So I went to a Michelle Tea reading last night and it was just awesome. She read a piece that she just randomly doodled a little while ago and asked to crowd to "forgive her its faults" but since she's a frickin' LAMBDA award winner, it clearly had no faults.
She kept looking at me for the whole first half of the show when this other chick was reading and she was smiling at me. I was like, "GAH! I think she might think i'm attractive!" *nipples harden*
We talked afterwards about writing and how the English major kills all of the joy out of budding writers. She told me she never went to school. SHE IS A LAMBDA AWARD WINNER FOR CHRISSAKES!!!! I am WASTING MY LIFE in college. This English program is doing absolutely nothing for me but making me more self conscious of my bad writing and chastising me for being "pretentious" when it's good. "Pretentious" is the be-all say-all your-mom of literary criticism. If you want to hurt a writer but can't find any flaw in their work, just call them "pretentious." They are forcing me to read boring old white male authors that speak nothing of subjects I really care for and after a while your writing tone sounds a lot like what you read. Michelle Tea and I agreed on this point.
So basically all I can do is to keep on doing what i've been doing; keep reading radically feminist lesbian local authors, go to their poetry slams, support them and try to learn the tricks of the trade. To be quite honest, I have learned tons more about writing from going to the poetry slams and various independent writer's workshops in the city than ANY class i've taken at school except for maybe "Intro to creative writing."
We talked more about writer's block (Her advice, "If you feel you can't write, don't write because it probably sucks so just wait until you CAN write and do it.") And she was like, giggling and blushing the whole time. I was confused. She said, "Didn't I meet you somewhere before? You look familiar?" and I said I met her like 8 months ago at one of her readings. I was surprised she remembered me. Then she asked for my email address and wrote it directly ON THE BACK of one of the pages of the PIECE SHE WAS WORKING ON. Of course my dorky hero-worshipful ass thought *in nasal voice* "Oh! Oh Jesus! Every time she revises she will see my name!"
Wow. Having Michelle Tea flirt with me is both confusing and arousing. It's like having a Backstreet Boy oogle you and grab your ass. She is a living legend.
Anyway, I am off to volunteer and then tonight I am going to party hard at a new bar once more. Mmm, cosmos...Mmm buttery nipples...
She kept looking at me for the whole first half of the show when this other chick was reading and she was smiling at me. I was like, "GAH! I think she might think i'm attractive!" *nipples harden*
We talked afterwards about writing and how the English major kills all of the joy out of budding writers. She told me she never went to school. SHE IS A LAMBDA AWARD WINNER FOR CHRISSAKES!!!! I am WASTING MY LIFE in college. This English program is doing absolutely nothing for me but making me more self conscious of my bad writing and chastising me for being "pretentious" when it's good. "Pretentious" is the be-all say-all your-mom of literary criticism. If you want to hurt a writer but can't find any flaw in their work, just call them "pretentious." They are forcing me to read boring old white male authors that speak nothing of subjects I really care for and after a while your writing tone sounds a lot like what you read. Michelle Tea and I agreed on this point.
So basically all I can do is to keep on doing what i've been doing; keep reading radically feminist lesbian local authors, go to their poetry slams, support them and try to learn the tricks of the trade. To be quite honest, I have learned tons more about writing from going to the poetry slams and various independent writer's workshops in the city than ANY class i've taken at school except for maybe "Intro to creative writing."
We talked more about writer's block (Her advice, "If you feel you can't write, don't write because it probably sucks so just wait until you CAN write and do it.") And she was like, giggling and blushing the whole time. I was confused. She said, "Didn't I meet you somewhere before? You look familiar?" and I said I met her like 8 months ago at one of her readings. I was surprised she remembered me. Then she asked for my email address and wrote it directly ON THE BACK of one of the pages of the PIECE SHE WAS WORKING ON. Of course my dorky hero-worshipful ass thought *in nasal voice* "Oh! Oh Jesus! Every time she revises she will see my name!"
Wow. Having Michelle Tea flirt with me is both confusing and arousing. It's like having a Backstreet Boy oogle you and grab your ass. She is a living legend.
Anyway, I am off to volunteer and then tonight I am going to party hard at a new bar once more. Mmm, cosmos...Mmm buttery nipples...
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
"reading radically feminist lesbian local authors, go to their poetry slams, support them and try to learn the tricks of the trade."
School just gives you the rules so you can break them! I agree about how it makes you question yourself -with all that crap about genre...but if you stay true to your writing than you can take what you want and leave the rest.
cheers *slams down shot glass"