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Type: fiction
Status: —
Author: Jean Nathan
Tags: nonfiction american art mental.illness bio
Description: I've been reading "The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll," a biography about a children'sI've been reading "The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll," a biography about a children's author and photographer named Dare Wright. The book is a little bit Freudian, but I can't see how it could not be given Dare's life. When Dare's father left them, Dare's mother gave her brother to a relative in the hopes that his father would come get him. The boy was about five years old. Then Dare's mother, a painter, took Dare and went on to become a famous portrait painter (she painted Winston Churchill on commission amongst others). Dare lived her entire life with her mother and never married. When she was in her 20s she met her long lost brother and she and her brother fell in love and made plans to get married before they realized it was inappropriate. Then her brother tried to find an appropriate man for her to take his place, but that didn't work out because he got tired of waiting for Dare, who apparently was scared of anything even remotely sexual (including being kissed politely -- she literally ran away screaming). Anyhow, this woman Dare, goes on to create a series of books based on her doll and the books invariably involved the doll being very forlorn, transgressing a parental authority with a brotherly bear and then getting spanked for it and ending with everyone promsing to always love each other and never leave. The author of the biography theorizes that Dare's fears are caused by her overbearing mother who took nude pictures of her and slept in the same bed with her all her life.
The woman, Dare, reminds me quite a bit of an older lady at my parent's church who wanted to adopt me and be my Godmother. She's a very strange woman. The first time she met Sara was when we went to see my little sister's baptism and she says to Sara, "Are you baptized?" Not "Hello, nice to meet you," but "Are you baptized?" I don't remember her answer, but Sara was a quite taken back by the question.
Anyhow, this woman wears a virginity ring on her wedding finger that is looks like a belt with a buckle in the middle. And she's well into her late 70s or early 80s. Once when I was on nursery duty in high school she came and described how angry she was that there was no place for a single fun-loving person in the older "agape" class and that the people there were all too bitter and worn out. She even pointed her strange ring out to me again at my bridal shower after I showed her my engagement ring. She says she wants to marry a virgin.
One time in my freshman year of college, when I was still living alone, I went to her house for tea. She had a real working radio from the late 40s or very early 50s in her kitchen that she used to listen to religious broadcasts. Her whole house, she said, hadn't changed since her mother had died (they both lived together) -- and I could tell it was true, same curtains, same doilies for the chair backs, everything. The only thing that was new was her doll collection. She collects huge porcelin dolls and puts them around the house. During the holidays she dresses them in costumes and arranges them into various themed scenarios. My mom saw it once and declared the lady psychotic; I just found it curious.
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