The Book That Changed Everything For Me.
When I was 12, I picked up my mom's book, The Mists of Avalon*. The cover intrigued me--a woman with long, dark hair wearing a loose, dark tunic riding a magnificent white horse while she held a sword with a golden hilt.
The book is about 1200 pages but once I started it, I couldn't put it down. The book tells the story of Arthur's Camelot through the eyes of a woman.
And that changed my life.
Because in that book I had my first experience of a story looking totally different when it is told from a woman's point of view.
It isn't that I thought that the male version of the story wasn't worth reading. That wasn't it at all. It was far bigger than that. It was the mind-blowing, deep understanding that the world we live in is running on stories that are told by men but that THOSE AREN'T THE ONLY STORIES.
And when the same exact stories are told through different eyes, the meanings, the understandings, the importance or unimportance of certain details--CHANGE.
So at the age of 12, without having the language to name it, I became a Relativist (and a Feminist)! And I began a practice of getting curious about how a story might be told differently.
Years later, The Red Ten by Anita Diamant came out and I eagerly read that and it proved what I already knew to be true: when women tell the stories, the stories are different.
I don't mean that as good or bad. Please don't get trapped in binary thinking--a tool of the Patriarchy! I just mean DIFFERENT. Okay...sometimes, sure, I do mean BETTER ;)
And if they are different, then that means the stories we are told and live by in our culture are just that: stories. And STORIES CAN BE CHANGED.
Currently I'm reading a book called Cassandra Speaks: when women are the story tellers, the human story changes.
An amazing friend recommended it to me and I'm so glad she did--Elizabeth Lesser is putting into words all the swirling thoughts I've had over the years. I'm currently on a chapter where she's looking at the stories we've been told about POWER. And let me tell you, holy crap we've been fed a load of sh*t! Not that I'm surprised, but it is always a delightful thing to read someone who can plot out in clarity all the things you've long suspected.
I'm curious--what books have changed your life? How? Was the change long-lasting? As you grew did you change your point of view?
I'd love to hear!
Love,
TRIGGER WARNING
*Years ago it came out that the author of The Mists of Avalon and her husband were both long term abusive pedophiles. The story of the truth of their life is really horrible and for that reason I cannot stomach ever reading this author again. That said, I cannot deny the effect her book had on my life. I do, however, think it is incredibly important to recognize this fact.
