--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Dear daughter, I won't try to call my…" description: "\"“Dear daughter, I won't try to call my feeling for Arty love. Call it focus. My focus on Art was an ailment, noncommunicable, and, even to me all these..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2a5/katherine-dunn-2693_children_dear-daughter-i-won-t-try-to-call-my-fee_2320164.png" --- # Dear daughter, I won't try to call my feeling for Arty… ![“Dear daughter, I won't try to call my feeling for Arty love. Call it focus. My focus on Art was an ailment, noncommunicable, and, even to me all these years later, incomprehensible. Now I despise myself. But even so I remember, in hot floods, the way he slept, still as death, with his face washed…” quote by Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2a5/katherine-dunn-2693_children_dear-daughter-i-won-t-try-to-call-my-fee_2320164.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2a5/katherine-dunn-2693_children_dear-daughter-i-won-t-try-to-call-my-fee_2320164.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2a5/katherine-dunn-2693_children_dear-daughter-i-won-t-try-to-call-my-fee_2320164.png) > ““Dear daughter, I won't try to call my feeling for Arty love. Call it focus. My focus on Art was an ailment, noncommunicable, and, even to me all these years later, incomprehensible. Now I despise myself. But even so I remember, in hot floods, the way he slept, still as death, with his face washed flat, stony as a carved tomb and exquisite. His weakness and his ravening bitter needs were terrible, and beautiful, and irresistible as an earthquake. He scalded or smothered anyone he needed, but his needing and the hurt that it caused me were the most life I ever had. Remember what a poor thing I have always been and forgive me. He saw no use for you and you interfered with his use of me. I sent you away to please him, to prove my dedication to him, and to prevent him from killing you... My job was to come back \[from the convent\] directly, with nothing leaking from beneath my dark glasses, to give Arty his rubdown and then paint him for the next show, nodding cheerfully all the while, never showing anything but attentive care for his muscular wonderfulness. Because he could have killed you. He could have cut off the money that schooled and fed you. He could have erased you so entirely that I never would have had those letters and report cards and photos, or your crayon pictures, or the chance to spy on you, and to love you secretly when everything else was gone.”” [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The narrator confesses a toxic, obsessive love that she masks as artistic focus, acknowledging both its destructive power and its perverse allure, while reflecting on the cost to herself and others. **In simple terms:** A destructive obsession disguised as art, causing pain and betrayal. Key Takeaway Recognize and break harmful obsessions. Themes obsession art destruction self‑sacrifice love Mood conflicted melancholic intense Type literary psychological tragic When to use this quote - artist’s life - abusive relationships - creative exploitation - family dynamics Key Concepts codependency psychological trauma identity power dynamics Questions to Reflect On - Can you identify when passion becomes harmful? - How do you protect yourself from toxic devotion? A Different Perspective The love is portrayed as both beautiful and deadly, suggesting that passion can be self‑destructive. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Children](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/children/) ## Related quotes > [I remember, in hot floods, the way he slept, still as death, with his face washed flat, stony as a carved tomb and exquisite.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/i-remember-in-hot-floods-the-way-he-slept-still-as-death-with-his/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [“What’s the one thing so terrible that you’ve never told anyone? 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But even so I remember, in hot floods, the way he slept, still as death, with his face washed flat, stony as a carved tomb and exquisite. His weakness and his ravening bitter needs were terrible, and beautiful, and irresistible as an earthquake. He scalded or smothered anyone he needed, but his needing and the hurt that it caused me were the most life I ever had. Remember what a poor thing I have always been and forgive me. He saw no use for you and you interfered with his use of me. I sent you away to please him, to prove my dedication to him, and to prevent him from killing you... My job was to come back [from the convent] directly, with nothing leaking from beneath my dark glasses, to give Arty his rubdown and then paint him for the next show, nodding cheerfully all the while, never showing anything but attentive care for his muscular wonderfulness. Because he could have killed you. He could have cut off the money that schooled and fed you. 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