Doug Bassett wrote:
>Is this the one which uses lesbianism as a plot
point?
>If so, I remember liking it, but thinking that it
was
>one of those relatively rare books who's impact
has
>been lost as time has marched forward. It must've
been
>a killer ending when it first came out,
though.
Maybe, but the "solution" really grated on me when I read it.
It wasn't so much that it was gloriously politically
incorrect (like who really gives a damn about that?) as that
it was boneheadedly wrong, not just for that time but
always.
If I remember correctly, the solution was based on the
equivalent of something on the level of if you shake hands
with a black guy, it would rub off on you, or that all Jews
were whizzes with numbers. Not so much politically incorrect,
as factually. Even if many people did believe it at one
time.
But damn, at this point, I can't even quite recall what the
solution was based on, and I may even not be remembering it
clearly. What was it? That all lesbians actually want to be
men? That they all were raped at an early age? That lesbians
are incapable of orgasm? Something silly like that...
Too bad, because the other Pines really do stand up well. And
I really do love old books generally, warts and all.
--
Kevin Burton Smith
The Thrilling Detective Web Site Summer Fiction Issue is out, with new stories by Jim Winter, Ray Banks, Dave White, Tim Wohlforth and Ron Miller. http://www.thrillingdetective.com -- # Plain ASCII text only, please. Anything else won't show up. # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 16 Aug 2004 EDT