The anorexics attraction to the stories of Holocaust victims could be seen as yet another symptom of her reading disorderconsuming descriptive texts as prescriptive. But it actually reveals a more structural condition of the starving mind: one that is rooted in obsessive fixation and decontextualization, allowing a single feature of the human body to stand in for the totality of ones self-worth, like a synecdoche. Or one that lets the signs of starvation, in Auschwitz or Utah, stand in for one another, like a metonymy.
This kind of substitutive logic appears in early case histories of anorexia. In 1919, Ellen West, an anorexic and bulimic patient of the psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger, wrote out her thought pattern as an equation: Eating = being fertilized = pregnant = getting fat. Such symbolic displacement is the bread and butter of Freudian psychoanalysis; it should also be familiar to the average solver of a crossword puzzle. The clue and the answer in a crossword must be perfect substitutions for each other. The clue can be straightforward: three letters for Consume (Answer: EAT), or it can play on linguistic misdirection: three letters for Not fast (Answer: EAT). The potential for words to mean so much with so little context is the puzzlers great pleasure.
Before I entered rehab, I wanted to treat my eating disorder as a puzzle to be solved. My body had become a glaring symbol that was at once obvious to others and totally inscrutable to me. I was a walking sign of misery and virtue, slow death and supremacy (over my appetite, over other women), self-erasure and self-display. I felt an almost melancholic disappointment in my inability to produce the key (some repressed trauma, some psychosexual dilemma) that I could use to cure myself.
In case histories of anorexics from the first half of the twentieth century, the patient, who is nearly always a woman, becomes a puzzle for her psychiatrist, who is nearly always a man. The key to solving the puzzle usually lay in the equation of food and sexuality: two common solutions were the fear of pregnancy, as with Ellen West, and the repressed desire for fellatio. In 1942, the psychiatrist Ruth Moulton suggested that the anorexic rejects slimy foods because they remind her of semen, or because she wants to be force-fed to satisfy a fantasy for oral sex. The former is sexually timid; the latter demonstrates sexual aggression. At once too frigid and too promiscuous within the terms of early psychoanalysis, the anorexic girls appetitesfor sex, for food, for ambitionwere a threat to the cultural order.
In the same period that anorexic women became a source of medical suspicion, the crossword puzzle became an object of cultural hysteria. Newspapers and magazines from the nineteen-twenties and thirties warned of a crossword craze gripping the countrys minds. Hotels considered placing a dictionary next to the Bible in every room; telephone companies tracked increased usage, as solvers phoned friends when stuck on a particularly inscrutable clue; baseball teams feared that Americas pastime would be usurped, the grid to replace the diamond. The passion for crosswords was described as an epidemic, a virulent plague, and a national menace.
Much of the outcry focussed on the puzzles trivializing waste of brainpower. In 1925, Arthur Brisbane wrote, in his syndicated column, Young people who want to increase their vocabulary should not deceive themselves with crosswords. Let them read Shakespeare. Others feared that the puzzle was a threat to the family unit. A host of divorces in Ohio were said to have been caused by the daily crossword, with the manager of one legal-aid association claiming to have received an average of ten letters a day from wives who have to remain at home these evenings just because their husbands are suffering from crossword puzzleitis. Like an emotional affair, the crossword seemed to be siphoning off energy and intimacy from married life.
This square vice, as the Daily Princetonian called it, became a locus for anxiety about a movement that was explicitly changing American gender relationsfirst-wave feminism. The earliest innovators of the puzzles form were women: in 1914, the first crossword puzzle published under a byline was created by Mrs. M.B. Wood; in 1929, Mildred Jaklon, the founding puzzle editor of the Chicago Tribune, pioneered the crossword contest; and, in 1934, Mrs. ElizabethS. Kingsley invented the Double-Crostic puzzle (or the acrostic, as its now called). In books, comics, and postcards from the time, the New Woman and the crossword puzzle became linked as flouters of Victorian gender conventions. Flora Annie Steels novel The Curse of Eve, published in 1929, is about two antiheroines who are making a living out of the craze for crossword puzzles. One is a fashionable beer heiress, with more bite and better business instincts than her brothers; the other is a cash-strapped dancer, who sees marriage as another form of prostitution. Both are depicted as simultaneously desexed (in the fullness of her bodily and mental powers she sits free of sex) and oversexed (with an unconscious desire to attract, unconscious desire to appropriate). Both are too great a puzzle for the modern man to grasp.
