dealing with it later

I was going to explain the reference to Quemoy, but Victoria beat me to it...not that there is a shortage of references in The Golden Notebook that I don't fully understand.  One of these references is in regard to Paul's work - "He specialised in leucotomies" (313).  Using the text, one can decipher that a leucotomy deals with the brain, operations, and irreversible changes in the patient.

According to the interwebs, a leucotomy occurs when the connections to the frontal lobe are severed.  This operation was very popular in the '40s and '50s for patients with severe psychotic or depressive illnesses; however, the operation is rarely performed now because in greatly increases epilepsy.

Once Paul explains what his job is, Ella is surprised, stating, "But you know when you've finished that operation, it's final, the people are never the same again?" (313).  This finality is something that seems to worry Ella, and consequently, Anna.  Both characters have a difficulty finishing things: affairs, jobs, friendships.  For Anna, especially in the case of her novel Frontiers of War, she can never be finished, because to be finished she would have to be happy with her work.  Anna continuously strives for the truth, for the most real writing she can achieve, but she struggles.  Anna tries for finality occasionally, but most often she is content to remain where she is.  The most striking description of Anna that describes her willingness to simply stay where she is just because is "But it seemed too much effort to leave it and find another" (293).  This quote comes from Ella, but the same quality of staying can be found in Anna.  For Anna and Ella, it is easier to live in the moment or in past moments.

 This is why I chose a picture of clutter to represent the novel so far.  The clutter is organized - like the notebooks, pushed aside yet still present - like the memories, and the clutter is not changing or going away - like Anna and Ella.