The thing about this blog is that everything here is a first draft, for better or worse. I would never present professional work in the manner that I dash it off here, although I used to do exactly that. I’ve learned over time that writing is rewriting. Rereading is also reading, which creates a special problem for a site devoted to instant analysis of material I’ve often just read for the first time and have taken no time to digest.
It usually works out ok, but occasionally I have to go back and clean up something I got wildly wrong. I’m starting to fear that’s the case for everything I posted during my Jung series. I casually went back and read one of my pieces yesterday and thought “this is gibberish!” Maybe I’m a little fatigued now and the original is fine, but what I read was off in a disturbing way, I couldn’t recognize myself in it.
UPDATE: I was concerned about one piece in particular, and I put a preamble on top that explained my problems with it. But overall, I think the Jung/Anima pieces hold up fine, they aren’t in need of substantial rewriting. The fears expressed below don’t read true to me this morning. I think what happened here is that I just felt a bit of revulsion yesterday at how much this anima discussion returned me to subject matter that I hoped to be done with. Maybe it helped me heal some more, maybe it was self inflicted pain. I really don’t know anymore, but I no longer find the concept helpful as an explanation or distancing mechanism.
That might seem like a strange concept for a speechwriter and ghostwriter, whose job it is to be a chameleon. I do adapt styles often and readily. But I still can see parts of me in the text. In the Jung parts I re-read, I can’t follow my train of thought and that’s unusual. It felt like I was being possessed in this work.
So over the next few days, I’m going to go back and rewrite that series as necessary. I won’t push any of the revision to the top of the blog, you’ll need to search them out yourself, but if I run across any interesting meta-insights, I’ll post about them and link back.