The Safety of Objects

I look around my house sometimes and surmise, not completely irrationally, that we might actually drown in ‘things’. Just looking at my mantlepiece, I can see photographs, 4 candle holders, cards left over from Father’s Day, 2 vases, an old peacock feather, a bunch of fake flowers, 2 of my children’s creations including a rather large pom-pom caterpillar, a collection of stones from various walks and a tiny statue of a Buddha. Ok, so some of these objects are extraneous, but most of them have a story to tell – they are part of the fabric of my life.

Of course there are deeply psychological reasons why humans hold onto objects, hoarding being the most extreme manifestation of this. When looking into this, I came across a fantastic quote taken from'The History of Love' by Nicole Krauss:

“At the end, all that's left of you are your possessions. Perhaps that's why I've never been able to throw anything away. Perhaps that's why I hoarded the world: with the hope that when I died, the sum total of my things would suggest a life larger than the one I lived.”

Objects connect us with a sense of immortality; they stay alive longer than we do in most cases and therefore allow people to hold onto us through heirlooms passed down in wills. But of course, quite often, these objects lose their significance when they are removed from the beholder. We explored this in one of my most recent writing workshops where a participant revealed that she’d inherited a beautiful ring from her grandmother. Unfortunately, the ring’s history had been lost and the participant had no idea where it had come from or why her grandmother used to wear it. We used the blank space to rewrite the history from the point of view of the ring, giving the object consciousness and allowing it to tell its own story.

Another way you can explore the emotional connection with objects is through an exploration of colour. I love using paint charts in my workshops and they don’t get much better than this illustrated Farrow and Ball paint chart created by Sally Spelling. During the session, we chose our own colours from the paint charts available and played with assigning the colours names and objects. We then built this into a piece of extended writing so the colour and object set the mood of the characters or landscape they are part of.

Finally, this poem by Penelope Shuttle is my favourite to read when exploring objects in workshops. I love the way she starts with something quite concrete and then moves into the absurdly abstract. The gathering sense of desperation in the poem reminds me of how we try to hold onto things and experiences as we get older so we don’t miss out. The opening line is also one my favourite opening lines of all time. If you like reading Penelope Shuttle, this poem uses object point of view to explore having a caesarean by focusing on the role of the knife. A workshop participant explored surgery trauma in a similar way by focusing on the IV drip in a piece of extended writing about her time in hospital.

If this post has inspired you to write about objects then try starting with this writing prompt:

Write about a significant event that you or one of your characters experiences. Focus on an object in the space the event takes place in and describe it in a way that reflects the emotions of the person having the experience. Let me know how you get on by heading over to my Instagram page @words_and_wine_ashford

Further recommended reading: If you’re interested in the cultural significance of objects, this book by Sam Johnson-Schlee explores the political and cultural histories of the things in our living spaces in a really interesting way.