note to self
I have been wondering why no one commented on my last two posts, but then I read this (below) in Hermione Lee’s biography of Virginia Woolf … and I thought, “Why, of course!”
“And she (Woolf) cancels from the final version of that essay a passage on Florence Nightengale’s autobiography Cassandra, a painful expression of the thwarted lives of nineteenth-century women: ‘It is hardly writing, it is more like screaming.’ Screams of rage and pain are not what she wants to hear from other women, or what she allows herself.”
Note to self: Apparently, 21st-century readers don’t like screams of rage and pain either.
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No worries, we’ve been reading and paying attention. But I had commented a bit recently and didn’t want to clog up your space too much. You’ll get through this . . . pain seems woven tightly into the definition of family, and we all get our share (with an asterisk — see opening line of Anna Karenina). But I think you’ve already reached for good therapy: good books and long runs. The only thing you left out was chocolate. If you were out here, we’d be happy to drag you out for sixteen miles or so of therapy (running as slow as we do would annoy you sufficiently to take your mind off anything). Hang in there. Rage and scream when you need to.
– Your Seattle fans
Comment by Eric — 9/4/2006 @ 7:43 pm
Joan - I didn’t comment - I went ahead and wrote a very similar post in terms of emotional content ( http://ed_roth.blogspot.com ). I also directed readers to your post as well and several friends of mine commented about it as we talked over the phone. It hit home with more people than you might think. Thanks for putting it out there.
Comment by Ed — 9/5/2006 @ 6:51 am
Joan, I read the posts. I enjoyed them, but did not quite know how to respond in a manner that added anything to them!
Keep it up, I like reading your stuff!!
Comment by George - FFSG — 9/5/2006 @ 7:50 am
[...] The good therapy Eric writes of has helped. I even tried his chocolate cure; last night, I polished off a king-sized Hershey bar while watching junk TV (if you must know, it was Wife Swap; Dave and I joke about some out-of-shape couple switching lives with us - all that running they’d have to do, god!). But enough is enough. I’m ready to get back to work. [...]
Pingback by songs of experience » no small thing — 9/5/2006 @ 1:25 pm
Hey - screams don’t require replies, but they often generate echoes
hugs,
jim p.
Comment by Fat Charlie the Archangel — 9/5/2006 @ 1:31 pm
Ed,
thanks for the link to your post about your sweetie going to kindergarten. I loved it!
Today, Lizzie reported from her kindergarten class that a boy said, “I don’t have no snack” instead of “I don’t have any snack.” I am proud to have raised a little grammar policewoman.
Of course, Dave asked, “Well, did you share your snack with the boy?”
He didn’t get the point of her story at all … or did he?!
Comment by Joan — 9/6/2006 @ 7:23 am