The dangerous fantasy of the puzzle woman is perhaps most famously registered in the 1925 novelty song Crossword Mama. A puzzling woman, she devotes herself to the crossword as a proxy for other fashions of the time. Like the flapper, she is liberated from the corsets and the customs of the Victorian age. A double-crosser, she is not to be trusted: You call me honeythat means bee!/Looks like Ill be stung no doubt. The conceit extends across nine verses: I heard you mention butcherthat means meat!/Who you gonna meet tonight? But, like the Sphinx before her, the Crossword Mama solicits a solution: Crossword Mama, you puzzle me, the chorus concludes. But Papas gonna figure you out.
There are hundreds of other Jazz Age relics that conflate the flapper and the crossword as icons of the Zeitgeist. In these images, the puzzle represents the enigma of female desire and fuels the intimacy between men and women in an otherwise chaste culture of heterosexual courtship. It allows verbal and physical taboos to be breached, as members of the opposite sex say four-letter words to each other, cuddling around the newspaper page. You naughty boyit couldnt be that word! reads the caption on a postcard featuring two young solvers, a blushing man and a woman clutching her breast. By the dual logic of the crossword craze, the woman is the puzzle, and the puzzle brings solvers closer to their desire. The puzzle, in other words, is a sex object.
A few months before I left for rehab, in 2010, my boyfriend persuaded me to start submitting my crosswords to the Times. Will Shortz, the newspapers longtime crossword editor, encouraged the submissions: if I was quick with my revisions, he said, I could be the youngest woman to publish a crossword in the papers history. (I wasnt that quick; I became the second youngest.) At the time, I didnt understand that I was an outlier in what has come to be known as the CrossWorld, a highly devoted, pun-loving set of mostly male, mostly STEM-educated speed-solvers and constructors.
My second puzzle appeared in the Times when I was in Paradise. (The staff drove to Logan, Utah, the nearest big city, to buy a copy of the print edition but couldnt find one.) The puzzles theme was Its all Greek to me, and its answers included words with Greek letters nested inside them. My inspiration came from the discovery that Freuds oral phase contained the Greek letter alpha; that answer was the puzzles 1-Down.
I would remain in Paradise for another three months. The occasionally punishing, often surreal conditions of rehab suited me. Food and body-image challenges that I was givenmeant to simulate life after treatmentbecame more tolerable and even amusing to me by the end of my stay: Surprise! Doughnuts for breakfast today; Group therapy will be done in bikinis today; No makeup today (easy for me); No hair-straightening today (harder, for a Jewish girl). When I checked out of the facility, after spending the better half of a year there, and returned home to New York City, my recovery was precarious but hard-won. I was learning to trust my bodys hunger cues and to reimagine my days in terms of opportunities and responsibilitiesnot willfully overdetermined by food rules and restrictions.
That fall, I returned to college, and during intractable periods of body dysmorphia, I retreated into the grid. Constructing crosswords remained a primary source of solace, but something had changed: I was beginning to be recognized for my work by the audience I had ambivalently courted in the pages of the Times. Other outlets, looking to diversify their bylines, solicited my puzzles. I was known not just as a constructor but as a woman constructor.
When I graduated, in 2013, Shortz offered to hire me as his assistant. I was reluctant to accept the post: resolutely committed to my newly stable recovery, I worried that giving my time over so fully to crosswords would somehow prove symptomatic of relapse. But I uncrossed the wirespuzzles disembodiment anorexia relapseand took the job. Four days a week, I rode the Metro-North train from the city to Pleasantville, New York, to join Shortz at his home office, a room flooded with crossword ephemera and walled with reference books, holdovers from his pre-Google editing days. I knew that I was benefitting from a kind of CrossWorld affirmative action: there were many young men creating crosswords, more prolific than I, a handful of whom even expressly wanted to be the next Will Shortz. But, if my appointment at the Times was political, so, too, was my output.
