October 4, 2015

"I just do my work, and I work every day, and my ambition is just to do something better than I last did."

"I’d like to write something as great as ‘Pinocchio’ or ‘Little Women.’ I won’t say ‘Moby-Dick’ because that’s impossible. I’d like to write a book that everybody loves. I’d like to take a picture that someone wants to put above their desk so they can look at it while they’re writing a letter or doing whatever they’re doing while sitting at their desk. I’d like to do a painting that would astonish people."

Says Patti Smith, quoted in the NYT in an article that coincides with the publication of her new book "M Train." We're told the book is "elegiac," and the author of the piece, Penelope Green, seems to be trying to write in an elegiac manner. For example:
Meanwhile, her cat throws up on her pillow. Her clothing betrays her; her pockets are torn. Her shoelaces come undone and trail in rain puddles. Her socks get tangled in her jeans, and escape at inopportune moments. Walking through Washington Square, a lone sock breaks free from her pants (stuck there from the night before), and a giggling teenager returns it to her. Small losses echo the larger ones: She is undone when a woman commandeers “her” regular table in her favorite neighborhood cafe, retreating to the bathroom and wishing upon the interloper a spectacularly gruesome death, like a victim in one of her beloved crime dramas.

When the cafe closes, its owner gave Ms. Smith that table and chairs. These and other totems are in the bungalow... A Chinese rug rescued from her townhouse on the edge of Greenwich Village, where she has lived since the late ’90s, because the cats were urinating on it....

10 comments:

Skeptical Voter said...

Ah a life of quiet desperation. "Stuff happens" in everyone's life---but not everyone writes about their problems.

The Digital Hairshirt said...

What is the difference between Smith and a hoarder or bag lady except being a celebrity that allows her to indulge in writing about it?

Ann Althouse said...

Is the teenager giggling because it's Patti Smith!!! or because it's so funny that somebody put her pants on with yesterday's sock up inside and the sock dropped out as she was walking?

tim in vermont said...

Her socks get tangled in her jeans, and escape at inopportune moments. [clank] Walking through Washington Square, a lone sock breaks free from her pants (stuck there from the night before), and a giggling teenager returns it to her. Small losses echo the larger ones: She is undone when a woman commandeers “her” regular table in her favorite neighborhood cafe, retreating to the bathroom and wishing upon the interloper a spectacularly [clank] gruesome death, like a victim in one of her beloved crime dramas.

Why does she have to say everything twice, say everything twice?

clint said...

Does anyone read the quoted excerpt and want to keep reading? Want to go out and buy her book?

Laslo Spatula said...

A lot of words thrown in there to obscure the simple: Cat Lady.

I am Laslo.

JAORE said...

"Is the teenager giggling because it's Patti Smith!!!"

I'll give 2:1 the teenager doesn't even know the name Patti Smith no matter the number of exclamation points.

Robert Cook said...

I'll read M TRAIN. Smith's first book, JUST KIDS, was wonderful. I had been a big fan of hers back in her 70s heyday, and a concert of hers I attended in 1978 stands as one of the best concerts I ever saw. Even so, I was surprised by how good JUST KIDS was.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

My volunteer work has taught me that the first rule of dignified, independent living for the elderly or disabled is-no cats! Well, maybe one, if you're able to take care of the litter box and keep your home clean and deodorized. I've seen homes destroyed and the occupant reduced to abashed isolation by the urine of cats.

CatherineM said...

Cracker Emcee - the first rule of having a cat is a clean litter box. Why would you want to use a toilet that is dirty and never flushed? Whenever I hear of someone complaining their cat pees or poops elsewhere, you find out the don't clean the box daily or even weekly.

One friend tried to toilet train the cat and tried to make the cat use one specific toilet in the basement. So when on the third floor, the cat would pee and poop on the beds and bury it with the blanket. I said it is your fault. Why would you mess with the easiest part of cat ownership? They are born "trained" to use litter/dirt/sand for their business. So stupid.

One cat I had peed on a new rug. The rug "moved" when stroked like sand. I watched my cat stroking the rug, and she peed then "buried" it. I quickly took action and saved the rug and when it went back down, for weeks I forbade her from walking on it so she avoided it until it became just another rug, but I will never buy a plush rug again.

Seems Patti has either too many cats and not enough litter boxes, never cleans the boxes or has feral cats. Perhaps all of the above.