I think that’s that’s why I like DTWOF so much. When something bad happens it’s not the end of the world. When something good happens, it’s not the time to “spike the football and do a dance” because the next crisis could be around the corner.

You go on being complex Alison, but please budget some time to smile at the fact that now the Rest of the World sees what us fans have seen all along….

CONGRATULATIONS!

–Ray

I think there are probably way more talented & deserving people out there than can be famous, so why worry about why it’s your turn now — lots of stuff moved around recently, and you wrote a kick-butt book on what happens to have become a fairly mainstream topic! The only useful thing I ever learned in gym was a poster in the wrestling room (girls had to take wrestling in my highschool freshman year) “luck is when opportunity meets preperation”. So you can help make your own luck by trying to prepare & trying to make opportunities more likely, even though there’s always those chance elements too.

I do understand your ambivalence about being in the mainstream, though. After growing up first in an urban commune and then as a poor hippie in the country, it’s been a wierd, slow transition to where I am now–a grad student in English in the Ivy League. Even if I say that my values are the same, to what degree is my perception of what’s “normal” warped by those around me? If I’m trying to “get along” by dressing (to a certain degree) to fit in, not always speaking up when to do so would be really awkward, etc., when does my basic commitment to social justice become compromised? We are, after all, what we do much more than what we think. Supposedly I’m seeking presige because I want to do good work and because I’m hoping against hope to land a proper job with health insurance and a chance of tenure. But at my grandmother’s dinner party last week, we kids, who are doing prestigious school things, got lots of kudos from our granny’s ritzy neighbors, while our parents, whose hard work, dedication to social justice, and refusal to bow to the system get nothing but polite silence, because it involves working class jobs. As my sis, who’s becoming a doctor, has said, we’ve made different choices than our parents because we’ve experienced firsthand the effects of poverty and marginalization, and we’re trying to keep what was good about our parents’ commitment to social justice without the alienation effect. But can you really do that? Don’t I begin to make compromises not only in the way that I act but also in the way that I think? I still don’t know.
Anyway, thanks so much Alison for your wonderful art. It makes my life a better place to inhabit.

todd

i think that the fact you feel ambivalent– both happy about the attention fun home is receiving but uneasy (and skeptical) about its effects–
reflects exactly why I like your work so much. i would be disappointed if you weren’t uneasy about being recognized in the “cultural mainstream.” It is something to be critical of. the way that power functions and is structured in our society is something to continually question. i was reminded of this when the structures of capitalism seemed vitually transparent a couple of weekends ago at the pride parade in new york city.

that being said—you should in every way enjoy and be thrilled about your success. I really think your work is amazing (and I am obviously not alone). fun home is perhaps the only text in the world that references both proust and ulysses and not been embarrassingly pretentious about it!

It seems like you are already doing a great job finding a “middle way”–enjoy your success and the opportunities it may bring–but keep the critical awareness that makes your work unique and amazing.