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So the weekend is here, Paris is back in jail, and Mercury is about to turn retrograde. It pains me to see pictures of anyone crying, so I’m thinking about mailing Paris a bunch of backordered Don Divas, Darkness at Noon, some Nikki Giovanni, and some Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. I hope Paris does feel inspired to find creative ways to act out while at the unfortunately named Twin Towers Correctional Facility. And since one in every 32 adults was in a prison, jail, on probation, or on parole at the end of 2005, maybe some coping-with-prison lit is even more apt. Sadly, when I called to find out if the towers had any writing classes–or any organized artistic instruction–I was greeted with a resounding, “No, we do not.” Ok, fine. But amazing writing still comes (ahem, Sir Walter Raleigh, Martin Luther, St. Paul, Pound, Jenet) from inside penitentiaries. So, once inside, it has to start somewhere. Here’s an excerpt from a woman writing about her incarcerated experience–from the Vermont Women’s Prison Project, featured on Women & Prison: A Site for Resistance:
I had my hard times with trust, but being in and out, I found some great women that I could go to about anything, even if it was stupid: ‘Look (with mock anguish), my shoe’s ripped….’ and they’d be like, ‘I see, your shoe is ripped, let’s see what we can do about that.’ …You’re going to come to a point – this is not your lowest point, we’ve all had lower ones – you’re gonna come to your lowest point and there’s gonna be one person…. who might just come up and say, ‘hey, are you ok?’ and not say anything more and you’ll be like ‘get the hell away from me,’ and they’ll be like, ‘ok, you know where to find me.’
Do you have any reading recommendations** for Paris? Or want to share your own favorite work of prison lit?
(**I’m serious–this isn’t just another online invitation to slander)
Comments (17)
Comment
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it may be too late, but how about Hogshire’s book: You Are Going to Prison?
posted by jenni on 6-8-2007 at 9:15 pm
it may be too late, but how about Hogshire’s book: You Are Going to Prison?
posted by jenni on 6-8-2007 at 9:15 pm
Oscar Wilde’s “Ballad of Reading Gaol?”
posted by megaera on 6-8-2007 at 11:51 pm
Anything by Alphonse Marie, the Marquis de Sade. Most of his best work comes from his time in the Bastille…
posted by Doc on 6-9-2007 at 7:09 am
I tried to think of a book in which some spoiled rotten, talentless, shallow, filthy rich idiot gets her cumuppance, but I guess it hasn’t been written yet.
Anyway, you don’t really think she reads, do you?
posted by Bassman on 6-9-2007 at 7:17 am
Keep in mind, Adolf Hitler wrote “Mein Kampf” while in prison. Psychotic? Yes. Inspiring? No.
Although it might have to do with Bassman’s comments. :) Paris might not know what the Aryan race is, though.
posted by Allison on 6-9-2007 at 9:18 am
“The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas
posted by Chris on 6-9-2007 at 10:37 am
Can she read?
posted by anon on 6-9-2007 at 1:31 pm
Stanley Tookie Williams, founder of the Crips, has written nine childrens books since he was put on death row, and has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his anti-gang work. Ironic, huh?
posted by Sin City Spuds on 6-9-2007 at 10:13 pm
“The Truth About Diamonds” by that literary giant – Nicole Ritchie.
posted by Lulu_J on 6-9-2007 at 11:37 pm
I don’t believe Paris would recognize a book if it bit her.
posted by Tolu on 6-10-2007 at 12:31 pm
Tolu, how ’bout if it was thrown at her?
posted by Bassman` on 6-10-2007 at 12:50 pm
Books for Paris:
I know why the caged bird sings
-Maya Angelou
A People’s History of the United States of America
-Howard Zinn
Invisible Man
-Ralph Ellison
Valley of the Dolls & The Love Machine
-Jacqueline Susann
Pride & Prejudice
-Jane Austen
The House of Mirth
-Edith Wharton
And her mother has to read them, too.
posted by iamnotStarJones on 6-10-2007 at 5:52 pm
dostoyevski, didn’t he write some offhand masterpiece whilst in the gulag?
posted by tragoedus on 6-10-2007 at 8:15 pm
A book about coping with prison? I’d suggest The Lord of the Flies or Orwell’s 1984.
posted by Pegi Linder on 6-11-2007 at 12:02 pm
The Louisiana State Prison Angola has a nationally acclaimed periodical, The Angolite. Perhaps the Twin Towers Correctional Facility has a subscription.
posted by John on 6-11-2007 at 1:30 pm
ok, so, according to ms. walters, she’s reading: the secret, the power of now, and the bible.
posted by becky on 6-11-2007 at 4:30 pm