ABSTRACT
I never see that prettiest thing— A cherry bough gone white with Spring— But what I think, “How gay ’twould be To hang me from a flowering tree.” “Cherry White,” Dorothy Parker Most readers familiar with Dorothy Parker’s fiction and poetry encounter themes of death and dying thrown off or inimitably lanced by the woman humorist’s famous sarcasm. In the same way, those who come to an understanding of Parker through the filter of biographical texts and discourse inevitably face interpretative reports of her attempted suicides. Readers are often led to assume that this talented and exceptionally witty woman expended herself in verbal wisecracking, party repartee, and heavy drinking, wasting resources otherwise better spent in “serious” work. For instance, Robert Altman’s film production of Parker’s life, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), directed by Alan Rudolph, is largely informed by the mythos of the failed serious artist. At two points in the film, at least, male figures tell Parker (Jennifer Jason Leigh) that she should think about how she is expending herself. As Charles MacArthur (Matthew Broderick) begins to seduce her, he tells her he lied when he told her that she was his favorite writer. He dismisses the “fluff” she has written, and then casually admonishes her, “If I were you, I’d worry.” Later in the film, a young, bearded psychoanalyst advises her during a party with her Algonquin cronies. Remarking on the excessive time her friends spend in entertaining and being entertained, he comments that the “serious side of your nature is lost, and then you can’t write. Life is something more than being able to breathe.” Parker replies, “Do I have to believe that to feel better?”
