Love this, Mary. Such an important reminder that even those who we consider great have experienced self-doubt, have been eviscerated by people who think far too highly of their own opinions. That’s a good thing to remember in those quiet moments when we’re wondering if we’re “good enough.”
What a brilliant classroom instructor you must be !!
I wish I could remember who, but there was an interview I heard recently with an artist who said he learned the hard way not to tell others about something he didn't like about his own work. Once he told them, it spread like a virus to critics who seized upon something they wouldn't necessarily have noticed had he not expressed his own self-judgment. A different angle of Alice's instinct not to discuss her own work. Ultimately you have to be confident in what you put out, as everyone looks to give a critique, whether or not invited. That discussion should be had in a safe place, as you mention, with a "teacher who understands the difficult and weighty task of teaching and mentoring".
I appreciated "Before the Change". Thank you for sharing this tribute to Alice Munro's body of work.
Thank you for your respectful tribute to Alisa Munro, whose stories I also love. I went to my library shelves and found two books of hers, one of which is her old novel " Lives of Girls and Women." It's sad but rediscovering time to reread her astonishing in their ordinariness stories.
It is mutual! Mary, do you know the etymology of Your Russian Name? If you don't, Tabor is a camp of nomadic Gipsies, and Russian classical poets loved them for their freedom and devoted many poems to them. Looking forward to reading your memoir. xo - Larisa
Beautiful tribute Mary. Love Alice Munro! There is a beautiful reading of her story “before the change” by Andre Alexis on The New Yorker Fiction podcast. Just listened to it the other day as I walked up the mountain. Magical!
In some ways, yes, but the memoir is totally linear, meaning each chapter occurs as it happened in real time--I would call that a difference from what I mean here by modular.
I had in mind what I often referred to as the associative continuity of your writing in the memoir, what provides a strikingly poetic quality of reverie to it, but I take your point. 👍
(I note here that “Menesteung” that appears in Best American Short Stories of the Century is brilliant; I still teach it regularly, so I omit it here because I don’t want to scoop what I do with this incredible short story.)
I remember you teaching and guiding me through Menesteung. It led me to read more of Alice Munro and appreciate her writing.
Second, because your post just brought me back to my 18-year-old self sitting in my very first class as a creative writing major at UVic. Full of hope and excitement. We were waiting for the professor to arrive. It was our first class with him. We were sitting with our backs to the doors, there were two. The quiet was shattered by a startling and unexpected slam of a door. We all turned towards the sound. No one was there. Then our heads spun like tops as a man entered the room by the opposite door. Yelling. I sat stunned as he proceeded to dress us down for the rest of the class and hurl all kinds of insults at us. The man was, yes, Lawrence Russell.
I promptly left the class and went to the registrar's office where I transferred out of the Creative Writing program and switched into English as my major.
Over this past year of writing on Substack I have often thought of what might have been. What if my first encounter hadn't been with that professor? What if I had stayed in the Creative Writing program at UVic? Would I be the writer I had so wanted to be back then? Would the writing I've always wanted to do come to me earlier, instead of 40 years later?
The fact that he stopped Alice Munro in her tracks for over a year made my heart squeeze in my chest. It's a name I had worked hard to forget, and yet the moment I saw it on your page, it all came leaping back to me. How many other writers have we almost lost because of a man like that?
This memory is painful, but your post about Alice is beautiful. Thanks for sharing your tribute to Alice Munro. I'm enjoying re-discovering her and look forward to reading many more of her stories with the nuance I can better understand.
Yes, Imola: The fact that this man went on to become a professor and then did this to Kim. I, as a long-time creative writing teacher and long-time author, understand the need to protect the invention. Any teacher who does not do that doesn't belong at the "head of the class" -- so to speak, in my case with now after years at George Washington University and the Smithsonian's Campus-on-the-Mall and now here with an online course and, offering to a select few, one-on-one Zoom teaching.
What awful behavior. Apparently, he's taught at UVic since the 60s. I wonder if it's mere coincidence that his first book is titled *penetration*. So sorry.
