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From: jpexg@mit-hermes.ARPA (John Purbrick)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: The Women's Room
Message-ID: <2458@mit-hermes.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 30-Aug-85 16:18:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-herm.2458
Posted: Fri Aug 30 16:18:06 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 1-Sep-85 12:40:55 EDT
References: <940@oddjob.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: The MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 24

I read TWR a few years back, and kinda, sorta, enjoyed it, without taking 
it all that seriously. It's a real man-hating book, with some highly
artificial twists (1. Mira meets a man who loves her and might settle
down with her--but then he gets a job in Africa(!!) and angrily demands
that she go there with him. I felt that this was out of character for
him, that French was literally performing a "character assassination".
2. The only really sympathetic male character was a black youth, the
boyfriend of a young woman. The woman is raped by a black man, and I 
think the boyfriend is put in so French won't seem (heaven forbid) racist.)
But the book does have a story to tell, the characters have some interest
and go through some changes that one wants to know about, and even if
the blaming of men is grossly exaggerated, I thought it was worth
hearing what French had to say. Think of it this way: If Marilyn French
hates men, then I want to hear why she thinks so, and whether she can
offer anything that might help the situation. 

Now, has anyone read "Small Changes", by Marge Piercy, which is another
book about women and men, in which much of the action takes place at the 
MIT AI Lab?

John Purbrick					jpexg@mit-hermes.ARPA
{...decvax!genrad!  ...allegra!mit-vax!}  mit-eddie!mit-hermes!jpexg