Questions on Heti

April 13, 2015 | 2 Comments

Sheila Heti, in the introduction writes, “In this way, I should be satisfied with being famous to three or four of my friends. And yet it’s an illusion. They like me for who I am, and I would rather be liked for who I appear to be, and for who I appear to be, to be who I am” (pg. 3). What is Heti trying to say here? Does she wish to be more famous and popular, hence the book is divided into acts, similar to a play, in which she is the leading actress? Or can we look at her second statement, in which she desires her life and relationships to have a transparency between who she seems to be and who she really is?
Heti repeatedly expresses her fear of divorce, yet in the end she divorces her husband after three years of marriage (pg. 20).

Was her fear of divorcing, a self-fulfilling prophecy? Is there anything she could have done to ensure that her marriage lasted?
Can we consider How Should A Person Be, an overshare? Does Heti overshare about her relationship to her husband and friends, or after reading other books of overshare, can we argue that Heti is under-sharing?

Comments

2 Comments so far

Patricia Wadsley on April 14, 2015 4:34 pm
Miriyam,

I think Sheila Heti structures this as a play to heighten the unreality of her “constructed reality.” I think she also shows this through second guessing her feelings in different places, showing that feelings and personality are ephemeral. After each incident, at the close of each ac, she becomes a different person.
Lisa Rodriguez on April 14, 2015 5:17 pm
#3. The overall book is not an overshare, however the ‘Interlude for F..king” was definitely an overshare. The obsession with Israel’s manhood is uncomfortable. Her details about being with him appear rather obsessive, ” Or is it impossible to have any dignity unless you are getting nightly reamed by Israel?”, “Enjoy what you can of life without the magnificent c..k of Israel”. To me, I find the vulgarity of her thoughts to be an overshare.