Onaya Press

🅡︎eflections: Victor Hugo's quote can be interpreted in several ways: On the one hand, it implies that humans have a natural tendency to hold onto illusions or hopes even in challenging times. Despair only sets in when these illusions are shattered or proven false, indicating that resilience and hope are deeply ingrained in the human spirit. On the other hand, it suggests that despair arises from confronting the harsh realities of life after exhausting all comforting illusions. It highlights the struggle between facing truth and holding onto comforting but ultimately false beliefs. Moreover, It reflects the emotional journey of individuals as they navigate through life's trials and tribulations. Initially, they may cling to illusions for comfort, but eventually, when those illusions fade, despair may set in. Besides, Hugo's words offer psychological insight into the human psyche, suggesting that despair is not an immediate response to hardship but rather a consequence of prolonged disillusionment. Overall, Hugo's quote underscores the complexity of human emotions and the role of hope and illusion in coping with life's challenges.
🅢︎ource: Les Misérables (1862)

A Year of Writing to Uncover the Authentic Self Use writing as a tool for forgiveness and healing of the past by gaining new perspectives.

“Hard times are coming, when we'll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We'll need writers who can remember freedom - poets, visionaries - realists of a larger reality.”
Ursula K. Le Guin

Charles Ginner - Flask Walk, Hampstead at Night, 1933

https://pin.it/790rA7h

The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed. ~Ernest Hemingway

(Book: A Farewell to Arms https://amzn.to/3rVoG3a )

(Photograph: Ernest Hemingway with Mary Welsh, Cuba 1954)

"Invictus"
By William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

(Poetry Book: https://amzn.to/3JT9HMS )

"I feel intensely American, but I am not satisfied with the present state of things in this country and I'm afraid of complacency about it. I'm afraid of our thinking that all the rest of the world is in error and we're totally right. Nobody is right. And the whole meaning of all my work is that there is no such thing as complete right and complete wrong, complete black, complete white. That we're all in the same boat and really the boat is the world, you might even say the universe. All creation is the boat, not just one nation, not just one ideology, not just one system. That everything is in flux, everything is in a process of creation. The world is incomplete, it's like an unfinished poem." --Tennessee Williams/Interview with Studs Terkel/1961/Photograph by Michael Childers, courtesy of Corbis/

"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas is a powerful villanelle that passionately addresses the theme of death and the desire to resist it. Here's a summary and critical analysis:

**Summary:**
The poem is a plea to resist death, urging individuals to fight against its inevitability. It consists of 19 lines, with a strict structure of five tercets (three-line stanzas) followed by a concluding quatrain (four-line stanza). The repeated refrain "Do not go gentle into that good night" and variations thereof emphasize the central message.

The speaker categorizes different types of people—wise men, good men, wild men, grave men, and "blind eyes" (possibly symbolizing those who are oblivious or apathetic). In each case, Thomas implores them to resist death with fierce determination.

The poem reaches its climax in the concluding quatrain where the speaker addresses his own father, urging him to "curse, bless" him with his "fierce tears." The emotion is palpable as the speaker desperately urges his father to fight against the dying of the light.

**Critical Analysis:**
1. **Theme of Resistance:** The overarching theme is the defiance of death. Thomas uses vivid language and a sense of urgency to convey the idea that one should resist death with passion and vitality.

2. **Emotional Tone:** The emotional tone is intense and deeply personal. The speaker's plea to his father adds a poignant layer to the poem, making it both a universal statement on mortality and a personal reflection on the impending loss of a loved one.

3. **Symbolism:** The different types of men mentioned in the poem may symbolize various approaches to life and death. The plea for resistance is extended to all, irrespective of their life choices or circumstances.

4. **Villanelle Structure:** The strict structure of the villanelle, with its repeated lines, contributes to the poem's impact. The repetition of the refrain emphasizes the urgency of the message and leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

5. **Metaphorical Language:** Thomas employs powerful metaphors, such as "dying of the light," to convey the gradual fading of life. These metaphors contribute to the poem's richness and depth.

In essence, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" is a passionate and emotional exploration of the human instinct to resist death and the importance of living life to its fullest. Thomas's skillful use of language and form enhances the impact of this timeless work.

"What I think happens with a writer is that the journey can only go a particular way: Our histories and our mechanisms can only create certain works, and then we become certain writers. I became the only writer I could have become, until I became an alcoholic writer, at which point I became a diffused version of myself. Truman [Capote] was a very precise sort of person, and a very precise sort of writing emanated from him. He had an extraordinary memory and a piercing control of sensual detail. He could play with words like a brilliant composer offering arrangements of the works of others. And, sadly, Truman came to not like the only writer he was and that only he could be. I'm not sure what he wanted: More fame, perhaps; more money; more love. What he had was a voice, a truly original voice, and that's what we need to study."--Tennessee Williams on Truman Capote/Interview with James Grissom (Hulton Archive)

Stunning, Sensual Illustrations for a Rare 1913 Edition of Walt Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass’ by English Artist Margaret C. Cook “Thoughts, silent thoughts, of Time and Space and Death…”

"I once dreamed of escaping to magical places: Movie sets; fairy kingdoms; lovely homes with lovely people. I wanted to escape the abuses, the taunts, the grinding, onrushing tide of meanness that rolled over me all through my early years. I never got to the magic castle I insisted was deep in the woods, but I escaped through words, through images on a screen. Every day--and you need to remember this--you can sit before the pale judgment and strike words on its surface and escape and rise and find the magical places you wanted. The magical places that are within all of us broken, desperate people."--Tennessee Williams /Interview with James Grissom

For all of us facing the pale judgment.

She helped create the literary genre known as “Southern Gothic.” But more than anything else, Carson McCullers wrote with penetrating insight about loneliness and suffering.

Born as Lula Carson Smith in Columbus in 1917, she went to New York for college and married Reeves McCullers, the beginning of a complex and destructive relationship. In 1940, McCullers published her first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, a critical and commercial success followed by the controversial Reflections in a Golden Eye. Her short story “The Ballad of the Sad Café,” is considered her best work.

With Tennessee Williams’ encouragement, McCullers turned her novel, The Member of the Wedding, into a successful Broadway play. McCullers and her husband divorced and then remarried before he committed su***de in 1953. Her life was marked by physical pain and mental suffering: a series of strokes left her in a wheelchair before her death at age 50.

The lonely writer who wrote so hauntingly of the human desire to connect with others was born on February 19, 1917, Today in Georgia History.

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via:todayingeorgiahistory.org