Jana Remy
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Jana Remy

  • Writing
    • Disability
    • Making History
    • Digital Humanities
      • dayofDH
    • Canoeing
    • Creative Nonfiction & Essays
    • Feminism
    • Bibliographies
      • Pacific Worlds Bibliography
    • Social Media
      • Mentions/Links
  • Scholarship
    • Awards/Fellowships
    • Conferences & Invited Talks
    • Collaboration
    • Workshops
    • Conference Planning
    • Technical Skills
  • Teaching
    • Blogposts About Teaching
books

either husbands or lovers

written by Jana December 17, 2008

I’m chewing on this quote from Susan Sontag today:

“Great writers are either husbands or lovers. Some writers supply the solid virtues of a husband: reliability, intelligibility, generosity, decency. There are other writers in whom one prizes the gifts of a lover, gifts of temperament rather than of moral goodness. Notoriously, women tolerate qualities in a lover—moodiness, selfishness, unreliability, brutality—that they would never countenance in a husband, in return for excitement, an infusion of intense feeling. In the same way, readers put up with unintelligibility, obsessiveness, painful truths, lies, bad grammar — if, in compensation, the writer allows them to savor rare emotions and dangerous sensations. And, as in life, so in art both are necessary, husbands and lovers. It’s a great pity when one is forced to choose between them.”

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Jana

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4 comments

Alisa December 17, 2008 - 8:57 pm

Wow. This helps me understand why I have some of the feelings I do about certain books, and the disagreements I have with some of my friends on some popular books. I’m chewing on the idea that in real life both are necessary, though. :) In literature, yes, I get that.

Reply
jana December 17, 2008 - 9:06 pm

Alisa:
I think it might be worth noting, too, that most of Sontag’s lovers were women. Gender is certainly an issue when you read this quotation while understanding her proclivity to take on female lovers even while she was married to a man.

What I’m musing on is whether my rather stolid academic writing fulfills my “husband-ly” needs whereas my blogging is like my illicit lover–full of the obsesiveness, painful truths, and lies that she refers to. hmmmmm….

Reply
Trying to Stay Calm! December 17, 2008 - 11:51 pm

Just wanted to stop by and wish you a blessed and very Merry Christmas! ♥ Hugs :) Shauna

Reply
Mother Earth aka Karen Hanrahan December 18, 2008 - 12:36 am

chew away darlin …fabulously stated …

words like tolerate, infusion of intense feeling,bad grammar and savor grab me

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About Me

About Me

Hi there friend, and welcome to my blog. I started writing on the internet two decades ago. Since then I've started and finished a PhD program, left the Mormon church and became a Quaker, got divorced, remarried, found full-time work in academia, took up rock climbing and outrigger canoeing, and traveled across the globe (China! Belgium! Italy! Chicago! Montana! Portland! Gettysburg! and oh-so-many points in-between). This blog is eclectic and random--it has poetry and cooking and books. And cats. And flowers. And the ocean (my ocean). But in that sense it's a good reflection of me and my wide-ranging, far-reaching, magpie curiosity.

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