In Falling Through Space: The Journals of Ellen Gilchrist

The photographs truly constitute a separate section of the book, on a par with the others, because all the parts of the journals comment on, and inform, the other sections. Childhood feelings about the places where she grew up come through in the choice of writers and artists who influenced her. In the same way, childhood story ideas are still being developed forty years after they first occurred to Gilchrist. The photographs serve the book in much the same fashion. Rather than merely illustrating the texts, they offer a separate version of Gilchrist's autobiography--one that interacts on an equal basis with the other sections of the journal.

One excellent example of how the interaction between te

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of twelve blood relatives--are shown at stages ranging from infancy to old age. Not one of them shows even the slightest sign of being overweight. If a reader did not have these pictures to view, the impression of Gilchrist would be entirely different. It would be controlled only by her view of herself--which may be at odds with the way that others would see her. Gilchrist says she knows that "the way I'm thinking about this problem has been imposed on me from without" (97). But the lack of adult pictures seems to indicate that she is far from resolving a problem with her own body-image. In a way, the weight obsession is similar to the issue of money. Where she concentrates in detail on a weight problem that may be partially imagined, she carelessly sets aside the whole question of how she earns a living--even though she talks about money at several points. Gilchrist goes into great detail about her working process. These are some of the most interesting sections of the book, and she appears to be deeply committed to the difficult, often unrewarding process. But, the reader keeps wondering how she can afford to keep moving around, and yet have no visible source of income except her books, stories, and a few talks and br
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Approximate Word count = 1942
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)