Interesting article. I found the author's judgment against her great-great grandmother for giving up her child oddly lacking in the understanding of the horrific stigma unwed mothers faced more than a century ago. It is not unlikely that her great-great grandmother was coerced by societal forces to give up her child against her will. It seems potentially unfair to judge this woman as having "abandoned" her child.
I agree. She is spending so much time looking inside that she cannot imagine the lives of those outside of her. I found this to be a rather shallow, self indulgent piece and poorly edited. We’ve got the abandoned great grandmother, the challenges of being a disabled mother and then at the end, kind of randomly, the challenges of being disabled. It’s a blog post at best.
By the end of the extract, she makes it pretty clear that was a large part of what she’s exploring- the fact that she’s felt this ultimately unfair thing, how she faces similar unfair judgments due to her disability and how she’s judged herself because of it.
From the perspective of the child (whose understanding is the one that’s filtered down to the author through the family) it would be abandonment. That’s not entirely fair, of course. The author even seems to know that it isn’t fair.
This was a bit wallowing and self centered for my taste. It's also rather disjointed and really just abandons the initial premise after the first few paragraphs.
AdorableBG | a day ago
Interesting article. I found the author's judgment against her great-great grandmother for giving up her child oddly lacking in the understanding of the horrific stigma unwed mothers faced more than a century ago. It is not unlikely that her great-great grandmother was coerced by societal forces to give up her child against her will. It seems potentially unfair to judge this woman as having "abandoned" her child.
WinterMedical | a day ago
I agree. She is spending so much time looking inside that she cannot imagine the lives of those outside of her. I found this to be a rather shallow, self indulgent piece and poorly edited. We’ve got the abandoned great grandmother, the challenges of being a disabled mother and then at the end, kind of randomly, the challenges of being disabled. It’s a blog post at best.
Azazael | 23 hours ago
It's a book extract. I think whoever extracted it into this article grabbed paragraphs to string together but missed others that would give context.
AstarteOfCaelius | 13 hours ago
By the end of the extract, she makes it pretty clear that was a large part of what she’s exploring- the fact that she’s felt this ultimately unfair thing, how she faces similar unfair judgments due to her disability and how she’s judged herself because of it.
[OP] AlamutJones | a day ago
From the perspective of the child (whose understanding is the one that’s filtered down to the author through the family) it would be abandonment. That’s not entirely fair, of course. The author even seems to know that it isn’t fair.
Even so…
gingiberiblue | 12 hours ago
This was a bit wallowing and self centered for my taste. It's also rather disjointed and really just abandons the initial premise after the first few paragraphs.