In the 1999 picture Girl, Interrupted, Winona Ryder stars as Susanna, a girl diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder after chasing a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka to cure her “headache.” It’s no wonder she had a “headache” when one considers the people who surrounded her: a mother who used college as a finishing school to marry well and become Susie Homemaker and a guidance counselor who doesn’t consider writing a career.
Susanna gets sent to Claymore, a mental hospital for a “rest” where she learns that telling the therapists what they want to hear is the ticket to freedom. At her final evaluation, when asked what her long-term plans are she once again is treated like writing is a nothing pursuit.
It is said that “The pen is mightier than the sword.” yet the pen never gets any respect. Well I say there are only two things that bring about change in the world: the pen and the sword. Persons possessing one or the other keep the world in balance. Persons possessing neither are drones but persons possessing both are seats of true power. Beware the writer who bears a sword!
