WHO IS THE WIFE? WHO IS THE MISTRESS? PATRICIA? PAMELA?

PATRICIA'S book STRANGE DAYS is my main source for this comparison, though I've read around Pamela a bit too.

PATRICIA

Says to Jim that she doesn't want a traditional or legal marriage and is fine with a long distance relationship with him, that she doesn't want to live with him - that living together could make it boring or destroy their relationship.

Says that she is fine with Jim having sex with other women so long as she's not in town when he does but otherwise acts competitively and bossy.

Is proud that she is highly intelligent, self supporting, a career woman, a feminist, and a witch.  She considers her Celtic witch wedding to be spiritually valid so long as love exists, and claims she doesn't need more.

She enjoys dressing to flaunt her breasts which are larger than Pamela's.  She also feels the need to let Pamela know that she and Jim have had a friendship, are lovers, and chose abortion together when she becomes pregnant - that their relationship is serious - unlike all those other women.  They write letters to each other.

Feels the need to talk to him in person to make the decision about abortion and paying for it is the only money he spends on, though he did buy her some expensive gifts of jewelry.

Says she does not apologize for her drug use which she enjoyed at the time and though describing the use of multiple prescription drugs in response to stress, says she is always in control and not an addict.  Acts shocked when Jim says a problem with Pamela is that she's become a heroin addict.

PAMELA

Tells everyone that she is Jim's "wife," though she knows that's not true, and Jim knows she does and says "so what?"

Has a "Pixish" voice and girlish presence.  A hippie who is "cool" with how things are..

Knows he has other women and let's him know what she thinks of that when she has to hunt him down after standing her up on her birthday - again.   Tells him about how he disappointed her rather than telling him what to do.

Came to Hollywood as a teenage, no education - no college or vocational training, no profession, but does get Jim to spend at least a few hundred thousand so that she can own a boutique called "Themis."  As a business it's a looser, and eventually she can't cope with it.

Strives not to be unkind to Patricia when Patricia may be trying to shock her into a reality about her relationship with Jim.

Jim says he feels responsible for her, because she's dependent and came into the relationship so young.  (Pamela and Patricia are about the same age.)

Less wordy than Patricia but not out to impress anyone with her word choices.  Jim says she could never do what Patricia has and can do.

As a muse, she believes she has been the inspiration for Jim's songs, and that may be true.  She encourages him to move on to being the poet he really wants to be.

May have responded to Jim's "cheating" by also having affairs with other men.  May have prostituted herself from about the time he died to the time all the legal issues were handled after he died and she finally got some money coming in, to support a heroin habit.