In memoir, you have to be particularly careful not to alienate the reader by making the material seem too lived-in. It mustn't have too much of the smell of yourself, otherwise the reader will be unable to make it her own.
Rachel CuskRead
I was aware, in those early days of motherhood, that my behaviour was strange to the people who knew me well. It was as though I had been brainwashed, taken over by a cult religion. And yet this cult, motherhood, was not a place where I could actually live. Like any cult, it demanded a complete surrender of identity to belong to it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote explores the profound transformation and identity shift that occurs with motherhood.
In this quote, Rachel Cusk reflects on the striking changes in her identity and behavior that accompanied her experience of motherhood. She likens the intensity of motherhood to being part of a cult, emphasizing how it can demand total surrender of one's previous self in order to truly belong, which can create a sense of alienation from those who knew her before she became a mother.
Themes
MotherhoodIdentityTransformationSurrenderAlienation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a parenting group discussion about identity changes after becoming a mother.
More from Rachel Cusk
All quotes →As writers go, I have a skin of average thickness. I am pleased by a good review, disappointed by a bad. None of it penetrates far enough to influence the thing I write next.
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There is always shame in the creation of an expressive work, whether it's a book or a clay pot. Every artist worries about how they will be seen by others through their work. When you create, you aspire to do justice to yourself, to remake yourself, and there is always the fear that you will expose the very thing that you hoped to transform.
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Shame is something you'll find a lot of - particularly Catholic - girls feel about their bodies, about their sexuality, about their diet, about anything you like. Shame is the way you keep them down. That's the way to crush a girl.
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I have no sense of a model or predecessor when I write a memoir: For me, the form exists as a method of processing material that retains too many connections to life to be approached strictly and aesthetically. A memoir is a risk, a one-off, a bastard child.
Rachel CuskRead
It seems to me that 'women's writing' by nature would not seek equivalence in the male world. It would be a writing that sought to express a distinction, not deny it.
Rachel CuskRead
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