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tovac 's review for:
After Sappho
by Selby Wynn Schwartz
This was weird. I didn't hate it, but I didn't altogether get it either. Parts were fantastic, others were plodding. It has compelled me to look into some of the women referenced throughout, though. And it is unique, certainly.
Some quotes:
"What did we want? To begin with, we wanted what half the population had got just by being born, and then we wanted to change how it had got that way. We wanted lives that did not lead us so directly to laudanum and asylums and puerperal fevers. As Sibilla Aleramo wrote in her article, We want women to become human beings: to be at last as free, autonomous, and fully alive as we have until now been subjugated, oppressed, and kept quiet."
"Of course women wanted to be human beings instead of little dolls who danced for the pleasure of their husbands, dutifully bore children, and annihilated themselves. Who would not want what half the population had got just by being born"
"Parallax is a phenomenon of viewing the same thing from different angles. From the perspective of a man concerned with civilization and its discontents, for example, a woman unresponsive to the sexual attentions of men is a source of great mystery. The curtain rustles; such a man sees himself behind it, furtive and important. Volumes of poetry and analysis thereby issue forth from him. From the perspective of the woman in question, this is tiresome. Why must we always talk of the dreams of great men?"
Some quotes:
"What did we want? To begin with, we wanted what half the population had got just by being born, and then we wanted to change how it had got that way. We wanted lives that did not lead us so directly to laudanum and asylums and puerperal fevers. As Sibilla Aleramo wrote in her article, We want women to become human beings: to be at last as free, autonomous, and fully alive as we have until now been subjugated, oppressed, and kept quiet."
"Of course women wanted to be human beings instead of little dolls who danced for the pleasure of their husbands, dutifully bore children, and annihilated themselves. Who would not want what half the population had got just by being born"
"Parallax is a phenomenon of viewing the same thing from different angles. From the perspective of a man concerned with civilization and its discontents, for example, a woman unresponsive to the sexual attentions of men is a source of great mystery. The curtain rustles; such a man sees himself behind it, furtive and important. Volumes of poetry and analysis thereby issue forth from him. From the perspective of the woman in question, this is tiresome. Why must we always talk of the dreams of great men?"