The Weekly Atticus (11/11/2017)

Optimism as a Revolutionary Act | The Weekly Atticus

A recap of the week at Atticus Review, along with some extras.

Dear ,Something strange happened on social media last Tuesday. People seemed excited. They seemed optimistic. It was an election night, and the overall feeling of optimism stood in stark contrast to the atmosphere just one year ago.Maybe your experience this week differed, but there was some sense of a shift, either way you look at it. Or, perhaps it was the possibility of a shift. Perspective plays a key role.Sometimes I’m disappointed in myself when I encounter unbridled optimism. I don’t want to be the curmudgeon. Pessimism can be helpful, but it is also too easy. It’s lazy, and too often confused with healthy skepticism.When results started rolling in and I began reading posts from people bursting with optimism, I couldn’t help but reflect on the disappointment of this time last year, and to feel some of those feelings all over again. Rather than enjoy the moment for what it was, I wallowed in the past.I’ve seen a lot of discussion about “mindfulness” this past year or so. I wonder if, at times, this idea forces a separation of the past from the present to the nth degree without acknowledging the non-linearity of the past, present, and future jumbled together in the hot mess of experience unique to who we are. I do, however, see the value in awareness and I know the damage that living too much in the past can do. So, I try to make the conscious choice to feel optimism when I can, even if that optimism is tempered.I remember listening to the commentary for the film Say Anything years ago when I was living in the UK. When speaking about writing the character Lloyd Dobler (he of the raised boombox and not selling, buying, or processing anything sold, bought, or processed fame), director and writer Cameron Crowe keeps coming back to the idea of “optimism as a revolutionary act.” I’ve thought about this statement countless times, especially when I think about my writing.This isn’t to say that I write happy-go-lucky stories, or that I watch my Submittable queue in gleeful anticipation. Sometimes, I tease out the pitfalls. But submitting to pessimism could stop me writing altogether. Instead, I give myself permission to celebrate little victories while knowing the next morning means back to writing, back to struggling, and back to rejections. On my good days, I allow myself to think maybe, if I keep striving to be better than the day before, I might have a few more victories. The knowledge that there will always be hard work ahead shouldn’t snuff out the moments of joy or the drive to keep going. The rejection of pessimism is something we must actively work toward. The work itself does feel like a kind of revolution in its own small way.I hope you allow yourself to feel those moments of joy as well, and then get your arse back in the seat and face the blank page of a new day.

Thanks for reading. We’re glad you're here.

Dorothy BendelManaging Editor

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FERAL TOWN by Adam Gustavson

BOOK REVIEW: We Are All CannibalsA Review of MEAN, by Myriam Gurba from Coffee House PressReview by M.K. Rainey"Mean is a captivating spiral on what we do to each other, how humans inflict wounds and how we live in the world afterwards. It is a book that commands you, pushing and pulling you with the author’s expert language and voice, haunting you long after the pages have ended. Myriam Gurba is aware of her reader. She’s aware of the journey she’s written and where that will take us. She is aware that – in the end – she makes us all cannibals."READ MORE

FICTION: If You Lived HereBy Katie Burgess"No sign of the shooter yet, so I go on through the crowd and try not to draw attention to myself. I take in my surroundings, noting exits and hiding places. Behind a movie display or a rack of clothes, maybe under a food court table. Last month someone hid in the fountain, using a straw to breathe, which I thought was clever. Now that it’s been done, though, I figure he’ll remember to look there."READ MORE

POETRY: NeverBy George Moore"Down by the shore of unknown nameI heard an ancient windDown by the shore of unknown nameI heard an ancient wind; that was nothingSo properly named."READ MORE

NONFICTION: EdgesJackie Connelly"Here is a refrain that runs through all my relationships like a thin red thread, the kind stretched so tight it will slice the pads of your fingers: “Why don’t you ever give me the benefit of the doubt?” I seek conflict ferociously, swatting away sympathetic nods and “I’m sorrys” to leave space for a baffling, greedy fury that blisters its way to the surface anytime the promise of a fight flickers in my periphery."READ MORE

FILM REVIEW: Many Forms of JusticeA film review of THE SQUARE and KILLING OF A SACRED DEERBy Emily Moeck"We have spent over a year feeling strung out, battered, and bruised on a daily basis not only as we wait for what the news or the next Twitter update will bring, but also as we dig up the internalized societal faults we carry with us. More than anything, this has been a year of looking inward—deconstructing the sources of our own self-narrative and putting them on trial. Both Ostlund and Lanthimos subvert what it means to have humanity and heart in a world where it seems so easy to call yourself one of the good guys."READ MORE