Representations of Women Writers in Film, Fiction, Memoirs

Okay, I thought I would do a post on how marriage was like The Hunger Games. But I’ll save that for another day, because yesterday there was a sneaky snake attack by my little lake full of ducklings – a four-and-a-half foot black snake charged me out of nowhere, which has never happend to me before – and I was on a wet grassy bank, so I jumped, fell, sprained my ankle, pulled my knee and bruised my spine. (Ouch – sleeping last night wasn’t pleasant! But thank goodness I had an appointment with my physical therapist, who was able to check my injuries and tape up my knee and ankle. Anyway, this all leads to the fact that I’ve been reading and listening to books non-stop.

So, we watched “The Squid and The Whale” – which critics just loved, but I just felt “meh” about – I kind of hated the representation of the tarty, successful writer/mother character and I thought the kids were awfully whiny – I mean, those writers/parents weren’t winning any parenting contests, but then, I think I know a lot of x-er childhoods that were a lot more traumatic (including my own, almost all of my friends and most of those closest to me.) Then I was reading “Z – a Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald” – I just saw the new Gatsby movie, which I loved, but I  conflated – I think incorrectly – Zelda and Daisy from Gatsby, so I had Fitzgeralds on the brain – and doing some research on her life, discovered she died, rather pathetically, in a sanatorium fire at the age of 48 with eight other women. And you know I’ve been reading Flannery’s letters, yes, funny and tough, but who died at 39 of complications from lupus – and I’m reading two books on Sylvia Plath, Pain, parties, work : Sylvia Plath in New York, summer 1953 and Mad Girl’s Love Song, which are both about Sylvia life as a young woman. And we all knew what happened to her. Sigh.

I just wish there were some representations of happy, balanced women writers somewhere – in fiction, film, memoir….I was thinking that maybe the closest I come to healthy role models are Margaret Atwood and AS Byatt – both well known for their grumpiness but also fairly old and not that tragic! Can you think of some positive fictional or memoir representations of women writers? How about films? I think every film I’ve ever seen in which a woman writer appeared, the writer was a. tragic/pathetic b. deeply neurotic or c. a love interest, not a main character. How am I supposed to do this woman-writer thing with everyone dying young or going crazy? Help me out! I’m stuck inside and need something cheerful to watch/read to inspire me!