
What Makes a Waif? - drjohnson
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n17/joanne-oleary/what-makes-a-waif
======
JasonFruit
I read the whole thing, and I still don't get why anyone is interested. Maeve
Brennan, her columns, her life — all of it seems trivial in an especially dull
way. Maybe the writer of this piece was unable to convey her interest in as
artistic a way as they wished to, and should have told the simple facts
instead of trying to construct atmosphere.

~~~
pjc50
The atmosphere _is_ the thing here, along with the character sketch of a
person. It's the age-old process of trying to look inside someone's head to
feel as they feel.

From the opening few paragraphs I suspect she was one of those people with
intense in-person charisma, or as we call it round here, "reality distortion
field".

~~~
JasonFruit
But there's no atmosphere either, just the appearance that an attempt was made
to convey it. I'm left baffled over Brennan's significance.

------
thedaemon
The term Waif was never defined in the article. It's used 6 times counting the
title. After googling, it seems to mean a homeless person or low life.

~~~
rjbwork
The third definition in MW: : an extremely thin and usually young woman.

Waifish is almost always used with this definition from my experience. I'd
even argue the first 2 definitions are archaic at this point.

