me,” she said, and I held out a lighter for her next cigarette and our waiter winced. Ms. Parker thoughtfully brought her Chesterfield to her lips.) That Cate Blanchette, she’s the cat’s pajamas, the real McCoy. I just saw her in Hanna, she reminded me of that scorcher Bette Davis in The Little Foxes. A real bright-eyed murderess with a plan.

What’s the solution for the modern women of the screen?
Look here, doll, this is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly, but thrown with great force. Take no prisoners, I say. Ban Kate Hudson from ever playing another broad. The world didn’t need a Streisand remake of A Star is Born and it doesn’t need a Bride Wars 2. Let that brass Heigl girl have a say in her characters – she’s not afraid to speak up off-screen, so why do her girls on film seem too quick to cut out for a gigolo? And for the love of Jeepers Creepers, give us a dame who sees past a wedding gown as a happy ending.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go see a man about a dog. (And at that, Miss Parker snapped two fingers at the waiter, who quickly hurried over to empty her ash tray and refill her glass with scotch.)

*Answers guided by Dorothy Parker’s long list of enviable quotations.

This is another installment in Katherine Butler’s column, Shade Grown Hollywood, where celebrity becomes conscious. “Shade grown” refers literally to shade grown coffee, a farming method that “incorporates principles of natural ecology to promote natural ecological relationships.” Shade grown is our sustainable twist on Hollywood.

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