What do you think?
Rate this book
Crux: The Georgia Series in Literary Nonfiction
Fire and Stone: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
The questions that drive Priscilla Long’s Fire and Stone are the questions asked by the painter Paul Gauguin in the title of his 1897 Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? These questions look beyond everyday trivialities to ponder the essence of our origins.Using her own story as a touchstone, Long explores our human roots and how they shape who we are today. Her personal history encompasses childhood as an identical twin on a dairy farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland; the turmoil, social change, and music of the 1960s; the suicide of a sister; and a life in art in the Pacific Northwest. Here, memoir extends the threads of the writer’s individual and very personal life to science, to history, and to ancestors, both literary and genetic, back to the Neanderthals.Long uses profoundly poetic personal essays to draw larger connections and to ask compelling questions about identity. Framed by four distinctive sections, Fire and Stone transcends genre and evolves into a sweeping elegy on what it means to be human.
228 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 1, 2016
About the author
Priscilla Long
27 books43 followersPriscilla Long is author of The Writer’s Portable Mentor (University of New Mexico Press), Cartographies of Home: Poems (MoonPath), Dancing with the Muse in Old Age (Coffeetown), Holy Magic: Poems (MoonPath) Minding the Muse: A Handbook for Painters, Composers, Writers, and Other Creators (Coffeetown), a book of essays titled Fire and Stone: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (University of Georgia Press), Crossing Over: Poems (University of New Mexico Press), and Where the Sun Never Shines: A History of America’s Bloody Coal Industry (Paragon House).
Priscilla is a Seattle-based writer of poetry, essays, creative nonfictions, fictions, science, and history. Her awards include a National Magazine Award. Her rigorous and extremely popular classes are always full for the good reason that her writers routinely become more skilled and get more published. Her scholarly history book is Where the Sun Never Shines: A History of America's Bloody Coal Industry (Paragon House). Author's website: www.PriscillaLong.com. Photo by Anne Herman
Priscilla is a Seattle-based writer of poetry, essays, creative nonfictions, fictions, science, and history. Her awards include a National Magazine Award. Her rigorous and extremely popular classes are always full for the good reason that her writers routinely become more skilled and get more published. Her scholarly history book is Where the Sun Never Shines: A History of America's Bloody Coal Industry (Paragon House). Author's website: www.PriscillaLong.com. Photo by Anne Herman
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 22, 2019
This is a collection of personal essays that is based on Paul Gauguin’s 1897 painting “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” The touchstone for Long is herself, her family and its history, but from there are forays in many different directions. Long roams around science, literature, history and politics, often in a very personal way; the writing incidentally is excellent.
There is an essay on Neanderthals and the growth and spread of the human species, which is interesting and speculative. The essay on the brain is an A to Z with sections on plasticity, Oscillation, dementia, the hippocampus, Wernicke’s area, xenial relations and many others. Throwing stones is about Long’s experiences in the 60s. Death makes an appearance with essays about the death of parents and the suicide of a sister. A reflection on the nature of autobiography is again an A to Z with random snippets linking well. For example I is entitled; Who am I?
“I. Who am I? Who am I when I’m sleeping? Who am I when I’m dreaming? Am I still the third child born to my parents during the war year of 1943? Am I still a reader? Am I still a writer when I’m sleeping? Am I a twin? Am I a Seattleite? Am I still descended from Scottish and English and Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants? Am I still 2.9% Neanderthal? When I am sleeping what happens to my opinions? Am I still a woman? Am I anybody?”
There is an essay on the banjo relating to the period when Long was into traditional American music and learnt to play it. It consists of a series of reflections of six songs. The chapter on the genome is fascinating and includes a discussion on Chomsky’s language theories. The essays on the Archaeology of Childhood and Solitude were very thought provoking. One of the highlights for me was the comparative essay about Wallace Stevens and Meret Oppenheim.
This an eclectic collection of essays, written beautifully with much to provoke thought and reflection.
