The Body and the Book: Writing from a Mennonite Life (Center Books in Anabaptist Studies)

233 Pages·2001·1.9 MB·English

by  Professor Julia Kasdorf

(cid:1)
THE BODY AND THE BOOK
CENTER BOOKS
IN ANABAPTIST STUDIES
Donald B. Kraybill
Consulting Editor
George F. Thompson
Series Founder and Director
Published in cooperation
with the Center for American Places
Santa Fe, New Mexico,
and Harrisonburg, Virginia
Essays and Poems by Julia Kasdorf
AND THE BOOK
Writing from a Mennonite Life
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore and London
© 2001 Julia Kasdorf Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
All rights reserved. Published 2001
Kasdorf, Julia, 1962–
Printed in the United States of America on acid-
The body and the book : writing from a
freepaper
Mennonite life : essays and poems / by Julia Kasdorf.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p. cm. — (Center books in Anabaptist studies)
Includes bibliographical references.
The Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN 0-8018-6662-6 (acid-free paper)
2715 North Charles Street
1. Mennonites—Poetry. 2. Poets, American—
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
20th century—Biography. 3. Mennonite women—
www.press.jhu.edu
United States—Biography. 4. Kasdorf, Julia, 1962.
5. Mennonites. I. Title II. Series.
“How My Father Learned English,” “Eve’s Curse,”
PS3561.A6958 B63 2001
“Thinking of Certain Mennonite Women,” “Bou-
811′.54—dc21
strophedon,” and “First Bird” from Eve’s Striptease,
by Julia Kasdorf, © 1998. Reprinted by permission of 00-011293
the University of Pittsburgh Press.
A catalog record for this book is available from the
“That Story,” “The Only Photograph of My Father
British Library.
as a Boy,” “Where We Are,” “A Family History,”
“August,” “The Interesting Thing,” and “Mennon-
The last printed page of the book is an extension of
ites,” from Sleeping Preacher, by Julia Kasdorf, ©
the copyright page.
1992. Reprinted by permission of the University of
Pittsburgh Press.
(cid:1)
For Gordon Pradl

Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
I (cid:1) A PLACE TO BEGIN
1 Mountains and Valleys 3
2 Tracking the Mullein, or
Portrait of a Mennonite Muse 9
3 When the Stranger Is an Angel 26
II (cid:1) WRITING HOME
4 Bringing Home the Work 39
5 Preacher’s Striptease 48
6 Bodies and Boundaries 75
III (cid:1) THE WITNESS A BODY BEARS
7 Work and Hope 99
8 Marilyn, H. S. Bender, and Me 121
9 The Gothic Tale of Lucy Hochstetler
and the Temptation of Literary Authority 143
IV (cid:1) CONCLUSION
10 Writing Like a Mennonite 167
Afterword 191
Notes 193

Preface and Acknowledgments
Almost a decade ago I drafted “Bringing Home the Work,” a short
essay that now lies at the center of this collection. It was written in
urgency and defensive anticipation of the responses that I imagined
Mennonite readers might have to Sleeping Preacher, my first book of
poems. In those days I was working full-time as a writer of grant pro-
posals at New York University. I knew I was some kind of poet, al-
though at twenty-nine I had little proof of this beyond a handful of
magazine publications and a master’s degree in creative writing. I
knew that I didn’t want to sit in front of a computer from nine until
five o’clock for the rest of my life, and I knew that I had little interest
in only following the theoretical turn that literary studies had taken,
so I was enrolled in evening courses in English Education.
In a moment that I cannot forget, I sat nervously on a chair outside
the office of Gordon Pradl, the professor of a course in reader response
theory that I’d taken. Although I did not know him well, I wanted this
teacher’s response to the essay on my lap. From the sounds of it, he
was on the phone or talking with someone. As my lunch hour slipped
away, I remained seated. After about twenty minutes, he finally stuck
his head out the door and said, “Oh, I didn’t realize you were waiting
there. Come in. Why didn’t you say something?”
“I didn’t want to disturb you,” I replied.
And that was true; the injunction to disturb no one—not even one-
self—is so deeply ingrained in my Mennonite soul as to be a reflex. Yet
I did want to disturb him. I wanted very much to interrupt his day and
to let him know that I was there; I wanted to say something to him,
anything, many things! In particular, I wanted him to read my essay
and to somehow share my anxiety about publishing in the presence of
Mennonite readers—family and others who would likely be troubled