Earlier in his career, when he was under the spell of language and logos, he recreated himself more subtly and disembodied in the confrontational piece Tormented Self-Portrait (Susie at Arles) composed entirely of logos that have a personal meaning, as politics, daily life, obsession and distraction.
During a break from work on the next volumes in the series, Larkin spoke about what has become of his life obsession.
Or shall he bequeath them to the "Russian people," to be administered by an organization that propagates his late-in-life obsessions — a cultish neo-Christian, neo-socialist religion that runs communes, advocates passive resistance to violence, and renounces sexuality?
But this breathtakingly vindictive betrayal can be understood in relation to Shaw's real-life obsession with his leading actress.
As to "getting the history right," I used those very words in a book I wrote last year to describe an end-of-life obsession of a deceased Wall Street historian named Walter Werner, whose works alerted me to a little-known fact of our nation's history as I was researching the origins of stock exchanges.
And that quality-of-life obsession has encouraged the schools to compete for students with expensive new dorms, new gyms, student unions that resemble the one at Hogwarts etc., etc. David: I've spent a large part of the last few years accompanying my kids on college tours.
Mr. Reynolds called Cather's late-life obsession with privacy an "enduring mystery" but speculated that it reflected the ambivalence of a literary celebrity who was born in the age of Twain and lived almost into the age of Mailer and Pynchon.
Crosetti's fascination with the Lincoln assassination was based on Tom Fontana's real-life obsession with it.
It's not just "I'm going to check out something he does because I find him interesting" but also full-on, follow-every-last-detail-in-his-life obsession.
Inasmuch as there is also such a thing as Girl Snacks, and more generally, Girl Food, there is no such thing as a girl without issues, from little random guilts to life-consuming, life-ending obsessions about eating, which is just what it is, and not even something that I have the energy for right now because I had walnuts, a Cheesestring, and sugar-free licorice for dinner.
What is it?" John Banville on biographers' theories about Kafka's life and obsessions.