Yikes. Really?? Somehow that doesn't surprise me. And yes, he had been a long time professor at UVic and my understanding was there had been many complaints against him but the refrain from the university was "there's nothing we can do." This is where I learned the word tenure. I don't think I even bothered complaining. He triggered all the alarm bells in my body and scared me to the point of just switching out of the department. Because the program was in demand, it was difficult to get into any of the Creative Writing department classes if you weren't majoring, so I was out of luck. There was a teacher named Constance Rooke and I had been desperate to be in one of her classes. I had to settle for going to readings and faithfully subscribing to The Malahat Review which she was editor of at the time.
I didn't know Lawrence Russell became a prof! I guess he became a prof after he'd savaged Munro? I think I read Alice's daughter's recount correctly. Your story about what he did is equally awful. Thank you for this so good comment, Kim.
I've read (and admired) Alice Munroe's stories whenever I've run across them in literary magazines and anthologies. My husband and I watched "Away from Her" when it came out. There were tears, mine and his.
Thank you so much for this heartfelt tribute. And for your lens on Alice Munro's work. I haven't read any of her writing (yet). Now I will! Thank you for the amazing trailer too ...
“Attacked savagely.” Whoa. And- what a “housewife” would write?!?!! OM. So what if he (L.R.) thought a woman who worked in a house would write something like that?!
BSo sad she didn’t comprehend- that he was the one with the problem, & not her writing, no matter what! And he, just obviously a weak-minded, misogynistic & rank ass!!
Love this, Mary. Such an important reminder that even those who we consider great have experienced self-doubt, have been eviscerated by people who think far too highly of their own opinions. That’s a good thing to remember in those quiet moments when we’re wondering if we’re “good enough.”
What a brilliant classroom instructor you must be !!
You are such a love, Holly!
I wish I could remember who, but there was an interview I heard recently with an artist who said he learned the hard way not to tell others about something he didn't like about his own work. Once he told them, it spread like a virus to critics who seized upon something they wouldn't necessarily have noticed had he not expressed his own self-judgment. A different angle of Alice's instinct not to discuss her own work. Ultimately you have to be confident in what you put out, as everyone looks to give a critique, whether or not invited. That discussion should be had in a safe place, as you mention, with a "teacher who understands the difficult and weighty task of teaching and mentoring".
I appreciated "Before the Change". Thank you for sharing this tribute to Alice Munro's body of work.
(Now I need to watch "Away from Her"!)
Good lesson and grand comment. I thank you, my dear.
Thank you for your respectful tribute to Alisa Munro, whose stories I also love. I went to my library shelves and found two books of hers, one of which is her old novel " Lives of Girls and Women." It's sad but rediscovering time to reread her astonishing in their ordinariness stories.
Larissa, You made my day with this lovely comment and your subscription. I hope to know you better and soon! xo ~ Mary
It is mutual! Mary, do you know the etymology of Your Russian Name? If you don't, Tabor is a camp of nomadic Gipsies, and Russian classical poets loved them for their freedom and devoted many poems to them. Looking forward to reading your memoir. xo - Larisa
Beautiful tribute Mary. Love Alice Munro! There is a beautiful reading of her story “before the change” by Andre Alexis on The New Yorker Fiction podcast. Just listened to it the other day as I walked up the mountain. Magical!
Imola, I've not heard that podcast but will now look for it. Thank you.
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-new-yorker-fiction/id256945396?i=1000657492637
Thank you, Imola! I had been just now searching!
Happy to help! :)
Marvelous, adding link to the essay in the footnotes. Thank you, Imola!
I have catching up to do on Who By Fire, but it occurs to me that one way of describing the technique in (Re)Making Love is “modular."
In some ways, yes, but the memoir is totally linear, meaning each chapter occurs as it happened in real time--I would call that a difference from what I mean here by modular.
I had in mind what I often referred to as the associative continuity of your writing in the memoir, what provides a strikingly poetic quality of reverie to it, but I take your point. 👍
(I note here that “Menesteung” that appears in Best American Short Stories of the Century is brilliant; I still teach it regularly, so I omit it here because I don’t want to scoop what I do with this incredible short story.)
I remember you teaching and guiding me through Menesteung. It led me to read more of Alice Munro and appreciate her writing.
