@A_Jay_Adler's latest on Substack, a meditation on the life, work, and times of Mary McCarthy, had a cute line about Norman Mailer, who was never plagued by "the hobgoblin of consistency".
I keep thinking about what other creatures (supernatural or real) would best embody other attributes. What's the perfect embodiment of bashfulness? Pettiness? Vanity?
I've got a few in mind already:
"The church mouse of self-doubt"
"The mayfly of fame"
"The bonobo queen of nitpicking"
What've you got? 👀
The full piece is another excellent reflection on the work of trying to piece our lives together, when the person writing the memoir is necessarily living outside the times they're revising. How do we pull together threads of our past selves that are strangers to us now? #Essays #Memoir #Literature
https://innerlifecollaborative.substack.com/p/mary-mccarthys-curious-confession