Anias Nin at work in Los Angeles, 1963
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” -Anias Nin
I’m not gonna lie, I first heard of Anias Nin through a Jewel song. Yeah, that’s right, I actually still have a soft spot for Jewel, but that’s a story for another time… Right now, let’s talk about the iconoclastic Ms. Nin. A prolific diarist, novelist, and writer of erotica, Nin’s self-reflective, deeply honest prose is remarkable for the way it all at once captures the essence of her era and the influential literary circles she ran in while remaining timeless. I mean, isn’t it uncanny how her words above ring so true today and yet you could probably imagine them having been written back in the Elizabethen Era as well?
One of the things I find most striking about Nin is that she survived childhood incest and grew up to become a pioneer of female erotica — talk about taking control of your narrative and rewriting your own story. Not only this, but her entire body of work is filled with incredibly eloquent messages of women’s empowerment, serving as a reminder that the written word can be all at once titillating, entertaining, and inspiring. I think she was a pioneer of the #metoo movement before it had a hashtag. May we all be as bold as Anias this week and always. xo
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