Jeanette Winterson
Quote
Truth for anyone is a very complex thing. For a writer, what you leave out says as much as those things you include. What lies beyond the margin of the text? The photographer frames the shot; writers frame their world. Mrs Winterson objected to what I had put in, but it seemed to me that what I had left out was the story’s silent twin. There are so many things that we can’t say, because they are too painful. We hope that the things we can say will soothe the rest, or appease it in some way. Stories are compensatory. The world is unfair, unjust, unknowable, out of control. When we tell a story we exercise control, but in such a way as to leave a gap, an opening. It is a version, but never the final one. And perhaps we hope that the silences will be heard by someone else, and the story can continue, can be retold. When we write we offer the silence as much as the story. Words are the part of silence that can be spoken. Mrs Winterson would have preferred it if I had been silent. Do you remember the story of Philomel who is raped and then has her tongue ripped out by the rapist so that she can never tell? I believe in fiction and the power of stories because that way we speak in tongues. We are not silenced. All of us, when in deep trauma, find we hesitate, we stammer; there are long pauses in our speech. The thing is stuck. We get our language back through the language of others. We can turn to the poem. We can open the book. Somebody has been there for us and deep-dived the words. I needed words because unhappy families are conspiracies of silence. The one who breaks the silence is never forgiven. He or she has to learn to forgive him or herself.
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Similar Crossword Answers
| Answer | Clues |
|---|---|
| CHANGE | 302 clues |
| TRUTH | 150 clues |
| TRAUMA | 149 clues |
| SILENCE | 137 clues |
| ACCEPTANCE | 119 clues |
| LANGUAGE | 89 clues |
| HEALING | 58 clues |
| NARRATIVE | 52 clues |
| PSYCHOLOGY | 25 clues |
| MIRACLES | 19 clues |
| INSPIRATIONAL | 5 clues |
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- Actress Jeanette 47.06%
- Jug handle, to Jeanette 45.00%
- Jeanette's "Macbeth" (1948) co-star 44.90%
- Astronaut Jeanette 44.44%
- Bookstore section with Jeanette Winterson and Andrew Sean Greer 44.44%
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- Pool player Jeanette aka "the Black Widow" 41.38%
- Jeanette ___, billiards legend nicknamed the Black Widow 40.58%
- Actress Jeanette of "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" 40.00%
- 1934 title role for Jeanette MacDonald 39.29%
- NASA astronaut Jeanette 39.02%
Related word tools
Often perfumed powder
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A
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Hint 1 meaning
A soft mineral of a soapy feel and a greenish, whitish, or
grayish color, usually occurring in foliated masses. It is hydrous
silicate of magnesia. Steatite, or soapstone, is a compact granular
variety.
Hint 2 anagram
ACLT
Hint 3 another clue
BABY DOCTOR FOR SHORT
9 +1