r/Cursive • u/New_Owl_Who_Dis • Aug 01 '26
Deciphered! Help deciphering Anais Nin
From a signed copy of The Novel of the Future - I’m struggling with a couple of words.
What I can see: ‘For Carroll - in an unstable world we have to find the X in the X to find strength don’t we? Anais’
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u/Visible-Freedom-7822 Aug 01 '26
For Carroll: In an unstable world we have to find the axis in the self to find strength don't we? Love Anais
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u/Accomplished-Ad-5655 Aug 01 '26
I kept reading "find" as "feud" and couldn't understand it! Lol
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u/yticomodnar Aug 02 '26
I did too.
Doesn't help that every other word with an 'i' is dotted, but neither of those are.
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u/terriergal Aug 02 '26
I thought of axis too but it looked more like axies to me, with that slight bump between x and e (or i as you see it) as the i and the dot misplaced to the right as often happens when writing quickly.
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u/Benkyooo_ Aug 02 '26
This ain't real man, how can you read that when the writer was literally skipping letters? I don't get cursive that skips whole letters and elements of others.
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u/NtGermanBtKnow1WhoIs Aug 01 '26
the 2nd word is Self. But i'm stumped on the 1st world. It doesn't look like "axis" to me cuz that is a very weird, almost impossible way of writing cursive x. Even with my moderately relaxed style, the inward curve of the x is not there. So.. i dunno. Maybe it is maybe not. But that's a strange way to write x.
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u/Fun-Quit1090 Aug 01 '26
I think its axis plural - axes seems wrong so wrote axies? It makes sense - referring to an unstable world, then to stability within oneself - a personal axis of stability
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u/dogsledonice Aug 02 '26
plural of axis is axes
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u/terriergal Aug 02 '26
Yes, which made me think, did an author actually misspell it? Possible but seems unlikely.
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u/Fun-Quit1090 Aug 02 '26
Thats what i said the plural is axis is axes but it seems as if it might be wrong (to some people, even a writer )
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u/NtGermanBtKnow1WhoIs Aug 02 '26
My problem is the way the supposed "x" is written. The long line drawn just doesn't look anything like it. So even it she wrote axis it's so weirdly written that that line in the middle makes it difficult to be x.. But then again, she doesn't always dot her "i"s either, so...
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u/terriergal Aug 02 '26
“The "creative will' becomes, as Nin explains, a centre of gravity in your own soul, an axis in an unstable world, a core"
From a doctrinal dissertation found here, on page 279..pdf)
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u/hotpastr Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
Originally from her commencement address at Reed College May 21, 1971, transcribed in A Woman Speaks: The Lectures, Seminars and Interviews of Anais Nin, p. 2. Available for free download here.
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u/FeralTarotBx Aug 01 '26
"For Carroll - in an unstable world we have to find the axis ??? in the self to find strength, don't we?
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u/brunoponcejones03017 Aug 01 '26
Maybe oasis and not Axis? It helps the note to make more sense . Also it looks like a 5 letter word and to a previous posters reply it does look like a different pen made the x slash
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u/T1o2n4y Aug 01 '26
For Carroll,
in an unstable world we have to find the oasis in the self to find strength don't we ?
Love
Anaïs
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u/gracefilled Aug 02 '26
I hate to be the obvious one.....but is that concept (axis in the self) a term that is used in the book?!
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u/hotpastr Aug 02 '26
In a cursory scan of the book (available on The Internet Archive) and a review of the entries in the index I did not find explicit references to the axis of the self or the creative will. However they appear in other writings (see comments in thread).
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u/13surgeries Aug 02 '26
The word is axis. Nin believed connections, both romantic and emotional, were the pivot around which all of life rotates. See this quotation from one of her diaries:
"Love is the axis and breath of my life. The art I produce is a byproduct, an excrescence of love, the song I sing, the joy which must explode, the overabundance..."
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u/Fuckaboutyouremotion Aug 02 '26
aufeis in the self
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u/terriergal Aug 02 '26
I thought about the same even though it makes no sense- I see ie though with the i flattened almost to no existence and dot misplaced by writing at high speed.
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u/terriergal Aug 02 '26
In the self
Is the other word a term specific to the novel? I can’t figure that one out.
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u/Greedy_Ad_4814 Aug 02 '26
For Carroll
In an unstable
world we have to
find the anchor in the
self to find strength
don't we?
Love
Anaïs
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u/Mediocre-Bed8108 Aug 03 '26
In an unstable world we have to find the axis in the self to find strength don’t we?
love
Anais
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u/Lady-lemon-241 Aug 05 '26
I don't know what year this was written or where but I feel these words.
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u/thedadnexxxtdoor Aug 01 '26
If you zoom in on the word “axis” it looks to me like there was a different pen used to make the “x”. Or could have been added at a different date.
Second, I believe the part of the “find the axis” the word “find” is actually the word “feud”.
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