This passage from Anna Burns’ Milkman always makes me think of how young girls search for cover at adolescence and how the masks we devise alter what they were intended to protect:
I wrote a novel at 18-19 and then destroyed every copy of it because I decided I needed to be serious about my research on totalitarianism (in retrospect, there's a hilariously teenage self-seriousness to this irrevocable gesture). Was working on another in 2017-2018 before my attention was pulled fully to gender stuff... didn't destroy it but haven't touched it.
"These women, constituting the nascent feminist group in our area – and exactly because of constituting it – were firmly placed in the category of those way, way beyond-the-pale. The word ‘feminist’ was beyond-the-pale. The word ‘woman’ barely escaped beyond-the-pale. Put both together, or try unsuccessfully to soften things with another word, a general word, one in disguise such as ‘issues’ and basically you’ve had it."
Have you ever thought of writing fiction?
I think you wrote some Harry Potter fan fiction as a teenager? But has it ever appealed to you as an adult?
I wrote a novel at 18-19 and then destroyed every copy of it because I decided I needed to be serious about my research on totalitarianism (in retrospect, there's a hilariously teenage self-seriousness to this irrevocable gesture). Was working on another in 2017-2018 before my attention was pulled fully to gender stuff... didn't destroy it but haven't touched it.
Well, put it on the back burner.
When all this gender madness is over, perhaps you'll go back to it.
The travel writing you wrote about your trip to Greece was so lyrical. I'm sure you could turn your hand to fiction.
Yes, wrote a LOT of Harry Potter fan fiction as a teenager. Too much. The other time I had a pseudonymous Internet presence with a decent following.
A favourite book of mine.
"These women, constituting the nascent feminist group in our area – and exactly because of constituting it – were firmly placed in the category of those way, way beyond-the-pale. The word ‘feminist’ was beyond-the-pale. The word ‘woman’ barely escaped beyond-the-pale. Put both together, or try unsuccessfully to soften things with another word, a general word, one in disguise such as ‘issues’ and basically you’ve had it."
Burns, Anna. Milkman . Graywolf Press. Kindle Edition.
I love this book, although I've never been so initially baffled and then charmed by an author's writing style.
The Milkman is a truly amazing book.