Welcome to the first book for our new adult book club, called the Forgotten Book Club! In this book club, we will be taking a look at those genres of writing that are often 'forgotten,' or not talked about as much: short story, essay, & poetry collections and novellas.
This month's book, Make It Scream, Make It Burn by Leslie Jamison, will be discussed virtually on Thursday, February 11th at 5:30 PM. For more info on how to attend, please click this link.
Make It Scream, Make It Burn: Essays
by Leslie Jamison
Summary:
"With the virtuosic synthesis of memoir, criticism, and journalism for which she has become known, Leslie Jamison offers us fourteen new essays that are by turns ecstatic, searching, staggering, and wise. In its kaleidoscopic sweep, Make It Scream, Make It Burn creates a profound exploration of the oceanic depths of longing and the reverberations of obsession.
Among Jamison's subjects are 52 Blue, deemed "the loneliest whale in the world"; the eerie past-life memories of children; the devoted citizens of an online world called Second Life; the haunted landscape of the Sri Lankan Civil War; and an entire museum dedicated to the relics of broken relationships. Jamison follows these examinations to more personal reckonings -- with elusive men and ruptured romances, with marriage and maternity -- in essays about eloping in Las Vegas, becoming a stepmother, and giving birth.
Often compared to Joan Didion and Susan Sontag, and widely considered one of the defining voices of her generation, Jamison interrogates her own life with the same nuance and rigor she brings to her subjects. Indeed, this refusal to hide -- this emotional and intellectual frankness -- is precisely the quality that makes her questing and irrepressible voice impossible to resist." (Publisher's website)
Discussion Questions
1. The book opens with an epigraph by Marilynne Robinson from her book titled Housekeeping: ‘When do our senses know any thing so utterly as when we lack it?’ Is this a theme for the entire essay collection, or is it simply a concept that Jamison wants readers to have at the forefront of their minds when they’re reading the following essays, many of them dealing with people in situations that are utterly foreign to anything we have personally experienced?
2. The first essay of the collection, ’52 Blue,’ is all about people assigning human emotions to a solitary whale. Is it right for people to assume that the whale has these kinds of emotions, or are these same people arrogant and narrow-minded for doing so?
3. In ‘We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live Again,’ Jamison explores the concept of reincarnation and the system of human belief. However, she never really gives her opinion on the main child in the essay regarding his claim of being a reincarnated US air pilot from WWII. Why does she do this when people naturally like to be told what the author of a piece thinks of the subjects she’s writing about?
4. “Layover Story” explores the concepts of guilt, presumption, and duplicity. In most situations, when people find out what Jamison does about the woman she’s helping get to Newark, they would be angry and leave. What does it say about Jamison’s sense of guilt that she stays until the end?
5. Jamison explores the world of Second Life in ‘Sim Life.’ She goes back and forth in the essay in regard to whether or not people who devote much of their spare time to it are either dorks and losers, as the stereotype seems to be, or people who simply need an outlet to let their mind wander aimlessly after a brutal long day in real life. Which view do you think she subscribes more to?
6. ‘Up in Jaffna’ explores the idea of ‘genocide tourism.’ Do you think this kind of tourism is taking advantage of something evil, or something that is crucial to human learning and knowledge?
7. ‘No Tongue Can Tell’ explores the idea of authenticity. What is your opinion of the photographers she talks about in the piece? Are they right to create a tableau and then pass it off as original and authentic?
8. ‘Make It Scream, Make It Burn’ is one of the more ‘literary’ essays in the collection, essentially an examination of another’s literary work. Why is it buried in the middle of the book, especially when the title of the collection is the same title as this essay?
9. ‘Maximum Exposure’ tells the story of a white American woman photographing a Mexican family for close to four decades. I am reminded of the controversy with American Dirt while reading this essay, that of a white American taking advantage of the plight of Mexicans in order to personally profit off of it. Do you think this sentiment is fair to apply to Annie?
10. ‘Rehearsals’ is arguably one of the ‘lighter’ essays of the collection, both with subject matter and sentiment. What do you think Jamison is trying to do by switching from second to first person at the end of the essay?
11. The essay ‘The Long Trick’ is, on its surface, an exploration of family history. Going deeper, it is an exploration of Jamison’s personal relationship with important men in her life and the idea that she will be abandoned by them all in the end. What does this say about family dynamics in general and the threat of loss inherent in every family? Is it too exhausting to worry about something like that, and should a person instead focus on what they do have and the memories they’ve made with deceased relatives instead of wondering about what they never had with family members?
12. ‘The Real Smoke’ deals with describing Jamison’s love life. What is the symbolism of Las Vegas supposed to be when placing it in the context of Jamison’s relationships? Why does it seem to always reach out and bring her back despite the fact that she lives all the way on the other side of the country?
13. ‘Daughter of a Ghost’ is the exploration of Jamison’s relationship with her young stepdaughter. What is Jamison trying to say about step relationships compared to blood relationships with this piece? Or is it simply nothing more than a personal recounting of one woman’s change in life after falling in love with a widower?
14. ‘The Museum of Broken Hearts’ is all about loss and being able to both let something go while still retaining it. Do you think the theme of the museum is universal, i.e, everyone, no matter who you are, has felt the sense of loss while wanting to hang onto something special, like the founders did when they first founded the museum?
15. ‘The Quickening’ is about not only a pregnancy, but a woman’s struggle with an eating disorder. What is Jamison trying to say by linking the two events together in one essay?
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