Working with you, gifted writer, was a wonder.
Mary, you made me cry. There's a both/and here. Good/bad. You've taken my breath away for a couple of reasons.
First, I just wrote about getting reacquainted with Alice Munro after 40 years. After first reading her at UVic and not understanding her at all. The link is here if you get a moment to read it: https://kimvanbruggen.substack.com/p/on-seeing-shades-of-grey-unlocking
Second, because your post just brought me back to my 18-year-old self sitting in my very first class as a creative writing major at UVic. Full of hope and excitement. We were waiting for the professor to arrive. It was our first class with him. We were sitting with our backs to the doors, there were two. The quiet was shattered by a startling and unexpected slam of a door. We all turned towards the sound. No one was there. Then our heads spun like tops as a man entered the room by the opposite door. Yelling. I sat stunned as he proceeded to dress us down for the rest of the class and hurl all kinds of insults at us. The man was, yes, Lawrence Russell.
I promptly left the class and went to the registrar's office where I transferred out of the Creative Writing program and switched into English as my major.
Over this past year of writing on Substack I have often thought of what might have been. What if my first encounter hadn't been with that professor? What if I had stayed in the Creative Writing program at UVic? Would I be the writer I had so wanted to be back then? Would the writing I've always wanted to do come to me earlier, instead of 40 years later?
The fact that he stopped Alice Munro in her tracks for over a year made my heart squeeze in my chest. It's a name I had worked hard to forget, and yet the moment I saw it on your page, it all came leaping back to me. How many other writers have we almost lost because of a man like that?
This memory is painful, but your post about Alice is beautiful. Thanks for sharing your tribute to Alice Munro. I'm enjoying re-discovering her and look forward to reading many more of her stories with the nuance I can better understand.
Wild. So sorry to hear Kim.
Yes, Imola: The fact that this man went on to become a professor and then did this to Kim. I, as a long-time creative writing teacher and long-time author, understand the need to protect the invention. Any teacher who does not do that doesn't belong at the "head of the class" -- so to speak, in my case with now after years at George Washington University and the Smithsonian's Campus-on-the-Mall and now here with an online course and, offering to a select few, one-on-one Zoom teaching.
no kidding ...
What awful behavior. Apparently, he's taught at UVic since the 60s. I wonder if it's mere coincidence that his first book is titled *penetration*. So sorry.
I wonder!!! Incredible, yes?
Yikes. Really?? Somehow that doesn't surprise me. And yes, he had been a long time professor at UVic and my understanding was there had been many complaints against him but the refrain from the university was "there's nothing we can do." This is where I learned the word tenure. I don't think I even bothered complaining. He triggered all the alarm bells in my body and scared me to the point of just switching out of the department. Because the program was in demand, it was difficult to get into any of the Creative Writing department classes if you weren't majoring, so I was out of luck. There was a teacher named Constance Rooke and I had been desperate to be in one of her classes. I had to settle for going to readings and faithfully subscribing to The Malahat Review which she was editor of at the time.
I didn't know Lawrence Russell became a prof! I guess he became a prof after he'd savaged Munro? I think I read Alice's daughter's recount correctly. Your story about what he did is equally awful. Thank you for this so good comment, Kim.
Thank you for this wonderful summary Mary. Excited to begin educating myself on all things Munro.
Lovely, as you always are!
I've read (and admired) Alice Munroe's stories whenever I've run across them in literary magazines and anthologies. My husband and I watched "Away from Her" when it came out. There were tears, mine and his.
I know; fab, right!
Right!
Thank you so much for this heartfelt tribute. And for your lens on Alice Munro's work. I haven't read any of her writing (yet). Now I will! Thank you for the amazing trailer too ...
Glad I'm not the only one! :). Just read my first, Mary's recommendation of "Before the Change".
You are so lovely.
“Attacked savagely.” Whoa. And- what a “housewife” would write?!?!! OM. So what if he (L.R.) thought a woman who worked in a house would write something like that?!
BSo sad she didn’t comprehend- that he was the one with the problem, & not her writing, no matter what! And he, just obviously a weak-minded, misogynistic & rank ass!!
No kidding!