no problem

Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Sun, 22 Nov 1998 10:42:56 +0000

I think my easiness with the idea of a writer’s intentions
must have grown through all those decades working as a
psychoanalyst.  Though I’m sure the gift was there long
before any formal training began.  But there it is.  It happens
all the time, every day of the week.  Someone gazing
across at me, the stars shining in her eyes, as she breathes:
‘Gosh, Dr Bowman, how well you read my mind.....’

On that other point.
The Oxford Dictionery defines *affectation* as -
  b) an ‘ostentatious fondness for, or display of,’
And *religiosity* as -
  b) ‘affected or excessive religiousness’.

These definitions may not coincide with your particular ideas, Jim,
but is your problem.  For most of the English speaking world these
are the simple meanings.  The words conveyed well enough that
awful feeling of: ‘Look at me, Ma, I’m being mystical....’ which,
for me at least, permeates the endless anguishings of the Glass family.

And yes, Kari, I have written quite a lot.  Even a couple of books.
And I simply never had the feeling that any of my readers had
discovered a meaning hitherto unknown to myself.  The ignorant
slobs often seemed to miss the point.  But I felt that was more
my failing than theirs.  Human beings are in the main unbelievably
stupid & it takes a great writer working at the top of his form to
get anything at all into their thick heads.

(Australians excepted, of course.)

Scottie B.