Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Etta Madden's avatar

“In France, if you are a writer, to be a woman is simply to provide a stick for you to be beaten with,” Wow!!! So powerful. And the summary-annotation from you as well, Anne—that women NEED to please, which can keep them from doing radical work. So much the case for the three women at the center of Engaging Italy, as I noted in those pages. Thanks for another insightful piece.

Expand full comment
Maria (Linnesby essays)'s avatar

Super interesting, thanks! Was familiar with Simone de Beauvoir's story, but not the Tin House article and that was an interesting combo. Loved how you pulled different threads together. Claire Vaye Watkins's piece made me think quite a bit. I think that some of that background was why I focused on the scene of an interviewer being awestruck by Yoko Tawada, in an essay here on Substack about Tawada's book about a vanished language. It actually felt unusual, and that was shocking. On the other hand, I don't share Watkins's experience when it comes to fiction. I think I got shocked out of it when I first got to attend literary readings as a teenager and discovered that I didn't like John Updike's writing or how he read it, even though he was in the New Yorker. The same with a couple of other writers. It changed the world on its axis a little.

Expand full comment
29 more comments...

No posts