sharp@kpnoa.UUCP (06/09/84)
Now that she's been introduced, perhaps somebody out there can try to explain
Joanna Russ to me. Ever since I first discovered her works, I've been reading
any of them I can get my hands on - and I still don't understand.
I can't work out the motivations which make Irene in The Two of Them (title ?)
kil Ernst and run off at the end. I'm still not sure about Alyx's motives in
Picnic on Paradise, and I don't think I'll ever cope with We Who Are About To.
Worst of all is The Female Man. I have read this maybe a dozen times, and every
time I find something new, something which makes me think about my attitudes and
behaviour, and something which confuses me. Am I alone, or does anyone else
like her work, or does everyone think it's rubbish, or is it crystal clear to
you all ?
Sometimes it confuses me as much as Patti Smith's poetry, which is really the
only poetry I've ever really liked (well, subsequent to Beowulf, Gawain, and
Omar Khayyam).
I think it needs a woman's opinion - maybe I'm just incapable of the right
perspective. I know I don't understand women, although I like trying to.
--
Nigel Sharp National Optical Astronomy Observatories
Tucson, Arizona (602) 325-9273
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