Margot Parmenter 5/21/21 Margot Parmenter 5/21/21

I Don’t Want to Be Claire Dederer’s “Poser”

Dispensing with role-playing may be, I think after reading Dederer’s book, necessary to becoming a fully realized adult. And if I am to become a mother, as “a fully realized adult” is the only way I want to do it.

Margot Parmenter 5/14/21 Margot Parmenter 5/14/21

Celia Paul’s Remarkable Removal

What many mothers might consider anathema, and what Paul herself describes as sacrifice, was the very thing necessary to being both mother and artist.

Margot Parmenter 5/7/21 Margot Parmenter 5/7/21

Rachel Cusk’s Translated Will

To have a child is to surrender one’s will rather than exerting it. The child does not exist as the perfect external realization of an internal intention. His own will interferes in the determination of his outcome.

Margot Parmenter 4/30/21 Margot Parmenter 4/30/21

Rivka Galchen’s Restful Worship

The problem isn’t and never has been motherhood itself. The problem has always been me—my fragile focus, so easily shattered; my delicate ambition, easily spooked but not as easily relinquished.