I’ve been working hard on rewriting MARVEL AMONG THE DEMONS, Gentle Reader, and I find myself liking the book more this read-around than last time. Something you should know about me: I tend to reread voraciously while I’m working on a text (academic or creative), but the second it’s in print, I can’t read it again. I recently gave some students an essay of mine to read while teaching Delirium, and they giggled when I told them I hadn’t reread it, because I literally could not do it.
It makes me ill to reread my work once it’s published, and I don’t know why. I’m almost afraid of it, as if I’ll find mistakes, or disagree with myself, or anything at all.
But when rewriting? I read it constantly, over and over again, nitpicking. Elizabeth Bishop, the amazing poet, would pick at her poems every day, posting them on a bulletin board which she would work on whenever she passed it. I am firmly in the Bishop Camp, as it were. I like to pick.
So back to work I go, Friends, on this cold and blustery New Year’s Eve. Later, we are to see a movie, but for now, I’m going to enjoy my heater and work on Marvel.
The Postmodern Bluestocking 