Reading Sadness

Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction by Patricia Highsmith
(St. Martin's Griffin, New York, 1990, page 88)

"Perhaps because it is all round easier for me, I prefer the point of view of the main character, written in the third-person singular, and I might add masculine as I have a feeling which I suppose is quite unfounded that women are not so active as me, and not so daring. I realize that their activities need not be physical ones and that as motivating forces they may well be ahead of the men, but I tend to think of women as being pushed by people and circumstances instead of pushing and more apt to say, "I can't" than "I will" or I'm going to."

I think this is the saddest thing I've read in quite some time -- especially since it was written by a woman who lived her dream (to make her living as a writer, just because I haven't read her stuff doesn't mean I haven't heard the titles, Strangers on a Train being the biggie for me, though The Talented Mr. Ripley is also vaguely familiar). She also seemed well-traveled. I think I remember reading something like 'I'd just gotten back from Italy' in there somewhere -- and still women are passive creatures waiting to have done for them.

I suppose she was born in 1921 -- and in the States (We were no where near the first to give women rights, nor the first to admit women were actually people).

Still, she had done things.

Right.

I need to go finish reading this book so I can then run to T-Mobile and figure out if I killed my SIM card (and how) or if the issue is with the phone itself, and to Home Depot to ask about renting a jackhammer. I really can't get my bathroom back together until we've taken care of the drain issue, so we've hit the pay-a-plumber-to-destroy-the-floor-or-destroy-it-ourselves stage of things.