Our Lady of the Lost and Found
Page 33
“I was very intimidated by the prospect of writing a novel.”
The main character of In the Language of Love is a collage artist. In researching collage so I could write about it, I found myself becoming more and more interested in trying some of the techniques I had learned about. Towards that end, I began accumulating volumes of these old illustrations which are copyrightfree and can be used without permission. I started doing collages of my own and soon thought of trying to incorporate them into a book instead. My decision to do this was certainly helped along by my son, Alex, to whom the book is dedicated. One day, when he was nine years old, he said about my earlier books, “It’s too bad your books don’t have pictures in them.” I thought he had a good point. So I plunged in. In some cases, I had the idea for the story first and then found illustrations or made collages to go with the text. In other stories, it worked the other way around. Many of my earlier stories involved various experiments with the form. Adding illustrations to the mix gave me yet another element to work with and allowed me to open up the short story form in new ways.
The structure of Our Lady of the Lost and Found was determined by the material I wanted to include. At first I intended to write a simple novel about a woman who is visited by the Virgin Mary. But then I began to do the research and the more I learned about the historical apparitions of Mary, the more I realized that I had to find a way to include some of this material in the book. After many unsuccessful attempts, I settled on alternating chapters as it now stands: one chapter telling the story of this woman and Mary, the next giving some history of Mary and also delving into the other topics that arose, such as the uncertainty principle, the nature of recorded history, the thin places between fact and fiction, and so on.
The structure of Names of the Dead was also determined by the material I wanted to include. From the outset I knew I wanted to include all the names arranged alphabetically in paragraphs. From there I worked piece by piece, fragment by fragment, finding ways to include as much information as possible while still keeping the book to a reasonable length. The nature of these fragments is varied: some are strictly factual, others are narrative in nature. I also included a chronology of the events of the day spread throughout the book which functions as a kind of narrative arc. All of the structural decisions for this book were made as I went along. I placed a large chart on the wall beside my desk and kept track of the fragments on colored Post-it Notes which I moved around constantly until I found the right place for each piece. As far as the mechanics of structure are concerned, this book is definitely the most complicated project I have ever done.
The most significant way in which these four books are connected is that no matter how involved the structure may be and no matter how much I love playing around with that, I always keep in the front of my mind the fact that the story I am telling is the most important thing. Whether the structure comes to me first or whether it grows out of the material itself, still it must be organically connected to the story every step of the way. Form and content must be inseparable in the end.
“I always keep in the front of my mind the fact that the story I am telling is the most important thing.”
HC: You’re known as a writer who always challenges or plays with literary conventions. What other forms of writing would you like to work with?
DS: My experiments with prose in the genres of both fiction and nonfiction are likely to take many further forms. I think there are an unlimited number of ways that the usual structures and genres can be messed with! I am perpetually excited by the idea of challenging both traditional forms and my own writing abilities in this way.
I have also always wanted to write a book of poetry, and now that two of my books have been produced as stage performances, I often think I would like to write a play someday. I would like to write a historical novel. I would like to do another book with illustrations. I would also like very much to write a “regular” novel…one with a beginning, a middle, and an end, lots of plot and dialogue. In fact, when I started writing Our Lady of the Lost and Found, I thought it was going to be a regular novel…but it got away on me!
HC: Can you tell us what you’re working on now?
DS: I am currently working on a novel called Definitions of Happiness. It includes a fairly large number of characters whose lives intersect in various ways, each of them having a different idea of what would make them happy. In some cases they’re right, and in others they’re wrong. Again, I seem to be writing about a very serious topic (happiness is a serious topic!) while using humor in the process. I am also working on a book of short prose pieces inspired by the periodic table. This book is tentatively titled “A Quarrel with the Elements,” and it may or may not end up being an illustrated book, along the lines of Forms of Devotion. Last but not least, I have recently started working on a book of short stories called My Book of Lists.
A Note from the Author
One evening in the spring of 1996 I happened by chance to watch a television documentary called Miracles and Visions: Fact or Fiction? broadcast on the Fox network. Of all the miraculous events it included, I was especially intrigued by the stories of those who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary. This, of course, was something I had heard about but not something to which I had ever given much serious thought.
