Devotion: Why I Write

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Me ha parecido mucho más poético, entralaza muy bien realidad y sueño, lo que le da un punto onírico muy intimista; en algunos momentos, puede hacer que te pierdas un poco,(como decía Hache: "Tejiendo sueños es de avanzado de Patti" xD ); aún así, es una lectura que se disfruta mucho, y es que ¡esta mujer escribe de diez! There are two streams of thought in the slim volume beginning with the foundation of a memoir. This is intimate for the reader to witness the author's preparation for trip to Paris and experience her deep knowledge of the city's gems. Her reading of French authors influences who she is as a person and writer. The reader is offered her expertise and her hand as a thinker.

The lesson is obvious: that a writer draws on every detail of his or her life for the alchemical, often unconscious process of creation. But seeing the process in action is a profound experience. Smith's writing in the essays is as beautifully structured as her poetry."-- Publishers Weekly She never asked for love, nor longed for affection, had no experience with boys, not even adolescent kisses. She only wished to know who she was, and to skate. That was all she desired.’ Most often the alchemy that produces a poem or a work of fiction is hidden within the work itself, if not embedded in the coiling ridges of the mind.’ Her musings that are actually nonfiction actually blew me out of the water, by the way. I guess that’s why I’m a wee bit sad when it comes to the fact that she didn’t incorporate more of herself into this, although I do think I understand what she was going for. I didn’t like the short story though, to be honest. I absolutely hate notions of romance and this was with a sixteen year old girl trying to have an affair with an almost forty-year-old man. I don’t like pedophilia, sorry. Overall ThoughtsThis is what Smith does to her devoted readers—she provokes memory, isolation, and the desire to make something out of the mundane. . . . Devotion, though a departure from her previous books, does not deviate from Smith’s remarkable gift.”—Jerilyn Jordan, Detroit Metro Times I like Smith's book. Not as much as Just Kids, but it is a sweet short (and little) essay, Smith talking to us. But maybe you just wanted me to cut to the chase and tell you Smith’s answer to the question: Why do we write? So-ree! Okay, here it is: a dream is not a dream”-idk how to classify this section. it’s kinda like a memoir/essay, on patti’s musings about writing and camus. The environment is his number one preoccupation’ … with the Dalai Lama at the Glastonbury festival in 2015. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

The middle of the book contains Smith’s first published piece of fiction, a long, dreamlike, and rather tedious short story entitled “Devotion” where the image of the ice skater and Simone Weil will improbably morph into a story about a feisty young woman who also skates and has a slightly creepy affair with a starchy older man. It’s supposed to represent passion overcoming reason, or something- –the billowing steam of pseudo-romantic clichés (“-I belong to no one, she said defiantly. -No one? He smiled, unbuttoning her sweater.”) bored me to wooziness. Any story written on a European train and apparently inspired by soaking up the ancient bohemian atmosphere of Paris and London ought to be way more alluring than this. I type this in the car on my midwinter trip to New Orleans and a brief stay on the Gulf Coast, armed with my own docents, including this book, of course! And Camus’s The Fall. Several books of poetry, a graphic novel or five, including The Compleat Moonshadow. I’m listening from time to time as I drive to Since I Fell by Dennis Lehane, which is not (in any way that is obvious to me) affecting me deeply. We leave Chicago at 7 a.m. at zero degrees; at 4:30 as I write this as I cross the Yocona River, it is 44 degrees. We take I-Phone pictures of new state signs from the car, we repeat the letters of the Mississippi River as we cross it. What is the thing or phrase that will shift my consciousness in a useful direction? Or will it be a musical encounter at Maison in New Orleans? Devotionis short enough to devour at one enjoyable sitting and thought-provoking enough to deserve re-reading. . . . It’s a privilege to spend any time with Patti Smith, however brief.”—Suzi Feay, Financial TimesThis is what Smith does to her devoted readers -- she provokes memory, isolation, and the desire to make something out of the mundane. . . . Devotion, though a departure from her previous books, does not deviate from Smith's remarkable gift."--Jerilyn Jordan, Detroit Metro Times how the mind works” —about patti’s artistic adventures in france. very beautiful descriptions. i’m happy that this was the first section because it was the perfect set up for “devotion” Maybe to learn that reading can be inspiring to a writer is not that startlingly original, but I like how it works itself out in the central piece, “Devotion,” about an orphan for whom ice skating “is pure feeling” and who seems to have an affair with an older man. It’s not that great or even that compelling a story, one of lost innocence, but I like how it gives evidence to her theory; The figure skater, images from an Estonian film, Weil, Modiano, Camus, a visit to a French cemetery, they’re all here in her story. We see how Smith’s mind recycles impressions and ideas into art.

Si vous n'avez pas encore vu le documentaire d'Agnès Varda (je crois) sur le glanage, c'est exactement ce que vous devriez faire ce week end ; de toutes façons il fait moche dehors. Et puis ça vous donnera envie de ramasser des betteraves et des pommes de terre biscornues sur le bord des routes, ou alors de fouiller les poubelles du supermarché d'en face, ou peut-être de suivre la démarche de Patti Smith dans Glaneurs de rêves, et d'écrire une petite collection de textes, fragments de souvenirs, descriptions du quotidien, ce qui peut être une activité encore plus ludique que le tricot ou le macramé. Signed to a contract with Arista Records, she released her first album, Horses, in 1975; it was produced by John Cale, the Welsh avant-gardist and cofounder (with Lou Reed) of the Velvet Underground. Her purest, truest album, it replicated her live shows better than any subsequent LP. Later albums of the 1970s moved in a more commercial direction, with a pounding big beat that bludgeoned away some of her subtlety; at the same time, her concerts often became sloppy and undisciplined. After Radio Ethiopia (1976) she released her most commercially successful album, Easter, in 1978. It included a hit single, “ Because the Night,” written with Bruce Springsteen. Patti Smith seni o kadar çok seviyorum ki… Bitmesin diye yavaş yavaş okuyup yine de 1 saatte bitirdiğim bu kitabın için teşekkürler. Through her lyrical and mystical style, Smith gracefully shares her perspective on the mystery of literary creation."-- New York SpacesAnd of course this entire small book is an exercise in woolgathering, defined as indulgence in aimless thought or dreamy imagining (Oxford Dictionary). This is what Smith does to her devoted readers--she provokes memory, isolation, and the desire to make something out of the mundane. . . . Devotion, though a departure from her previous books, does not deviate from Smith's remarkable gift."--Jerilyn Jordan, Detroit Metro Times I think the climate movement is the most important thing on the planet right now. It permeates everything. Civil rights, human rights, women’s rights,” Smith says.