The Time & Space Defying Achievement of Writing About Motherhood with Rachel Cusk

On making a record of something and the representation of mothering in literature and art

It has been a few weeks filled with proofing the book, sending out endorsement requests, beginning to figure out how this book will make its way into the world, and general life upheaval thrown into the mix that I have yet to wrap my head around so this is a short one from me today. I am still working on the piece about two recent studies on motherhood and language and will hopefully have that ready for you soon but until then, I want to discuss a video from CHANEL that popped up on my social media.

It is part of Les Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon, a.k.a. a round table discussion with incredibly beautiful people including Rachel Cusk, Naomi Campbell, Charlotte Casiraghi and author and critic Erica Wagner. (It is also part of CHANEL’s podcast series if you want to hear the full version.)

From the CHANEl Literary Rendez-vous via Russh.

I want to begin by highlighting this space is Karl Lagerfeld’s personal library! Oh the dream although, I am not keen on the way the books are stacked. I am much more of a vertical stacker. But yes, who cares I would take it in a heartbeat! The four women were there to discuss Cusk’s work and in the 10-minute clip I saw (I am not sure if CHANEL will release the entire video at a later date), the focus was on Cusk’s A Life’s Work, the 2001 memoir about motherhood that was years ahead of its time and a book that Cusk says resulted in many vicious reactions, especially from other women.

Here is something I wrote on Instagram about the book after seeing Cusk at the Southbank Centre in London a couple of years ago:

meaningofmama

A post shared by @meaningofmama

An edited version of that Insta caption:

Cusk is of course the brilliant author of more than a dozen books, but even if you haven’t read her fiction, it is likely you’ve heard of “A Life’s Work”, her 2001 memoir about becoming a mother. If you haven’t read it, do & then read about how much criticism Cusk received, some of it vicious after honestly writing about motherhood when almost no one was writing about mothering yet.
 
More than 20 years have passed, Cusk’s children are grown, she has written so many other things, but of course I wanted her to talk about parenthood, mothering & “A Life’s Work” last night…Cusk said it was when she became a mother that she learnt the “language of reprimand” & how it was exactly the time of “preformation of language”. The fascinating discussion then turned toward her exploration of what potential does the body have for non-language (this is in the context of Second Place where there is a focus on the abstract & painting rather than language).“Mother is language!” Cusk proclaimed before confirming she did believe writers are created by mothers (also from the novel where she says painters are created by fathers).

In the CHANEL clip, Casiraghi talks about how much A Life’s Work moved her, Campbell discusses single motherhood and reads from Cusk’s books, and Wagner directs the interactions with unparalleled authority. But I want to draw your attention to 5:30 and my favourite part: Cusk talking about how writing about motherhood, especially as a mother of young children, is a “time and space defying achievement”. Cusk says:

“If you have a small child, writing is about the last thing you are able to do…For me, what A Life’s Work really represents is this sort of time and space defying achievement of writing it, of actually writing it. The fact that so much representation is about making a record. You ask yourself what is the point of painting this picture or writing this book but if you do it as it needs to be done, as it’s meant to be done, you have made a record of something and maybe it will take a long time for the value of that to become apparent and for me, the fact that the record exists is something to be proud of.”

In my book, I write about the irony of writing about my children and their multilingualism while I, my children’s only consistent Polish input, is away from them, writing about them and their often lack of Polish input! This is true of any mother, likely away from her children or at least not in their immediate presence if they are napping, writing about her children. It is time and space defying to write as a mother, on any subject. But as Cusk reiterates, when we write, and especially write about motherhood, it is a record and records are important, they are meaningful, and they matter. Representation matters and it too is important and meaningful. Twenty years later, Cusk’s record not only still matters but perhaps more now than ever.

Let this be your pep talk about record-making and representation and writing and creating as a mother, whether it is about motherhood or not.

Thank you for reading and here is the video:

Oh and as someone who has been finding unexpected solace in fashion recently (I should maybe add “again” as I worked as a fashion journalist for many years), perhaps something I will write more about soon, I also love the discussion about the “language of fashion”.