congeries

"Anna is a writer, author of one very successful novel, who now keeps four notebooks. In one, with a black cover, she reviews the African experience of her earlier years. In a red one she records her political life, her disillusionment with communism. In a yellow one she writes a novel in which the heroine relives part of her own experience. And in a blue one she keeps a personal diary.

Finally, in love with an American writer and threatened with insanity, Anna tries to bring the threads of all four books together in a golden notebook." - Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook

seeds for thoughts:

"[O]bsession with constructing a comprehensive sense of identity leads to an infinite fictionalisation of life."

"[Lessing] doesn't construct very believable or interesting male characters. The female ones are better, though. ...[s]ince cognitive psychologists and neurobiologists have established that women have superior social intelligence compared to males - I don't understand why this should be the case."

вот ведь забавно, я "только что" думал имено про это, в ходе внутренней критики Pattern Recognition гибсона. у меня много такой критики накопилось, надо будет отдельно писать, но вот то, как неубедительно он пишет кейси, главную героиню - ужасно расстроило.

причём, больше всего расстроили именно потуги написать правильно - и про месячные ввёрнуто, и про "иррациональности", и про эмоциональную лабильность. всё расставлено "где положено". а - "не верю!"

беда.