Anais Nin. Her diary is inspiring. I read a paragraph and imagine the hours of conversation it could spark. I read the next and watch another sea of potential thought expand so ferociously that I can hardly tell what it actually makes me feel, only where it could take me. It's hard to slow down.
I agree with most of it. I have parallel experiences. I have parallel experiences and I am 19 years old. This makes me think that it might not be a true comparison. But beyond this reaction, I think it's that she breaks every experience down into it's basic personal content. Then it becomes every interaction with the similar components.
The piece that is jarring to me is that in almost every interaction with a male, she mentions a compliment that he pays her. It feels like she collects them as trophies of power. Most of the time, they run along the lines of "you are unlike all other women." Sometimes "you have understood me in a way no one else has," which comes with her psychoanalysis and literary work. In the place of being compared favorably against the rest of her sex, sometimes people see a peculiar spark or energy in her. Even then, it's easy to say "you above all others."
I should hunt down some textual evidence, but that does bother me. She seems alienated from women through her perceived superiority, a superiority that is upheld if not defined by her relationships with men.
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