To All Appearances A Lady - University of British Columbia

B o o k s in R e v i e \
absence of explanation.. .the mist cuts us
off from reasons, and lifts to show us, who
have stepped out of time and logic into a
magic space where old women have room
to exist." In short, the mist symbolizes the
creating of a mythic space in which elderly
women can be heard.
Meigs also delicately explores the effect of
becoming/being myth upon the individual's
sense of self. In postmodernist fashion,
she examines the construction of the many
"selves" which make up an individual's
fluid, somewhat amorphous identity; the
interdiscursivity between film, text, and the
women themselves, the multiple discourses
which perceive the same event differently.
She sensitively identifies facets of the myriad
self: the "pattern face" (the mask by
which people recognize us, and we recognize
others); the "shadow selves" (seen in
childhood pictures where we can see the
lives we didn't lead as well as the ones we
did); the mirror image (which shows the
passage of time); the inner image (by which
we keep ourselves young); our "ideal or
semi-selves" (the myth of our "ideal" selves
in which we are and receive what we truly
desire); the old self; the everyday "real" self;
the fictional self of the film. The film's
world presents the "myth of our ideal
selves," in which "we are the center of
attention, unlike real life where old people
are often invisible or an obstacle." Like the
fairy tale, the film protects against time:
"We are filming a holiday from growing
old.. .in the real world we move along the
conveyor belt of old age like luggage at the
airport." She describes the emergence of the
"focused" self as a result of participating in
the filming process; the "focused self aligns
aspects of the everyday, individual self with
the film images to create yet another self.
Meigs interweaves linear and circular
time, the women's self-images and film
images, portraits of their past and present
lives, and the film-makers' vision into a storytelling
about elderly women and their
powers—a story which extracts them from
the human mass and gives them voice.
Connected now through bonds of friendship
in their real lives, they share in and are
transformed by their participation in the
creation of the film's myth. As she concludes,
"The special power of our film is to
make people happy."
Theories in Practice
Leah D. Hewitt
Autobiographical Tightropes: Simone de Beauvoir,
Nathalie Sarraute, Marguerite Duras, Monique
Wittig, and Maryse Condi. U of Nebraska P $25.00
Marlene Kadar Ed.
Essays on Life Writing: From Genre to Critical
Practice. U of Toronto P $50.00 (cloth) $19.95
(paper)
Barry Rutland Ed.
Genre * Trope * Gender : Critical Essays by
Northrop Frye, Linda Hutcheon, and Shirley
Neuman. Carleton U P $9.95
Reviewed by Susanna Egan
The first part of Leah D. Hewitt's title,
Autobiographical Tightropes, describes the
intersections among these three texts: all of
them interrelate life, (life)-writing, critical
practice, and the theories that question and
define these activities. (The front cover of
Hewitt's book also makes this point; the
author's name, though last on the page and
prefixed with the preposition "by," gets lost
in the list of women about whose works she
is writing.) In all three books, creative
artists and critics engage simultaneously
with evolving theory and with the
grounded or specific nature of their participation
in cultural debate. The cumulative
effect on this reviewer is a state of intellectual
excitement and an absolute paralysis
about entering the discussion in what
might seem an objective or evaluative
mode: notes I made as I began to read now
seem outdated and I must acknowledge
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