Fascinated, I began reading about Marian apparitions and, like the narrator of this novel, I soon discovered that the body of material available was truly enormous and that my research was leading me in all kinds of unusual directions. As I began to formulate my own thoughts about the Marian apparitions, the uncertainty principle, quantum physics, irony, narrative, fact, fiction, and both/and possibility over either/or opposites, I was increasingly excited to discover repeatedly in my reading that others had made these connections too. Also like the narrator, I was actually in the early stages of writing another novel at that time, but soon I put that book aside and began to write this one.
“All but one of the historical apparitions included in this book are based on actual documented accounts.”
Although the story of Mary’s visit to the narrator is fictional, all but one of the historical apparitions included in this book are based on actual documented accounts. The exception is the one in the last chapter, which is wholly invented. For the others, I have remained faithful to the records of these events. Although, as described in “History (7),” skeptics take the whole notion of apparitions to be pure fiction, I took the opposite approach. In shaping and retelling these stories for the purposes of my narrative, I worked from the basic premise that it was all true. In most cases, several accounts of each apparition were available. Where these differed in the details, I chose to follow what was reported most consistently. For example, in the story of Our Lady of Einsiedeln that appears in “History (1),” one account said Meinrad’s pet birds were ravens, but two others said they were crows. So I chose to make them crows. Wanting to honor these visions as they have been recorded, I felt free to invent only minor descriptive details about the visionaries, the settings, the weather, and such. I did not invent any of what they said they saw and heard during these experiences.
As Sara Maitland writes in the Introduction to her book A Big-Enough God: A Feminist’s Search for a Joyful Theology: “I am not a theologian. I am a Christian…and a writer: a fictionalizer, a liar in Plato’s definition.” I am also not a philosopher, a historian, a scientist, or a Catholic. Any errors of understanding and interpretation in these matters are mine.
Of the many books I used in my research, those that I found the most valuable include:
Answered Prayers: Miracles and Milagros Along the Border by Eileen Oktavec (Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 1995).
Brave Souls: Writers and Artists Wrestle with God, Love, Death, and the Things That Matter by Douglas Todd (Toronto: Stoddart Publishing, 1996).
Butler’s Lives of the Saints, edited by Michael Walsh. Concise Edition Revised and Updated (San Francisco: HarperCollins,
1991).
Can God Be Trusted? Faith and the Challenge of Evil by John G. Stackhouse, Jr. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
Dictionary of Mary (New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1985).
Goddess of the Americas: La Diosa de las Américas: Writings on the Virgin of Guadalupe, edited by Ana Castillo (New York: Riverhead Books, 1996).
The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart by Peter J. Gomes (New York: Avon Books, 1996).
The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism, edited by Richard P. McBrien (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995).
In Search of Mary: The Woman and the Symbol by Sally Cunneen (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996).
The Ironic Christian’s Companion: Finding the Marks of God’s Grace in the World by Patrick Henry (New York: Riverhead Books, 1999).
A Litany of Mary by Ann Ball (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 1988).
Magnificent Corpses: Searching Through Europe for St. Peter’s Head, St. Chiara’s Heart, St. Stephen’s Hand, and Other Saints’ Relics by Anneli Rufus (New York: Marlowe and Company, 1999).
Mary, Queen of Heaven: Miracles, Manifestations, and Meditations on Mary by Peg Streep (New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1997).
Meetings with Mary: Visions of the Blessed Mother by Janice T. Connell (New York: Ballantine Books, 1995).
Milagros: Votive Offerings from the Americas by Martha Egan (Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1991).
Miracles of Mary: Apparitions, Legends, and Miraculous Works of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Michael S. Durham (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995).
Miraculous Images of Our Lady: 100 Famous Catholic Portraits and Statues by Joan Carroll Cruz (Rockford, Illinois: TAN Books and Publishers, 1993).
Ockham’s Razor: A Search for Wonder in an Age of Doubt by Wade Rowland (Toronto: Patrick Crean Editions, Key Porter Books, 1999).
Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics by Diarmuid O’Murchu (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1997).
Sacred Origins of Profound Things by Charles Panati (New York: Arkana, Penguin Books, 1996).
Searching for Mary: An Exploration of Marian Apparitions Across the U.S. by Mark Garvey (New York: Plume, 1998).
Shrines of Our Lady: A Guide to Fifty of the World’s Most Famous Marian Shrines by Peter Mullen (London: Piatkus, 1998).
Sister Wendy’s 1000 Masterpieces by Sister Wendy Beckett (New York: DK Publishing, 1999).
