"snakefiddler" wrote in message
...

...they *were* written specifically at the request of a patron.
nin was, as is evidenced by her unconventional lifestyle, an iconoclastic
,
(to borrow a word from the good counselor in the piedmont g), figure,
and
i think it is difficult for an author to write without exposing his or her
own experiences, attitudes, biases, etc., however deliberate or
un-deliberate.
and in spite of her patron's requests, she still managed to bring to the
work wonderful creativity, and imagry. the poetics lie therein.

I don't know enough about Anais Nin to even speculate about how much of
herself she injected (or allowed to leak) into her work. However, your
larger point is taken and whatever I, or anyone else, think of it we have to
proceed on the assumption that it's true or lit crit dies and with it we all
go the way of the Great Auk.

as for the customer liking it- who wouldn't ;-)

Liars......mostly.

Wolfgang