What a great thoughtful discourse. I wasn't clear whether you had published it here before or it was in your notebooks and never published. I've never read this and I love it. I read 'Cat Woman' when it first came out in the New Yorker and followed its trajectory into digital fame. But I knew nothing about what followed so this was fascinating. Both that it happened and the obvious questions about why N would want to bring so much attention to herself if she was already 'upset' that she had been 'outed', so to speak. And the sad state of so much of women's writing -- to expect anything and everything that will shine a negative light on one's writing.
Summer, I'm so glad you are publishing more often. It's good to have you back even if much of it is you revisiting past work. For many of us, it is new. I'm sure for all of us it is provocative and after reading an article this morning on AI and the lack of critical thinking, I'm graterful to you for pushing critical thinking.
Thank you Sara! I did publish a version of this as a kind of hot take back in 2021, when I had far fewer subscribers, so many of my current readers wouldn't have seen it, that's certainly true. In editing it, as I have been doing for all the work I'm resharing, I ended up adding some things that weren't in the original post, which I hadn't thought to connect at the time. So it's a bit of a hybrid :) But thanks for reading, and yes—critical thinking. Boy do we need it!
Summer, this was a great piece. I have always loved your analysis (especially during consultations!). I have a lot of thoughts on the sexual aspect of this, which I won't share here. But, I did once have a situation with a semi famous comedian where he talked about our encounter on a radio show and it was an out of body experience, but nothing I felt a need to do anything about but laugh at how, the stories told have a whole different aspect when you know they are true. Of course, this was before social media, so no one was trying to figure out who was the unnamed woman.
What a great thoughtful discourse. I wasn't clear whether you had published it here before or it was in your notebooks and never published. I've never read this and I love it. I read 'Cat Woman' when it first came out in the New Yorker and followed its trajectory into digital fame. But I knew nothing about what followed so this was fascinating. Both that it happened and the obvious questions about why N would want to bring so much attention to herself if she was already 'upset' that she had been 'outed', so to speak. And the sad state of so much of women's writing -- to expect anything and everything that will shine a negative light on one's writing.
Summer, I'm so glad you are publishing more often. It's good to have you back even if much of it is you revisiting past work. For many of us, it is new. I'm sure for all of us it is provocative and after reading an article this morning on AI and the lack of critical thinking, I'm graterful to you for pushing critical thinking.
Thank you Sara! I did publish a version of this as a kind of hot take back in 2021, when I had far fewer subscribers, so many of my current readers wouldn't have seen it, that's certainly true. In editing it, as I have been doing for all the work I'm resharing, I ended up adding some things that weren't in the original post, which I hadn't thought to connect at the time. So it's a bit of a hybrid :) But thanks for reading, and yes—critical thinking. Boy do we need it!
I love this piece and look forward to sharing it with my students.
Thanks Anca!
Summer, this was a great piece. I have always loved your analysis (especially during consultations!). I have a lot of thoughts on the sexual aspect of this, which I won't share here. But, I did once have a situation with a semi famous comedian where he talked about our encounter on a radio show and it was an out of body experience, but nothing I felt a need to do anything about but laugh at how, the stories told have a whole different aspect when you know they are true. Of course, this was before social media, so no one was trying to figure out who was the unnamed woman.