Erato Throws a Curve: Anaïs Nin and the Elusive Feminine Voice in Erotica

Abstract

Gore Vidal opens his non-fiction novel Two Sisters with a trenchant, although not kind or even quite fair, caricature of Anaïs Nin as Marietta Donegal. ‘Despite my protests’, the book begins, ‘Marietta revealed her breasts …’ ‘They still look awfully nice,’ the character Gore Vidal says, ‘but I think you’d better cover up.’ She answers:‘You were always such a prude.’ With a brisk shake … she returned the relics of our past association to her blouse. Released from Marietta’s spell, one workman dropped a bucket and looked to heaven for a sign while the other, eyes shut, gripped his genitals — in Italy a common gesture and not, as foreigners think, a sign of lewdness or lice but a way of touching base in order to ward off the evil eye.Marietta often has that effect on men.1