From: ssliwinski-AT-accel.net (Sharon Sliwinski)
Subject: cixous ponderings
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 23:09:23 -0500


Hi, I'm new to this group and have been trying to catch up, so please excuse
any ignorance. 

My question/argument/debate spark surrounds Cixous' use of the Medusa image.
In "The Laugh of The Medusa" see says pretty explicitly that we must use
these once negative myths in new positive light, non? I liked that. But I've
been browsing a book by Jungian analyst Marion Woodman, _Addiction to
Perfection_ (kind of heavy handed but sort of insightful) She, like Cixous,
writes sort of non-linearly, borrowing from myth, Shakespeare, etc. She
describes the Medusa much differently:
[discussing the patterns of unconscious behaviours] "the once beautiful
Medusa, whose snakey locks twist and writhe in constant aggitation,
reaching, reaching, reaching, wanting more and more and more... Our
generation scarcely knows of her existence, but she is making her presence
felt in her unquenchable cravings for something..." (pg 9). She's talking
about eating disorders, but all obsessions in general.

This made me think immeadiately of "jouissance" and you're earilier
discussions of the subject. Lacan and Freud's desire... I want to see the
"good-side" as Cixous is somehow always able but Woodman's take throws a new
light. Any thoughts on the relationship?

I too, liked the idea of discussing "personal relations" to the writers. Is
this not what it's all about after all? Improving relationships, situations,
mental states...? Personally I've fallen in love with Cixous and before her
V. Woolf. Writers such as these have inexorably altered my thinking...
Enough gush!

Sharon Sliwinski