A Tremor of Bliss: Contemporary Writers on the Saints, edited by Paul Elie (New York: Riverhead Books, 1995).
Visions of Mary by Peter Eicher (New York: Avon Books, 1996).
Way Stations to Heaven: 50 Sites All Across America Where You Can Experience the Miraculous by Sandra Gurvis (New York: Macmillan General Reference, 1996).
The essay “Liars and Damned Liars” by Merilyn Simonds in Brick: A Literary Journal (Number 56, Spring 1997; Toronto) was essential to the development of this novel. This eloquent and insightful exploration of the fiction/nonfiction continuum helped to clarify my own thoughts on the subject. It started me thinking about Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and all its further implications, which became a central theme of the novel. It suggested the anthropological example that appears in “History (6).” It pointed out how the meaning of the word history has changed over time and reminded me about Heraclitus’ river and Herodotus’ histories, all of which are included in “Knowledge.” It also posed the question as to when they took the story out of history, which I asked again in “History (4).” Much of my theorizing on these topics throughout the novel must be credited directly to this essay.
A number of other books have been important for showing me the many ways to discover the “thin place” between fact and fiction and for helping me to find my own way. These include:
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (Toronto: McClelland&Stewart, 1996).
The Convict Lover: A True Story by Merilyn Simonds (Toronto: Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1996).
Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman (Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993).
The English Patient and Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1992 and 2000).
The French Mathematician by Tom Petsinis (New York: Penguin, 1998).
The Hours by Michael Cunningham (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998).
Impossible Saints by Michèle Roberts (London: Little, Brown, 1997).
The Lion in the Room Next Door by Merilyn Simonds (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1999).
The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B; Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe; and The Last Great Dance on Earth by Sandra Gulland (Toronto: HarperCollins, 1995, 1998, and 2000).
Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen (New York: HarperCollins, 1991).
Santa Evita by Tomás Eloy Martínez, translated by Helen Lane (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996).
Various Antidotes by Joanna Scott (New York: Henry Holt, 1994).
The Volcano Lover: A Romance by Susan Sontag (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1992).
I believe that a writer is necessarily changed by the writing of a book. This, no doubt, is a further instance of Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle at work. It has certainly never been more true for me than in this case. Of paramount importance to the evolution not only of this novel but also of my own faith are the following books by Kathleen Norris:
Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith (New York: Riverhead Books, 1998).
The Cloister Walk (New York: Riverhead Books, 1996).
Dakota: A Spiritual Geography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993).
Meditations on Mary (New York: Viking Studio, 1999).
The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and “Women’s Work,” 1998 Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1998).
The following websites were also very useful:
The Catholic Encyclopedia at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/
Catholic Online Saints and Angels at http://www.catholic.org/saints/
For All the Saints by Katherine L. Rabenstein at http://www.erols.com/saintpat/ss/ss-index.htm (website no longer active)
Hail Mary! Six Thousand Titles and Praise of Our Lady by Florent E. Franke, M.D., at http://www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/titles/HailMary.html
Internet History Sourcebooks Project by Paul Halsall/ Fordham University at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/
The Mary Page at http://www.udayton.edu/mary/
Our Lady of Guadalupe at http://www.sancta.org
The video footage described in “Sightings” is from that 1996 television documentary and from a later one called Signs from God: Science Tests Faith (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1999). The newspaper and magazine articles described in this chapter were actual publications in The Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, and Life.
The fictional story of Ellen Sanderson in “Faith” was inspired by the actual story of Shirley Horkey as reported by Christie Blatchford in the National Post on March 13, 1999. The questions listed in this chapter were suggested by those in Know Your Personality by H. J. Eysenck and Glenn Wilson (London: Penguin Books, 1975).
All the Biblical quotations used in this novel are taken from the Authorized King James Version except where otherwise indicated.
Read on
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Forms of Devotion
Winner of the Governor General’s Award for Fiction
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This award-winning collection contains eleven stories, each one a brilliant interplay of words and images. The illustrations, selected by Schoemperlen and depicting almost every subject imaginable, are wood engravings and line drawings from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In some cases, she was inspired to write the story after studying the illustrations; in other cases, she wrote the story first, then chose or constructed the pictures to accompany it. The result is a playful, sometimes surreal and often mysterious juxtaposition of a historical fascination with anatomy and classical themes, with the author’s contemporary exploration of everyday people, places, and things.
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