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.
I Don’t Want to Become Jess Zimmerman’s “Good Wife”
I already feel, in some ways, that becoming my fiancé’s betrothed has meant agreeing to manage him, and I feel no little amount of dread when I consider multiplying this management duty by one or more further persons.
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.
J. Nicole Jones’s Family Preservation
Is this, when it comes right down to it, the difference between creating a family and creating a piece of art? Does art rely upon individuality while family-making siphons from it?
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.