Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Black And White



Sometimes when Mr. Moon is out of town, I stay up and read too long. I did that last night. I am reading Patti Smith's book Just Kids about her young life in NYC living and loving with Robert Mapplethorpe. Such an alien world to the one I live in, the one they occupied back in the sixties, trying to figure out what it meant to be an artist, trying to figure out how to get food to eat, a place to stay, how to keep body and soul together enough to stay up all night and make art.

Patti had a baby and gave it up for adoption when she was very young and then went to New York with no money and no place to live. She slept sometimes in doorways, she met a beautiful man who took her in, she fell in love, they became lovers, he discovered and explored his love for men, she tried to understand, she had a straight job, they moved into the Chelsea and met artists of all kinds. She had an affair with Sam Shephard. She cut her hair like Keith Richards. She acted, she painted, she wrote poems, she learned to play the guitar.

It's like there were no boundaries for them, those kids in New York City. Want to live at the Chelsea but have no money? Leave your gray-wrapped-with-red-ribbons-portfolio with the owner and maybe he'll give you the smallest room in the hotel.

Don't have the sixty-five cents for a sandwich at the automat? Perhaps Alan Ginsberg will show up with the dime you need, think you're a pretty boy instead of a boyish girl and give you the dime.

Did the people you went to high school with think you were ugly? Take that ugly and enhance it with scissors and never-enough-to-eat and define beauty for yourself.

Find the prettiest boy in New York and throw your lot in with him. Try to understand him and let him try to understand you.

It's hard to put the book down. She is, of course, a very good writer and she has lived a life.
I never really understood Mapplethorpe's art with its violence and christiness.

But it haunts.
I never really understood Smith's music but I understood its power and honesty.


I understood that she was a woman who was redefining what a woman was and in sharing her music, she was helping me to redefine who I was, little hippie wife living in a small trailer with my two babies and my guitar-playing husband. Not unlike Yoko Ono who was also called ugly and who wailed, "I'm such a mean chickie baby."



These other lives so alien from mine and yet, they touched me and part of who I am and how I see the world was changed by them.

Isn't that what art is about?

Here is my reality. I have made it as clear as I possibly can. Can you understand what I'm trying to show/tell/sing to you?

I may not especially like or identify with it but if it is real, if the artist has put her or his soul into its creation, and I take the time to look and listen and set aside my judgment, I may understand, at least a little. I may be changed, at least a bit.
And my world gets a little bigger and my understanding grows to include that which I never even considered before.

Yes. Sometimes it's good to stay up too late, reading, because the next morning, you may be a slightly different person living in a different world where the boundaries are not so tightly defined.

14 comments:

  1. ~Oh, lovely. Danielle will love this post.

    I want to read the book now.

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  2. I downloaded a book from the library - not knowing what it was - a self-help book which I generally despise - but the woman hits some incredibly accurate chords and has opened my eyes - and I think maybe we are all artists - just some are brave enough to make it happen.

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  3. I am fascinated by those who have lived on the fringe and who still live there. Maybe because my life has been so predictable in a way. Even in the depths of despair, I could despair predictably. It is a book I would like to read.

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  4. Wonderful post. I love it when a book keeps you up. I've been meaning to buy this book for a while, I will order it now.

    I'm with you about taking the time to understand what people create.

    I love reading so much and this post reminded of a Somerset Maugham quote; "To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all of the miseries of life" xx

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  5. What a great review. I loved this book, too, in much the same way as you have beautifully articulated. There's nothing like reading a book that one can get lost in and then leave --

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  6. "I have not sold myself to God."

    Now I want to listen to Easter, but that's not an album you want to play while at work.

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  7. I love their brutal honesty, always. Saw a magnificent Maplethorpe exhibit in Germany long ago with an ex and his BFF and learned so much.

    Did she talk about her brother and his death? Seems such a pivotal theme in her life, too. Fascinating.

    I've been wanting to take days off work just to sit home and read - been into some good books lately. Just finished Verghese's "Cutting for Stone" and went to a book group tonight - we all loved it. So wonderful, such wonderful characters and setting.

    BTW, this will entertain you (because I feel like I'm emailing you now) - today at work I was accused of witchcraft. I kid you not. I see a special crazy every day. Sigh.

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  8. What a beautiful essay Ms. Moon. I read every word with care. This is all so very true.

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  9. Jo- I'm not done with it but I think you'll like it.

    Jeannie- I think there has to be an overpowering involved, whatever that may mean.
    But yes, we are all quite capable of creation which I think is a holy act.

    Syd- "Even in the depths of despair, I could despair predictably."
    That makes me love you even more.

    Christina- I recommend the book. I do. And what a wonderful quote!

    Stephanie- It is!

    Elizabeth- Exactly!

    DTG- Another fabulous quote.

    Nola- Oh. Poor baby. I have GOT to catch up with you. Life is just crowding me up against the wall.

    Maggie May- Have you read it? I think you would love it.

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  10. This post really touches me. Your life has been so different from hers, but the search for truth and identity and your own definition of beauty is all there in you. I'm putting this on my list of books to read. I was just thinking that I want to read more biography.

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  11. I really enjoyed your take on the book. It is a great read. I always had the most massive crush on Robert Mapplethorpe. Was he gorgeous or what?

    Love you so,

    SB

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  12. May- You'd like it I think. And I think that it's interesting that Patti has ended up being a mother and that her children play music with her now. Pretty cool.

    Ms. Bastard-Beloved- Prettiest boy in New York City. That Sam Shephard wasn't too bad lookin' either.

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  13. I had no idea Patti Smith and Robert Mapelthorpe were together. Wow.

    I remember when I was in art school in NYC, the Chelsea Hotel was still a "thing"

    That was a long time ago

    I love your line about scissors and not enough to eat

    xoxoxo

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