Let's try again. To call a living woman a muse is to equate her with an 
imaginary goddess, and rather inexactly. The muse was actually thought to 
speak through the poet, as those who speak in tongues are actually thought 
to be possessed by god or demon, the woman may suggest the form of a 
fantasy object as introject--Dante probably knew that Beatrice didn't speak 
through him although he gave her words. To say of a living woman "she's my 
muse" is a figure of speech.

But of course carrying around an imaginary version of anyone is likely to 
interfere with relating to the actual, external person. Tant pis. It's how 
we in fact relate to just about everyone and everything almost all the 
time, although there are moments when the imagined and the real come 
deceptively close.

Which is to say, it's very trying being human.

Mark

At 06:58 PM 1/12/2006 +0000, you wrote:
>I should think it must be very trying, being someone's muse.
>
>Not that anyone's ever suggested me, you understand ....
>
>joanna
>
>>
>>Sometimes  we objectify our internal interlocutor into various 
>>introjects--as in, my father isn't really shouting at me, etc. And there 
>>isn't an actual audience in my head. The form the introjects take is 
>>certainly culturally -driven in part, as in the case of the female muse. 
>>But all kinds of divinities occasionally burst into speech among the 
>>ancients, male and female. The voice of the poem, and sometimes its 
>>imagined audience, remained the female muse into the renaissance as a 
>>matter of convention, but the convention carried psychological weight, 
>>and I have no doubt that some renaissance poets actually experienced her 
>>as a true introject. Fact is, whether or not we think it politically or 
>>psychologically appropriate we carry all sorts of voices inside us over 
>>which we have liuttle control. So the female muse or whatever may be 
>>inappropriate, but she carries on. It would be nice if more women had a 
>>male introject that provided them with wisdom or eloquence beyond theit 
>>normal reach. But we all know that life is unfair to men, and no matter 
>>how we change the culture most women will resist adopting one.
>>
>>Mark