{"id":5,"date":"2014-04-05T19:14:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-05T19:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/68.169.38.31\/?p=5"},"modified":"2014-04-06T17:16:24","modified_gmt":"2014-04-06T17:16:24","slug":"marianne-moores-secret-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gormogons.com\/index.php\/2014\/04\/marianne-moores-secret-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Marianne Moore\u2019s secret life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outstanding review by Bruce Bawer of a new biography of the poet. Read this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the opening pages of Charles Molesworth\u2019s 1990 biography of Marianne Moore, the reader encounters two exceedingly curious sentences. \u201cI have chosen,\u201d declares Molesworth in the first of these, \u201cto limit my interpretations of [Moore\u2019s] character by relying more on literary than on psychological questions.\u201d Study that statement for a moment\u2014savor it, if you will\u2014and ponder its meaning. What is Molesworth saying here? Apparently, that he not only thinks a biographer can somehow \u201cinterpret\u201d his subject\u2019s \u201ccharacter\u201d while skirting \u201cpsychological questions,\u201d but also that for some reason he has found this course of action to be advisable. Which, of course, raises the questions: Exactly how does one go about interpreting a person\u2019s character while de-emphasizing \u201cpsychological questions\u201d? And why? On to his next sentence: \u201cHence most of my evidence focuses on the external facts of Moore\u2019s life.\u201d What can this possibly mean, other than that Molesworth, for whatever perverse reason, has purposefully set out to produce a shallow account of his subject\u2019s life? In any event, Molesworth more than fulfilled his goal: Reviewing his book for the Washington Post<\/i>, I found it to be a staggeringly superficial effort by a writer whose unreflectiveness seemed stubborn and boundless; at the end of my review, I expressed the hope \u201cthat a more poised and penetrating study of [Moore\u2019s] singular writings and enigmatic life will materialize before too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, it only took twenty-three years. In Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore<\/i> (the title is drawn from Moore\u2019s famous poem \u201cPoetry\u201d), a professor emerita of English at Oklahoma State University, Linda Leavell, working from the very same materials that were available to Molesworth, has managed to produce a remarkably illuminating biography of a woman whose life, it turns out, was far more fascinating\u2014and disturbing\u2014than Molesworth ever let on<\/b>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outstanding review by Bruce Bawer of a new biography of the poet. Read this. In the opening pages of Charles Molesworth\u2019s 1990 biography of Marianne Moore, the reader encounters two exceedingly curious sentences. \u201cI have chosen,\u201d declares Molesworth in the …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMarianne Moore\u2019s secret life - The Gormogons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gormogons.com\/index.php\/2014\/04\/marianne-moores-secret-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marianne Moore\u2019s secret life - The Gormogons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Outstanding review by Bruce Bawer of a new biography of the poet. Read this. In the opening pages of Charles Molesworth\u2019s 1990 biography of Marianne Moore, the reader encounters two exceedingly curious sentences. \u201cI have chosen,\u201d declares Molesworth in the … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.gormogons.com\/index.php\/2014\/04\/marianne-moores-secret-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Gormogons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-05T19:14:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-06T17:16:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Confucius, \u0152c. Vol.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gormogons\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gormogons\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Confucius, \u0152c. 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