This so resonates with me. In a dark and hostile medical school environment I wrote a bad novel, all in long hand. Someone who to this day remains a friend, forty-plus years later, read it and told me that it was the foundation for something yet to come. I burned it. And things, albeit small, have indeed come since.
This is such a beautiful and inspiring piece. For me, it's about the power and alchemy of creating and how when we focus our energy on what we truly love (which is not necessarily the same as being easy or even at times enjoyable) magic happens.
Really incredible. Thank you for sharing this part of your personal journey, and about one of your younger selves and what he went through. I felt like I was there with you. So powerful and moving, and vulnerable. So many of us can relate, and are glad your younger self made it.
And as a writer, I needed to hear this: "Everything you write doesn’t have to be additive or instrumental, fuel for an eventual phoenix event. Sometimes what we write teaches us nothing or close to nothing, budges the needle of our talent not at all. Sometimes we write just because it helps us to stay alive, the words becoming breath."
So powerful. I'm so glad you wrote that bad novel! Gloria and Aleluya! :) Damn, they say that a book can change a life. Your unpublished novel saved yours!--It deserves a Golden Prize!
This so resonates with me. In a dark and hostile medical school environment I wrote a bad novel, all in long hand. Someone who to this day remains a friend, forty-plus years later, read it and told me that it was the foundation for something yet to come. I burned it. And things, albeit small, have indeed come since.
This is such a beautiful and inspiring piece. For me, it's about the power and alchemy of creating and how when we focus our energy on what we truly love (which is not necessarily the same as being easy or even at times enjoyable) magic happens.
Really incredible. Thank you for sharing this part of your personal journey, and about one of your younger selves and what he went through. I felt like I was there with you. So powerful and moving, and vulnerable. So many of us can relate, and are glad your younger self made it.
And as a writer, I needed to hear this: "Everything you write doesn’t have to be additive or instrumental, fuel for an eventual phoenix event. Sometimes what we write teaches us nothing or close to nothing, budges the needle of our talent not at all. Sometimes we write just because it helps us to stay alive, the words becoming breath."
That last line - always.
How encouraging to read this Junot, and feel grateful that you lived to write about this period...and wow, that Mondestin painting...
Beautiful as always man. Thank you.
In a time like now, when words became fire, it's good to hear you're still breathing.
Thank you Joy. Much light to you
I love you Junot Diaz.
The power of truth and the importance of intimate details shines through this piece on “radiant” darkness.
I wish your path was easier. I hope it has vanished.
You're very kind Kate. Appreciate you.
We do life like everything else. A day at a time.
So powerful. I'm so glad you wrote that bad novel! Gloria and Aleluya! :) Damn, they say that a book can change a life. Your unpublished novel saved yours!--It deserves a Golden Prize!
even the most advanced psychoanalytic theorists don't know what decides a dream; they don't even have a word for it