One Art


BY PROF. VAROL AKMAN
Erica Jong

Every funeral, every wedding, every honeymoon (married or not), every bris or christening is an occasion for poetry -- and even in this epoch of sound bytes and MTV, people dig through tattered anthologies to find the fitting words.

Unlike some of my college buddies, I never had a chance to read "Fear of Flying" (1973). And I hope to eradicate this glaring -- even embarrassing -- omission from my life pretty soon. Nonetheless, for me Erica Jong will always be the poet who penned "Seventeen Warnings in Search of a Feminist Poem," which includes -- among others that cannot be printed here for reasons that have to do with the lexicon -- the following gems:

4 Beware of the man who wants to protect you;

he will protect you from everything but himself.

13 Beware of the man who picks your dresses;

he wants to wear them.

14 Beware of the man you think is harmless;

he will surprise you.

16 Beware of the man who writes flowery love letters;

he is preparing for years of silence.

"Fear of Flying" was Jong's debut novel. A candid and playful work about the adventures and misadventures of a young woman, it has sold over 25 million copies in more than three dozen languages. The heroine, Isadora Wing, also appeared in ensuing books, e.g., "How to Save Your Own Life" and "Parachutes and Kisses." Jong's memoir, "Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life," was published in 2006. Jong has written eight novels, six volumes of poetry and six books of nonfiction. She was honored with the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature, and has received Poetry magazine's Bess Hokin Prize (also won by Sylvia Plath), France's Deauville Award for Literary Excellence and Italy's Sigmund Freud Award for Literature.

Jong (née Mann) was born on March 26, 1942, in New York City. She grew up on Manhattan's Upper West Side as the second daughter of a Jewish family. Her mother was a painter whose parents had emigrated from Russia. Her father was a songwriter who became a businessman. Jong recalls an intellectual and busy childhood with piano and skating lessons, summer camps and art school. ("When I first saw Woody Allen's 'Hannah and Her Sisters,' I thought he was writing about me.") She attended New York's esteemed High School of Music and Art. She got a bachelor's degree in English from Barnard College (1963) and an MA from Columbia University (1965). In Columbia's graduate writing program, she studied poetry with Stanley Kunitz and Mark Strand. She left Columbia before finishing her doctorate in order to focus on "Fear of Flying." She has taught at Ben Gurion University, Bennington College, Breadloaf Writers' Conference in Vermont and several other writing programs and universities.

In 2007, Columbia's Rare Book & Manuscript Library acquired Jong's archive. On that occasion Jong said, "The archive shows my development as a poet, the explosion of celebrity after 'Fear of Flying,' my difficulty in surviving that peculiar fame and my determination to get back to work as a literary writer. My first novel, a literary work with satirical and comic elements, perhaps became famous for the wrong reasons - sex, sex, and sex - but I was able to return to my roots as a poet and serious novelist and move forward."

*

On life: Jong likes to quote Arthur Miller, "When life disappointed me, I always had my writing."

On writing: "I was very lucky to earn a living as a writer. I know how hard it is. One year you make money and the next five, nothing. So, I've always fought for writers."

On transcendence: "We think we'll find it with wine, with coke, with whatever. Creativity is such a weird thing, you can't control when it comes. 'Alice in Wonderland' is such a perfect parable for this. We really want that little bottle that says 'Drink me,' and as artists we often have to go through that process."

On mothers: "Jewish mothers want you to write nice things about the Jews, why make them look bad. And Catholic mothers are the same -- don't criticize the Pope, our religion has been persecuted, so please write nice things. All of which conflicts with a writer's emotional makeup and respect for their experiences."

On marriage: When Barbra Streisand asked her why she had always remarried, Jong replied, "You gotta trust somebody, Barbra." (Jong has been married four times.)

NOTES

The opening quote is from the preface of "Becoming Light: Poems New and Selected" (1991). (Bris is the Jewish rite of circumcision.) Jong's tips for writers appear in her official website, www.ericajong.com. The remaining quotes are from two interviews, one by George Christy for The Nob Hill Gazette (May 2006), the other by Julie Bloom for The New York Post (March 26, 2006).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The original suggestion to treat feminist authors came from a friend whose counsel I am always grateful for.

Erica's 20 Rules for Writers
1. Have faith - not cynicism
2. Dare to dream
3. Take your mind off publication
4. Write for joy
5. Get the reader to turn the page
6. Forget politics (let your real politics shine through)
7. Forget intellect
8. Forget ego
9. Be a beginner
10. Accept change
11. Don't think your mind needs altering
12. Don't expect approval for telling the truth - (Parents, politicians, colleagues, friends, etc.)
13. Use everything
14. Remember that writing is Heroism
15. Let Sex (The Body, the physical world) in!
16. Forget critics
17. Tell your truth not the world's
18. Remember to be earth-bound
19. Remember to be wild!
20. Write for the child (in yourself and others)

There are no rules
Erica Jong