There is an essay on Neanderthals and the growth and spread of the human species, which is interesting and speculative. The essay on the brain is an A to Z with sections on plasticity, Oscillation, dementia, the hippocampus, Wernicke’s area, xenial relations and many others. Throwing stones is about Long’s experiences in the 60s. Death makes an appearance with essays about the death of parents and the suicide of a sister. A reflection on the nature of autobiography is again an A to Z with random snippets linking well. For example I is entitled; Who am I?
“I. Who am I? Who am I when I’m sleeping? Who am I when I’m dreaming? Am I still the third child born to my parents during the war year of 1943? Am I still a reader? Am I still a writer when I’m sleeping? Am I a twin? Am I a Seattleite? Am I still descended from Scottish and English and Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants? Am I still 2.9% Neanderthal? When I am sleeping what happens to my opinions? Am I still a woman? Am I anybody?”
There is an essay on the banjo relating to the period when Long was into traditional American music and learnt to play it. It consists of a series of reflections of six songs. The chapter on the genome is fascinating and includes a discussion on Chomsky’s language theories. The essays on the Archaeology of Childhood and Solitude were very thought provoking. One of the highlights for me was the comparative essay about Wallace Stevens and Meret Oppenheim.
This an eclectic collection of essays, written beautifully with much to provoke thought and reflection.
April 11, 2021
"Memory is nothing like a scrapbook, a photo album, an attic, or a file cabinet. Think of a broom. Remember broom. Different bits of the brain's broom are stored in different parts of the brain. The hickory broomstick. The weight of the broom in the hand. The straw head. The color of straw. The sound of sweeping. The purpose of sweeping. The sound of the word 'broom.' The shape of the word 'broom.' The fact that a broom is a cleaning tool and not a glass of wine or a plate of spaghetti. (Thoughts of sweeping, for those who sweep, activate a pre-motor area, ready to lift the hand.) Memory brings all these disparate bits together, makes them cohere. The puzzle of how the brain achieves coherent perceptions out of its widespread data bits is known as the binding problem." (pg 26)
This passage serves as a microcosm of Long's methods and style. She solves the literary version of the "binding problem" brilliantly in this tri-hybrid memoir of science, family inheritance, and artistic manifesto. For those who might find some of the connections too tenuous and spread out in the larger narrative, I urge patience and trust that she will make it all cohere. In the meantime, relax and linger over the marvelous prose, whether explanatory or reflective, which provides its own reward along the way.
This passage serves as a microcosm of Long's methods and style. She solves the literary version of the "binding problem" brilliantly in this tri-hybrid memoir of science, family inheritance, and artistic manifesto. For those who might find some of the connections too tenuous and spread out in the larger narrative, I urge patience and trust that she will make it all cohere. In the meantime, relax and linger over the marvelous prose, whether explanatory or reflective, which provides its own reward along the way.
April 1, 2018
Fire and Stone by Priscilla Long
In her book of essays, Fire and Stone, Long takes the reader on a quirky, fact-filled, wide-ranging, journey as she tackles the hard questions: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
Long examines her topics with the curiosity of a scientist, but she writes like a gifted storyteller and master craftsman. The chapters in which Long examines—with painstaking honesty—her own family are particularly moving.
In writing about the brain, Long reminds us that, “If you are not learning anything new, you are killing your neurons.” Reading Fire and Stone is sure to get your neurons firing.
In her book of essays, Fire and Stone, Long takes the reader on a quirky, fact-filled, wide-ranging, journey as she tackles the hard questions: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
Long examines her topics with the curiosity of a scientist, but she writes like a gifted storyteller and master craftsman. The chapters in which Long examines—with painstaking honesty—her own family are particularly moving.
In writing about the brain, Long reminds us that, “If you are not learning anything new, you are killing your neurons.” Reading Fire and Stone is sure to get your neurons firing.
