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A review by chrilaura
Things I Don't Want to Know by Deborah Levy
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
I was excited by the reflections at the beginning of this book, then a little disappointed that it turned out to be more of an autobiography than a critical reflection on writing and womanhood (and writing womanhood/woman writerhood).
"She tells a young actress to speak up. 'To speak up is not about speaking louder, it is about feeling entitled to voice a wish. We always hesitate when we wish for something. In my theatre, I like to show the hesitation and not conceal it. A hesitation is not the same as a pause. It is an attempt to defeat the wish. But when you are ready to catch this wish and put it into language, then you can whisper but the audience will always hear you.'"
"It was mysterious because it seemed to me that the male world and its political arrangements (never in favour of children and women) was actually jealous of the passion we felt for our babies. Like everything that involves love, our children made us happy beyond measure - and unhappy too - but never as miserable as the twenty-first-century Neo Patriarchy made us feel."
"Adrienne Rich, whom I was reading at the time, said it exactly like this: 'No woman is really an insider in the institutions fathered by masculine consciousness.' That was the weird thing. It was becoming clear to me that Motherhood was an institution fathered by masculine consciousness."
"It's snowing in apartheid South Africa. It's snowing on a zebra and it's snowing on a snake. It's snowing on my father's spectacles and for a moment I can't see his eyes. "
"The idea that plastic people were the most interesting people was born first of all in Barbie's painted-on blue eyes, then in Maria's painted-on brown eyes every time I asked about Thandiwe, and finally in Melissa's teenage laboratory. Melissa was quite literally making herself up. The fact that lipstick and mascara and eye shadow were called 'Make Up' thrilled me. Everywhere in the world there were made up people and most of them were women."
"...to become a writer, I had to learn to interrupt, to speak up, to speak a little louder, and then louder, and then to just speak in my own voice which is not loud at all."
"She tells a young actress to speak up. 'To speak up is not about speaking louder, it is about feeling entitled to voice a wish. We always hesitate when we wish for something. In my theatre, I like to show the hesitation and not conceal it. A hesitation is not the same as a pause. It is an attempt to defeat the wish. But when you are ready to catch this wish and put it into language, then you can whisper but the audience will always hear you.'"
"It was mysterious because it seemed to me that the male world and its political arrangements (never in favour of children and women) was actually jealous of the passion we felt for our babies. Like everything that involves love, our children made us happy beyond measure - and unhappy too - but never as miserable as the twenty-first-century Neo Patriarchy made us feel."
"Adrienne Rich, whom I was reading at the time, said it exactly like this: 'No woman is really an insider in the institutions fathered by masculine consciousness.' That was the weird thing. It was becoming clear to me that Motherhood was an institution fathered by masculine consciousness."
"It's snowing in apartheid South Africa. It's snowing on a zebra and it's snowing on a snake. It's snowing on my father's spectacles and for a moment I can't see his eyes. "
"The idea that plastic people were the most interesting people was born first of all in Barbie's painted-on blue eyes, then in Maria's painted-on brown eyes every time I asked about Thandiwe, and finally in Melissa's teenage laboratory. Melissa was quite literally making herself up. The fact that lipstick and mascara and eye shadow were called 'Make Up' thrilled me. Everywhere in the world there were made up people and most of them were women."
"...to become a writer, I had to learn to interrupt, to speak up, to speak a little louder, and then louder, and then to just speak in my own voice which is not loud at all."