Excerpt from:
Escaping Into the Crossword Puzzle - The New Yorker
- NBC Has a Huge Opportunity with Law & Order: SVU's 25th Season - CBR - Comic Book Resources - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- Seeding a gay community in LA, the gay liberation revolution - Los Angeles Blade - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- Britney Spears's 'Baby One More Time' music video debuted on ... - Yahoo Entertainment - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- 13 Of The Greatest And Most Famous Britpop Bands - Hello Music Theory - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- The top advertising campaigns of 2023 according to Australian ... - AdNews - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- The 25 Best New Movies Streaming in November 2023 - TheWrap - November 30th, 2023 [November 30th, 2023]
- Jets' Aaron Rodgers 'attacking' rehab, eyes return this season - WABC-TV - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- ESG counteroffensive is missing big guns - POLITICO - POLITICO - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- The increasingly radical climate movement, explained - Vox.com - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- Imani Winds inspires with recital celebrating composers of color at ... - EarRelevant - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- The Super Models Tells the Story of the Original Fashion Influencers - AnOther Magazine - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- What constitutes a master? Don't ask Jann Wenner The Daily ... - Daily Free Press - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- The Conviviality of Ivan Illich (Part I) | by O.G. Rose | Oct, 2023 ... - Medium - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- SickKids unveils more future-focused VS campaign to match new ... - The Message - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- Top 6 Iconic Classic Rock Bands of the '60s - American Songwriter - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- Brent Harold: The renaissance of union logic - Arizona Daily Star - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- German bishops conclude tense gathering with all eyes on Synod ... - Catholic World Report - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- Slasher Saturdays: The Hills Have Eyes (1977) Vs. The Hills Have ... - Horror Obsessive - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- Listen to Scott Drebit Discuss His New Book A CUT BELOW: A ... - Daily Dead - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- Whitney Houston Hairstyles: Tribute to Her Unparalleled Elegance - PINKVILLA - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- Frosted Lipstick, Chunky Highlights & Thick Eyeliner: Every Beauty ... - New Zealand Herald - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- From Alphas To Betas: Science Says There Are Three Types Of ... - Evie Magazine - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- Russell Brand is a product of the horrifically misogynistic noughties - Prospect Magazine - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- The Enduring Magic of Lorde's Pure Heroine and HAIM's Days Are ... - Paste Magazine - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- Climate activists: How far is too far in raising the climate alarm? - Daily Maverick - October 3rd, 2023 [October 3rd, 2023]
- Pride Anthems at WHBPAC June 2nd at 8PM - Hamptons.com - May 28th, 2023 [May 28th, 2023]
- The illuminating influence of Eric Huntley - Peoples Dispatch - May 28th, 2023 [May 28th, 2023]
- Want Sofia Richie Style? Try These Cheap Nordstrom Finds - Who What Wear - May 28th, 2023 [May 28th, 2023]
- What will Saudi-Iran rapprochement mean for the Palestinians? - +972 Magazine - May 28th, 2023 [May 28th, 2023]
- EU as Arbiter of Ideological Elegance? The European Conservative - The European Conservative - May 28th, 2023 [May 28th, 2023]
- Catholic theology yesterday and today: A Thomist's response to Dr ... - Catholic World Report - May 28th, 2023 [May 28th, 2023]
- Andy Warhol exhibition coming to College of DuPage - Chicago Tribune - May 28th, 2023 [May 28th, 2023]
- COVER STORY | Arlo Parks Embraces the Intimacy of Aliveness - Paste Magazine - May 28th, 2023 [May 28th, 2023]
- The Number Ones: The Black Eyed Peas' Boom Boom Pow - Stereogum - May 28th, 2023 [May 28th, 2023]
- 7 First-time ASTRA Exhibitors You Don't Want to Miss This June - Gifts & Decorative Accessories - May 28th, 2023 [May 28th, 2023]
- Curator Lesley Lokko on the Venice Architecture Biennale: 'It's about ... - Financial Times - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- German revolution of 1848: A precursor to today's democracy - DW (English) - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The Hoxton, Lloyd Amsterdam to open 21st August 2023 - Hospitality Net - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Ruin America? Joe Manchin is just getting started. | Will Bunch ... - The Philadelphia Inquirer - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- How the MTV logo captured the creative spirit of the 1980s - Creative Bloq - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- I give up I cant do that: The song that made David Crosby want to quit music - Far Out Magazine - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- How We Loved and Lost the Hot Girl Summer - The