A Muse or a Nyx or whatever

Looks like an interesting memoir to add to your reading list this Carnival season.

“Singing Out Loud: A Memoir of an Ex-Mardi Gras Queen” chronicles Eaves’ life in New Orleans, her struggle with mental health, her unease with the city’s hierarchical social code and her journey to selfhood — standing on her own two feet and deciding for herself what she wanted in life. In some ways, the book could be about almost any questioning young woman born in the early 1940s who did not yet have the strength of the feminist movement to bolster her. But in other ways, it could only have happened here.

Deb Interrupted, maybe?  This article hints that readers will get some insight into the social and racial dynamics of Carnival society. It also notes that Eaves's daughter produced one of the more compelling documentaries that covers much of the same ground.

I'm not sure how to read this quote. It doesn't have to mean she thinks it's all better now. But it can suggest that. 

Homesickness brought the couple back to New Orleans, where Eaves discovered Carnival traditions had expanded to include many more forms of expression, well beyond what she described as the restrictive, hierarchical practices of the old line krewes.

“During the time that we were gone, Carnival expanded so much,” she said. “Now, anyone who wants to can be part of the festivities in their own way. They can be a Muse or a Nyx or whatever suits them. It’s a wonderful evolution of the culture.”

You can be a Muse or a Nyx or whatever now. It's progress, I guess.