Scott Eric Kaufman has written two good posts about Mad Men at the Valve, but I want instead to pull what he quotes from Gertrude Stein’s Everybody’s Autobiography, because it is true and because Gavin will like it:
Identity is funny being yourself is funny as you are never yourself to yourself except as you remember yourself and then of course you do not believe yourself. That is really the trouble with an autobiography you do not of course really believe yourself why should you, you know so well so very well that it is not yourself, it could not be yourself because you cannot remember right and if you do remember right it does not sound right and of course it does not sound right because it is not right. You are of course never yourself.
If anyone was ever equal parts Jacques Derrida and William James, it was Gertrude Stein.
One comment
That is such a great quote. I feel like I want to hear some comedian with a distinctive voice say it, not too fast, not too slow. Not Woody Allen, that’s cliched. Maybe Stewart? Maybe Whoopi Goldberg? Yeah, Whoopi Goldberg would be great.