Debunk a Deeply Held Principle
December's prompts will be inspired by daily passages from Agnes Smedley and James Joyce
This morning's readings at The 24-Hour Room bring idols with feet of clay and ideals that emerge as less than virtuous. In Daughter of Earth (112-119), Agnes Smedley's character Marie sacrifices her love for her younger brothers on the altar of her own hard-won feminism. In order to achieve self-determination, she has trained herself not to be soft, not to be a typical woman, not to care, not to love. As the final line of today's passage reveals, her principles drove her down a path, at this particular moment, that she would come to regret. In the Ulysses passage (645-52), the talk bends towards Parnell, the Irish Nationalist leader and Member of Parliament who fell out of favor and power after his adulterous relationship with Kitty O'Shea became public. When the Church denounced Parnell, many Irish Catholics renounced him, and the alliance his party had forged collapsed, paving the way for the ensuing period of Troubles.
These stories have made me think about the principles, politics and very human hypocrisies underlying the story of my current book project and sharpened my sense of why I'm writing it.
Are there contradictions that define your characters -- whether they be heroes or antiheroes?
Are there writing or editorial principles that govern your work that might be worth overturning?
Write with us. You’re invited to join The 24-Hour Room writers at 7 or 10 am ET in The Studio for flow readings followed by about an hour of writing in communal silence, inspired by a new prompt every weekday.