I approach writing as a community resource and as culturally based art of an ordinary everyday practical aesthetic.
“The topic of suicide can quiet a room and makes many people fidget. Often when you hear someone speaking about suicide it’s most likely within the confines of a psychology lecture hall at a university. However, in every day society it’s something we’ve been told we’re not supposed to talk about because if you speak of it, someone might get the idea to follow through with it. Sadly, this is often why this serious topic is never broached upon teenagers and young adults across the country.”
Breaking the taboo of suicide
Quetzalli Castro
Issue date: 10/12/09 Section: Pulse
http://media.www.chicagoflame.com/media/storage/paper519/
news/2009/10/12/Pulse/Breaking.The.Taboo.Of.Suicide-3799873.shtml
Castro’s recent article helps to break the silences that are being broken around the topic of suicide. My own book of memoir/poetry, How to Write a Suicide Note: serial essays that saved a woman’s life, has been used in a college classroom, and in community writing workshops. I was worried, though pleased that a college professor would make my book required reading in a literature class, but afraid the message would be misinterpreted. That said, the evening I spent listening to the students discuss the book, I was profoundly moved by their stories, their experiences dealing with suicide, whether their own suicidal thoughts or those of someone near and dear to them. Almost everyone in the class had a story!
Yes, they were nervous when they purchased my book. The word “suicide” in the title made them nervous. But, they had much to say, and questions to ask after thoughtfully reading the book. I explained that the message was both literal and metaphorical, but it was a positive message about using writing to “kill” the things in my life that were keeping me from living!
However, as Castro writes, opening a dialog about suicide is “controversial”—will it encourage suicide, instead of discourage. How to Write a Suicide Note was target for a review that argued with my belief that “writing can save lives”- a quote from an interview by Ernst Dempsey, in response to his question regarding what feedback the book has received, follows:
“There have been reviews of How to Write a Suicide Note that didn’t capture the theme of it, or even attempt to discuss the craft of it. Others, like your review, didn’t miss a beat. However, the most challenging review was a review printed in Multicultural Review, Volume 17, Number 4, Winter 2008, by Lori Tsang. She disagreed that writing could save lives, saying, “as if you could will yourself not to be depressed.” Depression was the word that caught my attention. Were my suicide attempts caused by depression? The review caused me to re-view my work, and to question whether I had inferred that depression was the reason for my suicide attempts, or if I had slighted any of the writers whose suicide notes had not saved them. Was Tsang saying depression, along with being a writer/writing leads to suicide?
Tsang’s view challenged me to think outside my experience and opinion. In re-reading my book, I realized I did use the word depression or some derivative a few times, but overall I didn’t emphasize a theme “trying to encourage and support others struggling to survive depression.” What I had hoped to convey was that by killing off parts of myself that were killing me, I could live.”
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/941/1/Meet-Sherry-Quan-Lee-Author-of-How-to-Write-a-Suicide-Note-serial-essays-that-saved-a-womans-life-Reflections-of-America/Page1.html
Tsang did admit that writing worked for me because, obviously, I am still alive. We can only write from our own experiences, our own understanding. I am not a therapist, but, yes, I am willing to tell my story of overcoming “death” to live. I cannot write your story, but I hope you will write it because as Castro has written,
“Suicide is definitely not a laughing matter, but that shouldn’t keep us from being able to discuss it in an open forum. Speaking out about mental illness, as in the case of Bryce Mackie, can save a person’s life and bringing this out into the open will save even more lives. Be aware of the warning signs of Suicide, be well informed, and always be ready to help a friend in need.”
How to Write a Suicide Note includes the phone number for the suicide hotline. It also has a blurb by a healthcare professional confirming the importance of such a book to the healthcare community, in particular for women of color. Literature is associated with beauty and pleasure. I think it is necessary, also, that within literature’s bookshelves, meaning/understanding, such as how to survive in tumultuous environments, can be discovered and shared. A writer, I approach writing as a community resource and as culturally based art of an ordinary everyday practical aesthetic.
Sherry Quan Lee
October 14, 2009
