![]() ![]() To have both, surely, is an insult to Freud’s theory of sublimation, which holds that artists give up money, fame, and beautiful lovers for their art, through which they hope to win-yes, you will have guessed it-money, fame, and beautiful lovers. But good looks in a woman, especially an intellectually gifted woman, can seem more than a touch anomalous: it is almost as if beauty would make a woman’s possession of intellectual ability appear surprising. Good looks in a man, especially in a man doing intellectual or artistic work, can prove a mixed blessing they can issue in narcissism or petty vanity and often even suggest an underlying weakness. ![]() Only those two qualities, good looks and intelligence, can take on a very different significance in a woman. “I had the two second things, though, good looks and intelligence.” Mary McCarthy (1912-89), like Fitzgerald-like him, too, in being half-Irish on her father’s side-could say the same. “I didn’t have the two top things-great animal magnetism or money,” F. ![]()
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