Religion in the USA

I'm working on my syllabus for Religion 260: American Religion.  To that end I've been reading, along with other things, the Columbia Guide to Religion in American History.  I concur with one reviewer's judgment that while one generally does not expect a reference work to be summer reading, several of the chapters in this volume are compelling and fascinating enough to qualify.  The chapter by Andrew M. Manis on "Civil Religion and National Identity" is among those. I learned lots and will learn more from the book and from works included in each chapter's bibliography.

Coming to the book immediately after three days in a workshop on teaching writing, I admired the writing in several of the chapters and will use examples to illustrate a clear, informative, engaging introduction and generally admirable writing.  For example, Mark Noll begins his chapter on theology this way.

"Americans have changed the world much more by action than by thought.  In the religious realm, it is the same."

on first drafts

This from Patricia Hampl's essay "Memory and Imagination," in which she writes specifically about memoir so the point might need a bit of  adjustment for other genres.  Nonetheless, I offer it at a time in the semester when many students might benefit from the encouragement she gives.

"For me, writing a first draft is a little like meeting someone for the first time.  I come away with a wary acquaintanceship, but the real friendship (if any) and genuine intimacy--that's all down the road

"A careful first draft is a failed first draft.  That may be why there are so many inaccuracies in the piano lesson memoir...

"The real trouble: the piece hasn't yet found its subject; it isn't yet about what it want to be about.  Note: what IT wants, not what I want.  The difference has to do with the relation a memoir -- any writer, in fact -- has to unconscious or half-known intentions and impulses in composition."

The advise, the encouragement?  Well, it is to get something on the paper so that you can think about it and learn from it.  The first draft may not even be worth cleaning up; it may require a new start; but it will have done its work of helping you to find out what there is to be said.

reading about writing

Merely reading fine writing does have the potential to train one's ability to write.  At least it helps form one's judgement about what constitutes fine writing.  

NPR comes through with recommendations of three books that go another step: they are ABOUT writing, more specifically about writing for ordinary readers.

LINK

Stephen King is quoted: "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot."

(not) writing about happiness

"In truth, books about joy are hard to find because happiness is nearly impossible to write about. Narrative thrives on conflict." 

Lauen Goff on NPR's You Must Read This Book about Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim LINK

There is poetry about happiness, however.  For example, this collection titled Happiness by Deborah Keenan.  I wonder if this is because poetry can focus our attention on a moment and happiness is experienced in moments?

Shared obsession with sentences

"They remain the test, whether or not to read something. The most compelling narrative, expressed in sentences with which I have no chemical reaction, or an adverse one, leaves me cold. In fiction, plenty do the job of conveying information, rousing suspense, painting characters, enabling them to speak. But only certain sentences breathe and shift about, like live matter in soil. The first sentence of a book is a handshake, perhaps an embrace. Style and personality are irrelevant. They can be formal or casual. They can be tall or short or fat or thin. They can obey the rules or break them. But they need to contain a charge. A live current, which shocks and illuminates." 

This from excellent novelist Jhumpa Lahiri.  The paragraph is from her contribution to a new NYTimes series on the craft of writing.  HERE