Marilyn would have been a Blogger

Marilyn would have been a blogger.

You'd have thought that books about Marilyn Monroe had been done to death but this week I read reports of two new ones 'The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog', and 'Fragments'.

The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his Friend Marilyn Monroe by Andrew O'Hagan - This dog's-eye view of Marilyn Monroe riffs on fame, loneliness and death but gives only impressionistic glimpses of the actress herself his Friend Marilyn Monroe, by Andrew O'Hagan' (Sarah Churchwell)

O'Hagan does Marilyn the justice of making her kind, humorous and sharp-witted – which, by all but most the mean-spirited accounts, she was. She also called a spade a spade: when a young writer preaches communism, she replies: "That's the way Arthur talks in his plays. But I don't know about real life. He always seemed pretty interested in money to me." Refreshingly, O'Hagan doesn't present Marilyn as a cautionary tale or an object of pity. He understands that she spent her life trying to earn respect, and clearly intends this book as a tribute. But if there was one thing Marilyn recognised, it was a dubious compliment. Arthur Miller once offered Marilyn a "valentine" in the shape of a story about her called "The Misfits". She divorced him soon after. As Monroe herself quipped, "Dogs never bite me. Just humans."

Miller said of 'Misfits', 'I wrote this for Marilyn. It's about the inability of people to relate to each other in any secure way. It's about the tragedy of separation.'

'Fragments' is Marilyn's own work and has been described as a 'collection of previously unseen diary entries, jottings and poems which were inherited by a friend of Marilyn's. It is said that 'There is a certain melancholy tone throughout the book, and what is very beautiful in some of the notes is the way you see the association between ideas, even if they are quite scattered all over the page.

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A dumb blonde Marilyn certainly wasn't although she cleverly played that role to perfection. She was a sex symbol with a brain and one of her husbands was Arthur Miller, a playwright and Pulitzer Prize winner. Their relationship was brief but Marilyn was certainly inspired by Miller. And Miller? Obviously hugely attracted by her luminous beauty but he was also impressed by her sensitivity and wit. When they first met he suggested that she take acting seriously, consider taking acting lessons and set her sights on something more than being the eye candy in films. He talked to her about acting in the theatre and Marilyn, listened. She said later 'I didn't see him again for about four years. I used to think he might see me in a movie and I wanted to do my best because he had said he thought I ought to act on the stage. People who were around and who heard him, laughed, but he said, 'No, I'm very sincere.'

It's funny how a brief chance meeting with someone can impact your on life and stay with you for many years. So much so that in the middle of doing your own thing and getting on with your life they will pop into your head and you replay the conversation you had or the experience you once shared.

It seems this meeting inspired Marilyn to sign up for a University of California extension course in literature and art in February 1951. Miller sent her a reading list. Marilyn also enrolled in the Actors Studio. Marilyn and Miller started to meet in secret and it wasn't long before they were discovered to be having an affair. They eventually had a short lived marriage.

'Fragments' has some poetry written by Marilyn which has been described as 'quite beautiful, lines that stop you in your tracks'. Just like Marilyn then. A conversation Marilyn had with a interviewer shortly after he had seen Miller:

Marilyn was curious and concerned about him. 'What else did he say?' she asked.
I told her how we'd parted that day, thinking that the story would amuse her.
Arthur Miller had asked me: 'Where are you going now?'
I had told him and he said that he had to go that way, too, and offered me a lift. He pulled an overcoat over his sloppy cardigan and we went out into the street.
The icy wind whipped off Central Park. We buttoned up our overcoats and went in search of a taxi.
'I must get somebody to sew a button on this coat. It's been off for weeks,' he said.
There was a silence on the line. Then Marilyn said: 'That is so poignant. That is beautiful. It says so much about the end of a marriage. I want to cry. I will write a poem about that missing button.'

Some Marilyn quotes:

I restore myself when I'm alone.

I've never dropped anyone I believed in.

It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone - so far.

It's often just enough to be with someone. I don't need to touch them. Not even talk. A feeling passes between you both. You're not alone.

A career is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold night.

A sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing.

Before marriage, a girl has to make love to a man to hold him. After marriage, she has to hold him to make love to him.

Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one is tired, hurt and bewildered.

Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting then being one.

Fame will go by and, so long, I've had you, fame. If it goes by, I've always known it was fickle. So at least it's something I experience, but that's not where I live.

First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.

Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it.

I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one.

I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent.

I have too many fantasies to be a housewife. I guess I am a fantasy.

It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.

My work is the only ground I've ever had to stand on. I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation but I'm working on the foundation.

Sex is a part of nature. I go along with nature.

What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.

Not bad for a dumb blonde eh?

Marilyn would have been a Buddhist.