Day 50.1: On Carson McCuller's Overall-ness

[sunshowerdandelion]

Let me say this now: Carson McCullers was a flaming mess.She was a hot and cold friend and a hot and cold wife (at times writing horrendously abusive letters to her husband), and she had a number of incredibly messy affairs and even more unreciprocated, hopeless crushes with various female literary figures and notables. I understand completely Eudora Welty's animus towards her, but gosh, this biography with its sometimes pitiless eagle's eye squint shows Carson in all her incredibly messy glory. I deeply, deeply sympathize with her life and I deeply, deeply want her to get help - which goes against that taboo question of "What works would she have finished, had she lived longer?"

I really want to hug her and then stand back because she is absolutely one of those amazingly persistent emotional vampires you read about, sometimes. She is just so attached.

She is absolutely someone who, if she were a character in a book or series, be called a poor little meow meow. However since she was an actual person I won't call her that.