<i>Cahier</i> XXX

If this is my Golden Notebook, I am getting into it a bit late [3 5].Of all her notebooks and papers, this is the only cahier Engel had embargoed, and then only for a period of five years (until 1988).To all intents and purposes, this was because of the extent and nature of her notes on psychotherapy sessions with John Rich.Some of these are reproduced here and depict Engel at grips with questions flowing from meetings with Rich, as well as questions about the process of psychotherapy itself.Engel examined her "objections to psychoanalysis-telling stories & paying-self-indulgence."She considered psychology to be "an incomplete worldview [...] specialises] can't understand some reality" [27]."As if novelists could!" she immediately quipped [27].Nevertheless, Engel viewed "making up [a]s more fun than sorting out.Don't want to look at things psychologically-superficial reality too important," she noted [27].Writing was always on Engel's mind, no matter how deeply her thoughts plunged into personal problems and relationships: "Should have written more," she scolded herself [28]."Should have written a lot more" [42].Engel's explorations involved references to the Lady of Shalott and Rapunzel; a sequence about being four feet tall; and a series of thoughts prompted by reading The Story of O. 2 about "the question of a lover," and clothing with which to attract or discourage one.These were not easy reflections for Engel, who struggled against feeling "guilty about confiding in anyone" [44].Buttressing the personal reflections of this cahier are two blocks of fiction.The first is an energetic piece entitled "Bicycle Story" in which forty-year-old Marjorie runs over her elderly mother Irene.Old age has not slowed down Irene and who continues to charge about town on her bicycle.She has darted 1974-75, "The embargoed notebook"; the inside cover lists train times to Toronto, and Alice Munro's phone number; 72 pages used.This is the the English tide of the translated (by Sabine Estree) version of L'Histoire d'O (1954) by Pauline Reage (pseudonym of Dominique Aury).In "The Unmasking of O," [The New Yorker (1 August 1994): 42-50] John St Jorre explores the intriguing story behind this book, its author and various individuals associated with it.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.