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Path: utzoo!utcs!mnetor!sophie
From: sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.books
Subject: Re: The Women's Room
Message-ID: <1974@mnetor.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Sep-85 10:28:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: mnetor.1974
Posted: Wed Sep  4 10:28:40 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Sep-85 11:10:33 EDT
References: <940@oddjob.UUCP> <559@h-sc1.UUCP>
Reply-To: sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley)
Distribution: net
Organization: Computer X (CANADA) Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Lines: 28
Xref: utcs net.women:7320 net.books:2246
Summary: 

In article <559@h-sc1.UUCP> friedman@h-sc1.UUCP (dawn friedman) writes:
>I also did not like the book, but mostly because of the rather common
>(for me) problem of adrenaline poisoning:  I find it unpleasant to 
>race through a book, heart pounding and lips drawn back in a fixed
>snarl, waiting for the villain(s) to get what they deserve.  They 
>almost never do in a certain genre of books; instead, I am left with
>an unresolved vendetta against a fictional character, not to mention
>the sickening sensation of having identified with a heroine (it is
>almost always a heroine) who is abused but never avenges herself, or
>even transcends the injury.  I am curious to discover others
>who have had this problem, and what techniques they use to avoid buying
>and reading these books.

I know exactly what you mean.  I felt this way during the entire movie
Tess, and this is why I never did read the book afterwards.  I found
that story very depressing and I ended up hating Tess more than that
horrible guy who abused her.  I am sure that a few well-places blows
earlier on would have helped her case a lot.  And that husband of hers,
what a jerk!  Ah well, it is hard to judge 100 year old stories (or
whatever they are) by our standards of conduct.  There is no excuse for
writing stories like that nowadays though.  I really don't understand
authors who insist on writing such desperate stories about supposedly
helpless people when there are people in the world who are really 
helpless.

-- 
Sophie Quigley
{allegra|decvax|ihnp4|linus|watmath}!utzoo!mnetor!sophie