Marilyn – like ‘gradations of light’

Dear Susie,

We hope that you're doing well and wanted to send our love along with this great line from Joyce Carol Oates' Blonde – her extraordinary biography of Marilyn Monroe. Since it is fiction, this is what Oates envisioned but it seems pretty close to the truth. This is how the "Playwright" (Arthur Miller) talks about Marilyn in the book:

"The exquisite soft skin, the living envelope of her beauty. Like the sea, this beauty changed constantly. As if with light, gradations of light. Or the moon's gravitational pull. Her soul, mysterious and fearsome to him, was like a sphere precariously balanced atop a jet spray of water: tremulous, ever-shifting, now rising, now descending, now rising again..."

Isn’t this wild!

Love,

Katherine and Angie

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Dear Katherine and Angie,

Yes, Blonde is the most wonderful and disturbing book. It is so completely pertinent today, as Hollywood is torn apart! But what a description of Marilyn’s mercurial beauty. My God. And so true! Her skin – “the living envelope of her beauty” Wow.

I am so happy that you and other people are sending these letters and thoughts and contributing to the Stuff Page. I was always had in my mind that the Stuff Page would ultimately become a repository of beauty for us all! A page of collective wisdoms! I am so happy to receive these letters.

Much love to you both,

Susie x