Swaddle - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- 5 Laid Back Essentials From Faherty Prove The Hype - Fatherly - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- 'How to Blow Up a Pipeline' director Daniel Goldhaber explains the ... - The Real News Network - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The Totally Rockin' History of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem - Collider - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Was The Hunger Games Renaissance Planned All Along? - GameRant - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Michael J. Fox Looks Back on Hollywood Triumphs, Setbacks and Why Parkinsons Is the Gift That Keeps on Taking - Variety - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- It's Raining Ramen! A Brief History of Jewish Asian Fusion - Aish - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Ted Weber's Wesleyan Political Theology - Juicy Ecumenism - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- What do the British Royals and Cleopatra have in common? - Firstpost - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Pakistan Army won't bounce back easily this time. Imran Khan ... - ThePrint - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Five years since #MeToo, Tarana Burke is looking beyond the hashtag - Yahoo News - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- After Florence Pugh Freed The Nipple, Olivia Wilde Supported The Movement On New Magazine Cover - CinemaBlend - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Barbara Kay: The Movement to Normalize Pedophilia Hits a Roadblock, but We Mustn't Let Our Guard Down - The Epoch Times - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Is it Time to Decolonize Global Health Data? - Research Blog - Duke University - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Claire Foy Doesnt Think Women Talking Could Have Been Made Before #MeToo - Yahoo Entertainment - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Can the Congress rewrite its chronicle of a death foretold? - Scroll.in - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- We need a strong nationalist as a president - Daily Sun - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- The 19th Century Movement to Canonize Columbus - Catholic Exchange - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Audemars Piguet toasts 50 years of Royal Oak with new watches, book - New York Post - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Claire Foy Doesn't Think 'Women Talking' Could Have Been Made Before #MeToo - Yahoo! Voices - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Best Bets: 6 nights of live music at Wussow's and more - Duluth News Tribune - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Five Burning Questions: Bad Bunny Spends a 13th Week at No. 1 With Un Verano Sin Ti - Billboard - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- San Diego artist uses creativity to uplift Black culture and 'determine how we are seen' - The San Diego Union-Tribune - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- The Premier League at thirty - what should it sound like next? - Broadcast - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Steve Braunias on Peter Ellis case: 'Moral panic, contaminated evidence and an innocent ghost' - New Zealand Herald - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Constituency Statutes: The Overlooked Predecessor to the ESG Movement - JD Supra - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- 10 books to add to your reading list in October 2022 - Los Angeles Times - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- The Multiple Religions Coexisting Within the Catholic Church - Crisis Magazine - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- 2023 Oscar Predictions The Rules of the Game - Awards Daily - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Kathy Sheridan: Brace yourselves for where Giorgia Meloni and Italy end up - The Irish Times - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- The rise and fall of Sir Philip Green, the retail king who fell from grace - Evening Standard - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- The lying flat movement standing in the way of China ... - Brookings - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- Namwali Serpell Distills the Disorienting Experience of Grief in 'The Furrows' - Shondaland.com - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- Dance & House Music Ruled the Summer. What Now? - Complex - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- It is time to back a new party in the elections - Morning Star Online - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- The empty feminism of Dont Worry Darling - The Guardian - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Sunburn The morning read of what's hot in Florida politics 9.26.22 - Florida Politics - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- GOP candidate Trevor Lee ran a secret Twitter account that attacked LGBTQ people and Utah Gov. Cox. Now he's been rebuked by Republican leadership. -... - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Peeling Back the Slasher-Inspired Look of HBO Maxs Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin with Cinematographer Anka Malatynska - Dread Central - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]