Small World

Just finished watching Campion's biopic of the reclusive, shy, and nervous New Zealand ginger author, Janet Frame: An Angel at My Table. I had seen bits of this film in 1989 and had been fascinated by Frame's horrifying stay at a mental ward where JUST as they were about to give her a lobotomy won a literary award and was freed. I couldn't deal with this movie and avoided it for years because I knew it would be painful to watch. At UMass I wrote my honor's thesis on a closed down mental institution--but fictionalized it, and had Frame in mind (also Robert Pirsig). Then, a few years later I wrote my M.A. with a chapter on John Money, the doctor who coined "gender identity." Just wikipediaed Frame and found out Money and Frame were friends.