Julia Cameron
Just read the memoirs of Julia Cameron, revered author of The Artist’s Way, and have to comment. It was the strangest of many strange reads in my life.
Long have I admired Julia Cameron, and still do, even after reading that dissonant autobiography, maybe even more now, regardless of her acuity of judgement. She has been a great gift to many artists or those who enjoy crafts or creating things – the act of making as a path of reckoning. Her magic came in melding art and spirituality.
But her gift does not lie along the recollection line. And her wounded psyche works best in creation, not recreation. – I did this and then I did that and then we did this and then we did that. The first autobiography written by a stenographer.
What I really wonder about is her friends. Who advised her to put this on the back of her memoirs?
And did no one notice she was not in a good place to write this book? Both her parents went insane and she herself is dependent on psychotropic (I think that’s the right word) medications to maintain her sanity. Somebody needs to take care of her, because she is a treasure for mankind, and letting her publish Floor Sample was not very nice. I can’t understand how anybody can like it. Maybe I’m just crazy, not her. Objectivity is not my strong suit.
Your regretful disser,
LWIII
Maybe Julia Cameron — like all women and their “support groups” medicalizing breakdowns as if is women’s fault apart from cultural and environmental context — would benefit by removing her blinders about the sexual politics of the world in which she and her daughter live.
Much of what Cameron describes of a psychic and psychotic-break nature has been addressed in the elemental feminist philosophy of somebody Cameron quotes in The Artist’s Way (Mary Daly). Maybe Cameron has profited too much from the prevailing social system to consider the rot of misogyny at its roots. She seems to have tried many methods of “dealing” within the prevailing system which oppresses so many women subjected to men’s rules and male-dominant cultures.
Images for promoting freedom at http://thelongestwar.wordpress.com/
I probably wouldn’t be blogging today or taking photographs if not for the 90’s published work of Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan — but in the end I moved past the Artist’s Way personal reliance on God-bag-hood and ended my denial and misguided “acceptance” about the politics of man. In “process speak,” it’s all a journey. Ultimately as we travel, we may have peace and freedom along the way.
Thanks, Jude, for your powerful comment on Julia Cameron. I don’t know how to respond, since your take on the longest war is beyond my experience. It sure brings home to me how deeply uncommitted I am to most causes. I hope your journey continues fruitful and your passionate advocacy helps to redress the injustices we experience within the patriarchy. And may all sexes someday find peace and common ground on which to walk together.
LWIII