"My Face for the World to See" (full title: My Face for the World to See: The Diaries, Letters, and Drawings of Candy Darling, Andy Warhol Superstar) is the published diaries of Warhol Superstar Candy Darling.
The book is made up of several edited diary entries written at different times and in different journals throughout Darling's short life. It ranges from entries from Darling's childhood as a young boy, "James Slattery" in Massapequa Park, Long Island, to later entries towards the end of her life. The book also includes various letters and unprofessional sketches drawn by Darling, who was known to be interested in drawing from childhood. Most pages reflect Darling's desire for appreciation, love, respect, and her longing to belong. Also, the book's pages tell of her dreams, ambitions and wishes; including super-stardom, to be a complete woman, and to marry.
Darling's diary entries also reveal her confusion about her sexuality and gender identity (as she was a pre-operative transsexual). Her loneliness, desperation, and ultimate frustration at society's refusal to accept her and its rejection of who she truly was are described as well. This is evident in that Candy Darling even went so far as to state that she may actually be mistaken about her female gender identity only in an attempt to banish her loneliness and receive the acceptance and love she craved. She was well aware that her situation rendered it impossible for her to find a normal partner who would love her as a woman. Darling's life is summarised in a short poem at the end of the book titled "Stardusk".
This memoir documents the fact that Darling was a talent who could not be fully appreciated by the culture of the day. Although many transgendered individuals have achieved some success today, American singer and actor RuPaul, Israeli Pop star Dana International and South Korean pop singer Harisu, there is as yet no major transsexual or transgendered star in the film industry.
Famous quotes containing the words face and/or world:
“To possess your soul in patience, with all the skin and some of the flesh burnt off your face and hands, is a job for a boy compared with the pains of a man who has lived pretty long in the exhilarating world that drugs or strong waters seem to create and is trying to live now in the first bald desolation created by knocking them off.”
—C.E. (Charles Edward)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)