ABSTRACT
When the creative artist is ready for it, the muse is there to inspire. But what if the creative artist is not ready, is in a funk, depressed, drugged, or ill? Then the muse must both rescue and inspire. I will discuss the experience of Saul Bellow as he presents himself as Chick in Ravelstein, his last novel (Bellow, 2000), which blurs the line between fiction and
reality. In choosing the name Chick (no last name) for himself, with connotations of “innocence, even infantility” (Atlas, 2000, p. 594)—or of a young woman, and the name “Ravelstein” (and not his first name, Abe) for both the title of the novel and its eponymous central character, Bellow tells us this book is not about me, the writer, but about Allan Bloom, the guru, the man who inspired the writer (Figure 7.1). Based on what we know of Bellow’s actual experience, Chick is in a funk over not being able to write a promised biography of his ailing friend, Ravelstein, and then becomes gravely ill himself (Atlas, 2000). Fortunately for Bellow/Chick, a muse in the form of his fifth wife, Rosamund (in reality, Janis Freedman), is there to rescue him. In his biographer James Atlas’s words,
Janis proved to be the wife Bellow had always longed for: steadfast, undemanding, utterly devoted to his needs . . . Janis was glad to do this work considering it her chosen role in life to be the great man’s guardian. She made sacrifices, subjugating her career to his, but her devotion was unwavering, and he depended on her as he had never depended on any of his previous wives.
