Stories that Read Us
Notes on creative reciprocity from Pádraig Ó Tuama's In the Shelter
Welcome to Slant Letter’s spring seasonal intensive! Become a paid subscriber to join our full close reading of Pádraig Ó Tuama’s In the Shelter for an editor’s annotated insights on an extraordinary meditation on the stories that shape us. These will be exclusive letters sent straight to you running from the end of March through May.
What we’ve covered and where we’re going:
1. “The stories that shelter us”—on introducing your extended metaphor or title concept
2. Finding the courage to name “here”—on locating yourself and your reader within the story
3. I, we, you—on changing tense as art form
4. Lectio Divina on our typos—prompts for a playful writing practice
5. Stories that read us—on creative reciprocity
6. Greeting the day—on commissioning your reader
I’m convinced stories are two-way mirrors. We each bring the library of our life experiences to any text, and while reading, its story likewise reads ours. I am a keen reader because of the something sacred that happens right here: in the mutual exchange of two stories in conversation with each other, creating a singular, un-repeatable reading experience with insights as diverse as the readers themselves.
This is creative reciprocity at its best.
So it interests me when a writer such as
talks of re-reading books, and how these familiar stories might re-read us through time.What books of yours are the re-reads, I wonder? What it is that draws you back to them through the years? How does your reading change as you age, as you expand your life experiences? And what might all of this tell us as writers who want our words to resonate and be carried into the long future?
It’s a common theme of Pádraig’s, this re-reading familiar texts. Let’s take a look as we continue our close reading of In the Shelter: