He breathed out the bitter air that makes women doubt everything, and I breathed it in, as I had always done. I expelled my dust, the powder of everything I had destroyed with doubt, and he pulled it into his lungs.
Miranda JulyRead
After I had my son I looked everywhere for a book that might serve as some kind of mirror. I bought so many silly books. Now I see what the problem was: I wanted a book about time-about mortality. I can't think of a writer who is at once so experimentally daring and so rigorously uncompromising as Sarah Manguso. Ongoingness is an incredibly elegant, wise book, and I loved it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the search for meaningful reflections on life and mortality through literature, particularly after becoming a parent.
Miranda July expresses her desire for a book that reflects her experiences and thoughts on time and mortality, especially after the profound life change of becoming a parent. She recognizes a gap in available literature that addresses these complex themes, ultimately praising Sarah Manguso's 'Ongoingness' for its elegance and wisdom in tackling such significant topics, showcasing the importance of literary explorations of life’s deeper questions.
Themes
MortalityParenthoodLiteratureReflectionTime
In practice
Example use cases
In a book club discussion about the implications of parenthood and life choices.
More from Miranda July
All quotes →We had loved people we really shouldn't have loved and then married other people in order to forget our impossible loves, or we had once called out hello into the cauldron of the world and then run away before anyone could respond.
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Some people need a red carpet rolled out in front of them in order to walk forward into friendship. They can't see the tiny outstretched hands all around them, everywhere, like leaves on trees.
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I have female friends who work in all different mediums who I speak to at least once a week. It helps me so much to know that I'm not alone. I think that's the bare minimum you need to sustain yourself - some sort of context of other women making things.
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Long before I started to write in earnest, Lorrie Moore taught me you could have a woman narrator who was funny and complex and even wrongheaded. She opened up a lot of space that me and a million other women rushed into.
Miranda JulyRead
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