On Myths & Muses | Theme of the month
Instagram Is My Bad Muse | The Muse Letter No. 109
Now with everything sort of falling into place: a new home, a new book project and the heartbreak fading into the background I can feel myself longing for a sense of familiarity again. Which for the Muse Letter means: Going back to a theme for each month, writing a complimentary essay for you to enjoy in the front and having special extra content for the paid subscribers in the back. (Just fyi: I am selling gift vouchers now for yearly subscriptions. If you know someone who would be delighted to receive it for Christmas or any other celebratory event. Get it here.)
So this months theme is going back to the root, the deep, the core. Myths & Muses is about storytelling, sitting by a fire, cosying up with a book and hot chocolate, it’s about finding inspiration from the other realm, hanging in mid-air, talking in mid-thought. It’s about finding a mirror in someone else’s live, like reading something so vulnerable and honest it feels like growing a second head.
When someone is not watering down their opinion or their style to entice a larger audience. When things are a bit spiky, a bit unpolished, a bit weird. When they force you to actually see all facettes. We all “contain multitudes” to paraphrase Whitman and to see that as a gift. It takes concentration and the willingness of appreciating something beyond ourselves. It means things are more complex.
I feel like the more I am on Instagram the more I fall into the trap of motivational quote cards. Of just random “nice thoughts” juxtaposed in a coloured square that have the same effect as this gum I used to love as a teenager called “center shock”: essentially a gum that for five seconds completely explodes in your mouth with a wave of sweet and sour and then immediately transitions into tasting like a dirty three week old sock.
It leaves you with a feeling of: huh. was that anything even? Or did I just get overstimulated. Did someone just push all the buttons and then decided to turn the thing off to restart? Am I left with something here?
A myth never reveals itself completely, it has no one interpretation. It stays ambiguous. It grows in you, it meanders and shapeshifts. Just like a muse has no clear instruction, it arrives without a manual. This November is about unlearning the demand, the entitlement of receiving clear cut statements.
So that’s where we’re heading this month. Into the familiar unknown. Growing second heads and hearts, always containing multitudes.
Next week
Foteine König will reflect in the GUEST MUSE LETTER series on the Medusa mythos, including Hélène Cixous' famous Medusa essay and Deborah Levy’s Hot Milk. And then later this month I will share the first excerpt of my new book “Things I Have Loved” which will only get published if you support the Kickstarter. Yes that’s right, if the goal is not reached, I will not receive any money and the project will not happen. (hint, to make a pledge now here XX)
Last week
I talked about pesky gatekeepers, self-publishing and stepping through that door. If you missed it, read it here.
Shop – Good idea to get those Christmas gifts soon!
