I’ve enjoyed the many recent McCullers reappraisals, and I’m glad that this one feels truly additive. I was surprised, while reading, to see little commentary on the gendered aspect of the coddling of erratic genius. SO many male “geniuses” have, for decades, been discussed as though their art were worth their own suffering and the suffering they caused others. I think we should be clear-eyed about the truth of it—that no one’s art is improved by addiction or worth the suffering of others—but seeing mentions, for instance, of Reeves having to cook and keep house as though this were a sign of McCullers’ deficiencies, when so many male writers at the time would have had wives to do this for them, felt a little narrow-minded. I’d be interested in a piece viewing her “coddling,” sexual exploits , and how/when/why her community turned on her through this lens. Not because I think it means we should excuse McCullers, but because we can always learn so much about the past and ourselves when we interrogate how gender shapes our perspective.
I’ve enjoyed the many recent McCullers reappraisals, and I’m glad that this one feels truly additive. I was surprised, while reading, to see little commentary on the gendered aspect of the coddling of erratic genius. SO many male “geniuses” have, for decades, been discussed as though their art were worth their own suffering and the suffering they caused others. I think we should be clear-eyed about the truth of it—that no one’s art is improved by addiction or worth the suffering of others—but seeing mentions, for instance, of Reeves having to cook and keep house as though this were a sign of McCullers’ deficiencies, when so many male writers at the time would have had wives to do this for them, felt a little narrow-minded. I’d be interested in a piece viewing her “coddling,” sexual exploits , and how/when/why her community turned on her through this lens. Not because I think it means we should excuse McCullers, but because we can always learn so much about the past and ourselves when we interrogate how gender shapes our perspective.