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Posted on Fri, Dec 24, 2010 : noon

Escapism 'Found' in real life stories

By Julia Eussen

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I found myself needing to read something that provided escapism at the end of these days that were long in activity and short on daylight. I picked "Requiem for a Paper Bag: Celebrities & Civilians Tell Stories of the Best Lost, Tossed & Found Items From Around the World," and it didn't disappoint.

I've been a fan of Found Magazine for a long time, and this anthology from last year is everything I love about the magazine, only amplified. Individuals from all walks of life provide stories either about found items or pieces of fiction inspired by them. What is always interesting to me is both the element of surprise about what is found and the impact it has on the author. Because often, but not always, what is found isn't really that unique — a porn magazine, a trashbag of bottles to be recycled, a frog, a feather, a rock. But the story is in all that surrounds it — the context and the repercussions for the speakers.

Everyone has a story to tell; everyone has at some point found something that seemed serendipitous, that may have led to a life lesson or simply astounded for a moment and these pieces are no different.

Contributors for this collection are far and wide — Billy Bragg (musician), Seth Rogen (actor), Esther Pearl Watson (author and illustrator), Bich Minh Nguyen (author and U-M alumna), Robert Evans (film producer), Damon Wayans (comedian) and Frank Warren (PostSecret founder) are just a few. Also included is a piece by Elizabeth Ellen (author) whose find was in Ann Arbor.

Like any good collection, some revelations are funny, some thoughtful, and many have a multiplicity of tones. One of my favorite pieces is "Message in 1,000 Bottles" by Tad Friend. He consistently finds a bag of bottles in front of his apartment building. Who is this that is drinking Perrier and/or the Schaefer beer and leaving it here? He has never figured out who is leaving the bag, and now comes to regard it as "a little tinderbox for my brain" when discovered. "There's a strange pleasure in the appearance of each new bag it's like a Rorschach inkblot, where you can read into it what you like....the idea that there's an inscrutable message in these thousands of bottles - left without a return address, written in some gnomic and invisible language you can't understandis what enables you to dream."

We should all be so fortunate as to stumble upon an object (or incident or moment) that fosters us to dream.

Julia Eussen received her B.A. in English from Kansas State University. She is currently a graduate student in Eastern Michigan University's Professional Writing Program. She is also an active member of the Ann Arbor Classics Book Group and has recently begun to re-acquaint herself with good poetry. She can be reached at jeussen at emich dot com.