November 6, 2017
A brilliant essay collection that weaves personal life experiences, world history, philosophy, science and the arts into a tapestry of authentic humanness that gives meaning to what it means to be alive, and encourages us to reflect on our own lives. I couldn’t put it down and when I had to (because life got in the way) I found myself longing to return. A beautiful and an inspiring read.
January 25, 2018
Each essay combines the personal with history or with science or with art or with anthropology or with music. Each essay felt personal. Taken as a unit, the essays make for an unconventional genre-bender of a memoir.
April 9, 2023
fire and stone: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?, Priscilla Long’s book of memoir and science essays has four sections that attempt to answer these questions. The questions were asked by the painter Paul Gauguin in the title of his 1897 painting. Her book has four sections: Inheritance, Fire, Stone, and Spirit.
She starts with a prologue, “In the Beginning,” sharing a quote from Linda Hogan, “Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of thousands.” Priscilla is a scientist, a historian, and a philosopher. She uses these languages to explore these three questions. Another quote by Gaston Bachelard, “So like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always flare up again within us.” She is talking and writing memoir, her family life growing up on a farm, her DNA results from 23andMe, her grandfather who was a writer with no words left due to dementia. Priscilla has corrected this mishap of his life with the writing from her prolific career.
I am in her cohort in the Jack Straw Writing Program, and thrilled to work with her.
A couple of Priscilla quotes from the book:
“I write to visit the shadows of myself, obscure memories, unfelt angers, secret desires. I write to record the news of the world, city buses nosing their great slow way down the night street outside my house, buses familiar as cows.”
“Music makes a good home when you can’t go home.”
This is a wise book full of information about art, and life. Each essay perfect in its own right. And filled with variety of form and subject. I love her abecedarian essays.
She starts with a prologue, “In the Beginning,” sharing a quote from Linda Hogan, “Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of thousands.” Priscilla is a scientist, a historian, and a philosopher. She uses these languages to explore these three questions. Another quote by Gaston Bachelard, “So like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always flare up again within us.” She is talking and writing memoir, her family life growing up on a farm, her DNA results from 23andMe, her grandfather who was a writer with no words left due to dementia. Priscilla has corrected this mishap of his life with the writing from her prolific career.
I am in her cohort in the Jack Straw Writing Program, and thrilled to work with her.
A couple of Priscilla quotes from the book:
“I write to visit the shadows of myself, obscure memories, unfelt angers, secret desires. I write to record the news of the world, city buses nosing their great slow way down the night street outside my house, buses familiar as cows.”
“Music makes a good home when you can’t go home.”
This is a wise book full of information about art, and life. Each essay perfect in its own right. And filled with variety of form and subject. I love her abecedarian essays.
April 9, 2023
I've been considering writing some sort of memoir for ages now, so when I got a paperback copy of Priscilla Long's FIRE AND STONE, I was immediately drawn in by the unusual hybrid form. In compiling a batch of her previously published essays, she used a variety of methods to get them to cohere in this collection.
You get a real sense of how Long thinks -- and she's one smart thinker and writer. And, after all, why not pull fragments from memory and shape them by means of the alphabet, as in "failure" followed by "genius" and then by "hippocampus"? Or number a certain set of theme-related insights from your past? There's no one right or best way to write about your life, including your mental life.
Aside from the clever way Long forms her essays into chapters, there's the cool way she references other mostly well-known artists, scientists, and philosophers to layer context, depth, and enlightenment to her own thoughts and experiences.
You get a real sense of how Long thinks -- and she's one smart thinker and writer. And, after all, why not pull fragments from memory and shape them by means of the alphabet, as in "failure" followed by "genius" and then by "hippocampus"? Or number a certain set of theme-related insights from your past? There's no one right or best way to write about your life, including your mental life.
Aside from the clever way Long forms her essays into chapters, there's the cool way she references other mostly well-known artists, scientists, and philosophers to layer context, depth, and enlightenment to her own thoughts and experiences.
June 12, 2018
Inspirational! Priscilla Long has a voice like none other. She crafts words with polished finesse.
Read
April 17, 2017Love these essays
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews