Three: A Memoir
Date
2018Type of Work
43,972 wordsText
manuscripts
Program
MFA in Creative NonfictionRights
This work is restricted for 10 years from the date listed above. No access will be permitted until the embargo has expired. Once the embargo expires the work is available only on Goucher College's campus.Abstract
Three: A Memoir is a fractured narrative, exploring romantic love through the lens of mathematical proof and structure. In lyric passages braided with metaphorical, mathematical inquires, Laing considers choice and chance, discovery and creation, during the time when she left the shelter of her Appalachian mountain home, embraced her intellect and queerness, and fell in love. Experimental in form and subject, this creative non-fiction thesis is a mathematical and philosophical inquiry of the three loves of Laing's life. As such, she considers the shadow lands of gay romance, during an in-between period of American culture, when big cities were beginning to embrace queer individuals and communities but rural areas still denied that same-sex love existed. It was in these small, conservative communities that she tested her understanding of love and queerness, searching for a personal truth that would last a lifetime.