I read maybe half the Philip Roth bio. I gave up when he talked about how his special "writer's intuition" told him about the affair between Malamud and his student that ended up in "The Ghost Writer." (1/6) https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/philip-roth-blake-bailey-women-issues-misogyny/2021/04/23/f53f44ec-a37c-11eb-85fc-06664ff4489d_story.html

It was a portrait of a man who was catered to his entire life. His mother made his lunch every damned day through high school. OF COURSE his writing was the most important thing in the whole world. How DARE his wife interrupt it to ask him to run out for parmesan cheese? (2/6)

Of course, it was okay for him to interrupt it for his daily therapy sessions.

TBH, it's the same sort of shit men of his generation (and generations before him) expected. Men's work is sacred! The study is a holy place while the Man is Working. (3/6)

You hear a lot about Jewish American Princesses, but not so much about Jewish American Princes. Roth was a classic Jewish American Prince. Every last little piece of shit is precious. (That's why Mrs. Portnoy got so mad when Alex flushed.) The Prince must be served! (4/6)

I thought about that while I was reading, and I got so mad I had to slam the book shut. What if my work was sacred? What if it was a crime to deserve me? What if I had someone to do the boring grunt work for books/articles that would be published only under my name? (5/6)

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!

What could I have become?

(Don't forget the extra confidence that comes from being at the center of the universe.)

(fin)