About Pillowbook « P i l l o w b o o k

About Pillowbook

Eat. Mother. Write. Read.

Re-write. Film.

Repeat.

What is P i l l o w b o o k?

an art-house movie directed by Peter Greenaway wherein we learn that Ewan MacGregor has charms other than his dimples.
a Kama Sutra-ish tome that has a kinky reputation, probably involving geishas and a fetish or two. (Um, NO. That would be shunga. Minus the geishas.)
a compilation of jottings by an insomniac, about how to fall back asleep. (Very possibly.)

Sei Shonagon was a Japanese woman who served at the imperial court around 1,000 CE. She wrote poetry, prose, and many many lists. Together, they’re known as The Book of the Pillow (Makura no Soshi).

By turns cranky, sublime, opinionated, sensual, witty, hushed, harsh, refined, and acutely observant in her writing, she aspired to capture life’s transient beauty through sharply etched brief notes, in the spirit of mono no awaré.

I admire her voice and economy of style, her ability to write freely with no concessions to commercial considerations. I’m an American of Chinese descent, and I often need to remind myself that despite the long and vexatious relationship between China and Japan, neither culture is purely good nor bad.

Shonagon was a minimalist. But me, I’m a bit more prolix. And the sheaf of paper next to my pillow is a laptop with a glowing light that sometimes sleeps on the bed next to me, when I’ve stolen one too many hours from my own sleep to write something that needs writing.

This is my P i l l o w b o o k.

Where am I?

I live and dream in the city of Angels.

All the places I’ve lived, in rough chronological order:

Madison, WI;

Oswego, NY;

Port Jefferson Station, NY;

Bethesda, MD;

Ithaca, NY;

San Francisco, CA;

Oakland, CA;

San Mateo, CA;

Seattle, WA;

Los Angeles, CA.

Responses

haha! good point! Thanks for being my first comment EVER- I had read your stuff earlier in the day too. Is that how blogger works? I need a manual…

By: Neha on March 1, 2008
at 12:53 pm

I’d love for you to check out the grassroots Obama video we just launched today. It’s a group of parents telling why they support Obama. You can find it at http://www.dirtandnoise.com/.

PS
I too lived in Madison. I loved it there…if only it weren’t so freaking cold.

By: ilinap on April 30, 2008
at 10:28 am

If you’d like some spoke cards, id be more than happy to send you a few! use the email on the site…

By: obamaspoke on May 31, 2008
at 11:08 am

I hope to meet you at BlogHer.

Are you on Twitter? I am @lindasherman

My blog is: http://itsdifferent4girls.com/blog

We both live in LA!

By: Linda Sherman on July 11, 2008
at 10:37 am

Linda,
I am afraid of Twitter. I am afraid of being a Twit, all day long, in 140 words or less. Already I’m late for an Oversharers Anonymous meeting because I’m updating this blog.

But yes, it’d be great to meet at Blogher. Details on the panel where I’ll be talking in a post soon.

By: cynematic on July 11, 2008
at 11:51 am