Erica Jong, an icon of second wave feminism wrote an autobiographical novel Fear of Flying which made her famous in 1973. Her candid depiction of women’s sexual desires was shocking at the time, boosting its sales to 20m copies. John Updike compared it to The Catcher in the Rye and Portnoy’s Complaint.
Her daughter Molly Jong-Fast has written a poignantly sad, insightful and strangely witty memoir about her mother, now suffering from dementia, and her own disjointed childhood.
“My mother was a famous feminist writer known for her candour and wit. But she was also a fantasist who couldn’t be bothered to spend time raising me.”
“My mother coined an expression for casual sex: the “zipless fuck”. Now think about being the offspring of the person who wrote that sentence.”
“The reason I knew Mom was a liar was because her story always changed. Sometimes it was one thing, then sometimes it was an entirely different story. This shifting reality, this strange post-truth ecosystem she inhabited, and that for a time I inhabited, too, made me completely unable to know what was real and what was a lie with her. It was a kind of gaslighting by proxy, like Munchausen syndrome, but somehow much, much stupider.”
“ My glamorous mom didn’t believe in the rules. Rules were for boring, unfamous people who balanced their cheque books. Rules were for normal people. My mother was not normal, nor did she want to be.”
“Between her divorce from my father (husband No 3) and her marriage to my stepfather (husband No 4), there were numerous fiances. I couldn’t help but envision each one as a possible father.”
“I had spent my entire life trying to get away from the loneliness of being abandoned by my parents.”
Erica Jong, born 26 March 1942 10.25 am New York, is an Aries Sun on the cusp of her 11th trine Pluto. With Venus in Aquarius conjunct her Midheaven from the 9th in a chilly, unpredictable square to Saturn Uranus in her 12th. Aquarius being a favourite sign of writers who focus on sex. Her Cancer Moon in her financial 2nd is the middle point of a trine between Saturn Uranus in Taurus trine a 4th house Neptune in Virgo. She also had a high-vitality, super-enthusiastic Mars Jupiter conjunct in Gemini in her 12th just above her Descendant.
Such a strong and troubled 12th house would need a degree of self-awareness to function well as a parent and her 4th house North Node hints strongly about the need to build solid emotional foundations rather than aim sky high for inflated ambitions. Clearly neither happened.
Erica Jong’s own mother Eda Mirsky, 10 December 1911, a painter and designer, was a complicated mix with her daughter. Eda had a Sagittarius Sun and Leo Moon which fitted well; but her Saturn and Mars in Taurus clashed badly with Erica’s Saturn Uranus conjunction. Down the generations it comes.
Molly Jong-Fast, born 19 August 1978, five years after Fear of Flying was published, now herself a novelist, journalist and political commentator, had a loving and protective nanny but that did not help her avoid obsessive-compulsive disorder, bulimia and an alcohol and cocaine addiction as she lurched through the constant chaos of her mother’s fame, remarriage, lovers and alcoholism. After rehab at 19, she has stayed sober since.
She is a Sun Leo conjunct Saturn in early Virgo with a super-determined Mars, Venus, Pluto conjunction in Libra and a sensitive Pisces Moon maybe square Neptune, trine Uranus and inconjunct Pluto. Emotionally fraught with bereft Moon issues.
Her relationship with her mother will be conflicted since Molly’s Jupiter is conjunct Erica’s Moon for forgiveness and good feelings. But Molly’s Leo Sun is square Erica’s Saturn Uranus making her feeling rejected and blocked out. Great and not so great.
She does seem to have risen above or rather worked her way through the chaos of her childhood to become perceptive and able to regard it with a degree of irony and wit.
Her mother sadly never seemed to recover from her later days of not being famous any longer.
“How to Lose Your Mother” by Molly Jong-Fast
The post Erica Jong – fear of growing up first appeared on Astroinform with Marjorie Orr – Star4cast.
