Hi, I'm Erika Reily, I live in Corpus Christi, Texas with a lovely husband and a gaggle of wonderful children and I am an extremely amateur reader relative to most of you but yet it's my thing. My late uncle taught college writing for decades and something he said once about someone's scholastic performance always stuck with me: "She's doing fine but she doesn't think about it when she's not there." I've used that line many many times in discussing what makes people, including myself, tick, and what's between the covers of books is what I think about when I'm not there. So there is my introduction!
Regarding Joan: as for me, The Year of Magical Thinking was personal enough. The image of Dunne more or less falling over dead in their dining room when they sat down to eat on an ordinary Tuesday felt intrusive to me; of course it wasn't, as she choose to share it, but it was such a private moment. I happen to be finally reading Slouching Towards Bethlehem as this conversation unfolds. I like seeing things through her eyes; I'm not drawn to seeing herself or her marriage or her therapy experience or her mind through her eyes. Has anyone read Harp, by Dunne? It's been on my shelf since she mentioned it in Magical and I look forward to reading it. I'm not Irish but my husband is, and he's old enough to remember in his suburban New York childhood a faint sense of distaste toward Irish-Americans. I'm curious about this.
Erika! Thanks for jumping aboard. I’ve really enjoyed Didion’s essays. I also enjoyed Play It as It Lays. I’m reading Run River now. But I’ve never read Dunne’s work. You’ll have to read Harp and let us know it is!
Yes, and to what extent can our prying be justified by a desire to understand the art or to understand the life that produced the art, and at what point does it just become voyeurism?
Well, at least it may enlighten some people to the notion that what writers write is not simply the outpourings of their nature but a constructed work of art.
I do tend to think the publication is ethically okay. Even if we find it distasteful, who’s really harmed? That said, I’m also torn on reading it myself.
Hi, I'm Erika Reily, I live in Corpus Christi, Texas with a lovely husband and a gaggle of wonderful children and I am an extremely amateur reader relative to most of you but yet it's my thing. My late uncle taught college writing for decades and something he said once about someone's scholastic performance always stuck with me: "She's doing fine but she doesn't think about it when she's not there." I've used that line many many times in discussing what makes people, including myself, tick, and what's between the covers of books is what I think about when I'm not there. So there is my introduction!
Regarding Joan: as for me, The Year of Magical Thinking was personal enough. The image of Dunne more or less falling over dead in their dining room when they sat down to eat on an ordinary Tuesday felt intrusive to me; of course it wasn't, as she choose to share it, but it was such a private moment. I happen to be finally reading Slouching Towards Bethlehem as this conversation unfolds. I like seeing things through her eyes; I'm not drawn to seeing herself or her marriage or her therapy experience or her mind through her eyes. Has anyone read Harp, by Dunne? It's been on my shelf since she mentioned it in Magical and I look forward to reading it. I'm not Irish but my husband is, and he's old enough to remember in his suburban New York childhood a faint sense of distaste toward Irish-Americans. I'm curious about this.
Erika! Thanks for jumping aboard. I’ve really enjoyed Didion’s essays. I also enjoyed Play It as It Lays. I’m reading Run River now. But I’ve never read Dunne’s work. You’ll have to read Harp and let us know it is!
Brings to mind all those Beatles anthologies and similar.
Thank goodness most writers are obscure. It saves us from such temptation... 😅
My friend shared this with me and it was such an immediate subscribe! So researched and cohesive, loved it!
Such a fraught topic.
So true, and you’re a biographer so you get the tension here. We want to know! But are we prying?
Yes, and to what extent can our prying be justified by a desire to understand the art or to understand the life that produced the art, and at what point does it just become voyeurism?
Well, at least it may enlighten some people to the notion that what writers write is not simply the outpourings of their nature but a constructed work of art.
Exactly! The more natural it might feel, the more constructed it likely is.
I just read Notes to John. The review is at my Substack page.
Just read that. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I can’t quite decide if I’m going to dip in it myself. We’ll see.
We are all *clears throat* such uneven creatures, aren't we?
So true!
I do tend to think the publication is ethically okay. Even if we find it distasteful, who’s really harmed? That said, I’m also torn on reading it myself.