Monthly Archives: March 2015

“Encore Marie Antoinette”

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Abigail

“Encore Marie Antoinette” Last night, I read to its sad finale Stefan Zweig’s can’t-be-more-definitive biography of Marie Antoinette, the unluckiest Queen of France. She got a passing mention in “My Inner French Girl,” not a very respectful notice, but now … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Action, Alienation, Art, Autonomy, Chivalry, Class, Courtship, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, History, history of ideas, Identity, Ideology, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Masculinity, Memoir, motherhood, nineteenth-century, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, Power, Psychology, relationships, Roles, Seduction, Sexuality, Social Conventions, Spirituality, Suffering, The Problematic of Woman, War, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Affair of the Necklace", "Liberty at the Barricades", biography, captive, chivalry, Count Axel von Fersen, couples, crowned heads of Europe, Dauphin, deficits, Delacroix, escape, French Revolution, grifter, guillotine, hero, impotence, Louis XVI, love affair, luck, Marie Antoinette, Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman, misogyny, mob, monarchy, pleasure, prison, public opinion, queen, Queen of France, Rococo, royalty, scandal, sexual dysfunction, Stefan Zweig, symbol, teamwork, The Night of Varennes, tumbril, voyeurism, world historical figure | 2 Comments

“Dante’s Lovers”

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Abigail

“Dante’s Lovers” There is a circle of hell, not very far down but definitely under the white line of redemption, where Dante places a certain species of doomed lover. There the enchanted couples pursue each other and, it seems, are … Continue reading →

Posted in Alienation, Chivalry, Courtship, Culture, Desire, Erotic Life, Evil, Faith, Femininity, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Identity, Idolatry, Literature, Love, Male Power, Memoir, Poetry, Power, Psychology, relationships, Roles, Seduction, Sex Appeal, slave, Spirituality, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Woman, Theism, Time, twentieth century, Zeitgeist | Tagged "getting religion", "Lydia", "Now Voyager", "Ode on a Grecian Urn", addiction, attraction, Bette Davis, blind devotion, courtship, cynicism, Dante, doomed lovers, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, fulfillment, hell, hope, idyll, infatuation, John Keats, longing, lust, Merle Oberon, projection, romantic fantasy, sacrificial love, scorned lovers, second circle, seduction, self-deception, tease, unrequited love | Leave a comment

“My Inner French Girl”

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Abigail

“My Inner French Girl” Lately I’ve been reading a book with the charming title, Entre Nous: A Woman’s Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl. The author, Debra Ollivier, was married to a Frenchman and lived there ten years. We … Continue reading →

Posted in Action, Alienation, Art, Autonomy, Cities, Class, Cool, Culture, Desire, Erotic Life, Fashion, Femininity, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, History, Identity, Ideology, Political, Political Movements, Power, Psychology, relationships, Roles, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, Social Conventions, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Woman, War | Tagged Aging, American puritanism, ancient regime, biography, Brigitte Bardot, chansons, chic, Debra Ollivier, economy, eighteenth century, Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl, favoritism, Feminism, film stars, French Revolution, Fulbright scholars, fun, Jeanne Moreau, Les feuilles mortes, looks, Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman, Mme. de Stael, national debt, Paris, perfect pitch, pleasure, queen, sex, sexiness, Stefan Zweig, style | 3 Comments

“Things in Their Right Places”

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Abigail

“Things in Their Right Places” The editing of my to-be-reissued memoir has its own life rhythms. The version that appeared a decade ago included a scaffolding of explanations. At that point, I was trying to do something that received opinion, … Continue reading →

Posted in Academe, Action, Alienation, Autonomy, Contemplation, Cool, Culture, Desire, Ethics, Evil, Faith, Freedom, Health, history of ideas, Identity, Institutional Power, Jews, life and death struggle, Memoir, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, Power, Psychology, relationships, Roles, Social Conventions, Spirituality, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Woman, twentieth century, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged anti-Israel, anti-semitism, anti-Zionism, argument, Ariadne, bigotry, biochemical, Brooklyn College, brownshirts, cause, diagnosis, doctors, editing, Freud, Germany in the 30s, Greek mythology, handicap, holistic treatment, horses, infamy, intimidation, labyrinths, memoir, Minotaur, MRI, muscular, narrative, neurologist, physiatrist, physical therapy, post modernism, purposefulness, resignation, stoicism, the unconscious, theory, therapeutic riding, Theseus, university campuses, Western medicine | 4 Comments

“Absolutely Normal”

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Abigail

“Absolutely Normal” We were in Riverside, California, a few years back. Jerry’s mother, my mother-in-law, was dying. She had always been extremely kind to me. And she was having a very hard time of it. It is hard to get … Continue reading →

Posted in Action, Alienation, Autonomy, Contemplation, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Faith, Femininity, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, history of ideas, Identity, Jews, Love, Memoir, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Power, Psychology, relationships, Roles, Sexuality, Social Conventions, Spirituality, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Woman, Theism, Time, Uncategorized, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Conversions: A Philosophic Memoir", absolute and relative, absolutes, adolescence, adult friendship, celebrities, child development, cynicism, death and dying, dream visitation, editing, emotional cripples, explanatory hypotheses, filial piety, Freud, grief, heroic measures, hospice, Jewish essence, manuscripts, morality, normality, Oedipus complex, oxymorons, parent-child relations, parenting, personalities, posthumous publication, publication, trust, truth, writer's block | 4 Comments

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Monthly Archives: March 2015

“Dante’s Lovers”

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