“The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” by Michael Chabon (post 2): Author’s essay on writing this novel speaks of “writing self,” bisexuality, and help from “muse”

“Writing Self”

When he was soon to start an MFA program where students were expected to write novels, Chabon wondered, “Had the time come to leave my current writing self behind?” His phrase would seem to indicate that he distinguished between his writing self and his regular self, and that he felt he could change from one writing self to another.

By “writing self,” could Chabon merely have meant writing style? He did think about emulating the styles of various famous writers. But why, then, didn’t he speak of leaving his current writing style behind?

Especially in a person who is careful about his choice of words, I would interpret “self” as implying a personality state, so that having and changing selves would be equivalent to having, and changing among, alternate personalities.

Why, then, didn’t he speak of his current writing personality? Either he didn’t realize the connection between self and personality (as in multiple personality) or he knowingly used “self” as a euphemism.

Bisexuality?

Chabon, who has been married since 1993 with four children, says that back at the time in his life on which this novel is based: “I slept with one man whom I loved, and learned to love another man so much that it would never have occurred to me to want to sleep with him.”

I don’t know that Chabon has ever used the word “bisexual.” But he has said that people are difficult to categorize.

In posts last month, prompted by works of two other novelists, I discussed a possible connection between some instances of bisexuality and multiple personality, since many multiples have both male and female alternate personalities.

“Muse”

Referring to the time he started to work on this novel, Chabon jokingly speaks of getting “help” from a “ghost” or “muse.” Psychological truth is often spoken as if in jest. Spirits that “help” fiction writers, and are called “ghosts” or “muses,” are, in psychological terms, alternate personalities.

1. Michael Chabon. Author’s essay (2005) on writing The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988). New York, Harper Perennial, 1988/2005.