Writer's Block: R.E.A.D. / Amelia Earhart

[wytchcroft]

[Error: unknown template qotd] For many years now I have had an interest in the life and influence of Amelia Earhart,
pilot and adventurer.
The facts of her life and the mystery of her 'death' are fairly well known.

And in the intangible space between the two - is Amelia herself.

A popular star in her lifetime - and the subject of many tributes in cinema, literature and song,
Amelia can still be found in the work of many artists today.

For example the album 'Home of the Brave' by Laurie Anderson, seems, to me at least,
to be full of her presence.

Here is Laurie performing Blue Lagoons, a truncated but very atmospheric clip.

Recently, there has been a wonderful book 'I was Amelia Earhart' by Jane Mendelsohn.
The book is an imagined account of flights by Amelia but concentrates in particular on the frictional relationship between herself and her male navigator.

This book not only reignited my interest in the pilot as a person -

which so many documentaries and so much propaganda and/or speculation about her last flight had almost succeeded in covering up -

but made me approach some of my writing in a fresh way.
(e.g. fan fiction dealing with the FireFly relationship between Inara - a shuttle pilot after all - and Mal)


I recommend this book very highly.


The writer and performer Patti Smith has written many works directly referencing or indebted to Earhart and has spoken of her as a figure of inspiration.

Amelia Earhart
earheart
ear
heart
air

..............

way out of here
out out there
wing of a plane

 

Comments

[stoshagownozad.livejournal.com]

I think Jane Mendelsohn was also one of the writers for the show we love so much - am I right? :)
As for Amelia - she was somewhere on the edge of my knowledge - well, quite general, a famous female pilot, strange disappeared right in the blue sky, etc. - but I aso could feel like - oh, here is a power, a spirit, a mystery. I can learn more now:)
and Boris Pasternak, who's poem I quoted - "Над спящим миром летчик..." could really write that as a tribute to her life, as well as it was done for the lifestyle of famous Russian pilots of early ХХ-s

In my life there was another Pilot and writer of similar fate - Saint-Ex, author of "Litte Prince" and - i really love it - "The Planet of Mankind".

Pilots are relly inspiring figures.