{"id":184,"date":"2011-03-03T16:55:40","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T16:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=184"},"modified":"2011-03-03T16:55:40","modified_gmt":"2011-03-03T16:55:40","slug":"lorna-thorpe-on-self-help-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/lorna-thorpe-on-self-help-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Lorna Thorpe on self-help literature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mind, body and spirit<\/span>
 <\/span>
In the literature of self-help<\/span>
there are no empty whiskey bottles,<\/span>
no cigarettes rolled from fag ends<\/span>
salvaged from 3 a.m. ashtrays, no fools <\/span>
in love.  There are relaxing bubble baths <\/span>
and scented candles, of course, <\/span>
there are people turning cartwheels<\/span>
in the sand, women in white<\/span>
boosting their immune system,<\/span>
drinking Celestial Seasonings Wellness Tea<\/span>
but no chipped green nail polish,<\/span>
no one sitting at the dining table<\/span>
with their boyfriend\u2019s daughter,<\/span>
three bottles of chardonnay down,<\/span>
chair-dancing to The Supremes.<\/span>
There are quests by the dozen,<\/span>
heart warming tales of triumph<\/span>
over tragedy but no biting satires, <\/span>
no comedies of error.<\/span>
There are angels, spirit guides,<\/span>
and mystic healers to help you navigate<\/span>
the path to peace and harmony<\/span>
but no Eeyore, Scarlet O\u2019Hara <\/span>
or Don Draper. As for Madam Bovary,<\/span>
she\u2019s signed up for a twelve step programme<\/span>
with Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous,<\/span>
where she\u2019s sharing how she gets her kicks<\/span>
from romantic highs, learning that she uses<\/span>
them as a way to sidestep intimacy.<\/span>
 <\/span>
 <\/p>\n


<\/span>*Lorna Thorpe<\/span><\/a>\u2019s pamphlet <\/span>Dancing to Motown<\/span> (Pighog Press) was awarded the Poetry Book Society\u2019s Pamphlet Choice in autumn 2005.  Her first full collection, <\/span>A Ghost in my House<\/span>, was published by Arc in April 2008.  Also a published short story and features writer, her second collection, <\/span>This is your Life<\/span>, was completed with the help of funding from Arts Council England and is due to be published in 2011.  She lives in Cornwall.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mind, body and spirit In the literature of self-helpthere are no empty whiskey bottles,no cigarettes rolled from fag endssalvaged from 3 a.m. ashtrays, no fools in love.  There are relaxing bubble baths and scented candles, of course, there are people turning cartwheelsin the sand, women in whiteboosting their immune system,drinking Celestial Seasonings Wellness Teabut no chipped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}