Pieces of Mind

[fyshmom]

I realized something driving home from the grocery store in the fog a few minutes ago -- I think that I am losing my mind. Not all of it, just some parts that haven't had the chance to run around out in the world for a bit. And not "lost" them actually, but rather temporarily misplaced them for lack of use

Comments

[luscious_words]

You have been missed. *hugs* But you've had a lot of excitement and lots of activities going on. Your missing bits of mind will return in no time, I'm sure of it.

[paisley1974]

I thought of you in particular today. While I'm reading Leslie Fiedler's _Love and Death in the American Novel_ (written in the 1960s; good overview of the development of the American novel, except for being completely unaware of anything written by women. Seriously--he claims that James Fenimore Cooper was America's most class-conscious author, and doesn't even have Edith Wharton listed in the index.), I've also started Elaine Showalter's brand-spanking-new _Jury of her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx_(the first comprehensive study of American women writers ever)--I recommend them both for your projects. The provide different perspectives on the domestic novel (Fiedler is good at tracing influences and prototypes, but again, he can be kind of one-sided). The Showalter is brilliant; I will before long own my own copy, rather than keeping this out from the library