In effect, those two verses were where the author wrote Truth as she knew it, and that’s why those verses shone. Unfortunately, since we’ve not yet seen the end of this conflict, and she had to describe that ‘victory’ metaphorically, she couldn’t write a truth for that — it hasn’t happened yet. Here’s the second…
Oppression & technology The previously mentioned example is not the only instance of the co-existence of both a lack of, and a distinct awareness of, knowledge regarding a particular object or subject. For example, there’s also how technology is treated in these prose tales. Initially there’s the occasional reference to commonplace technology, although sometimes the…
(“The Warrior Women”) by Monique Wittig translated by David Le Vay (first reviewed April 2005) Wittig’s book, quite frankly, puzzles me — or perhaps it’s simply the hype which I find misplaced. I picked it up because I read it was, in 1969, one of the first appropriations of the Amazonian utopia legend by the…
I also understand the human psyche or spirit is sometimes baffling in its complexity. I have both read about, and experienced situations, where what seems like a simple and beneficial command to oneself (such as “stop being afraid of riding in elevators” or “lose 30lbs.”) can be unwittingly short-circuited by other equally strong internal desires…
This will be a quick review, I think. I’ve just finished reading a book by C. E. Murphy titled Truthseeker. On the whole, I enjoyed the book: Murphy writes well, with vividly described backgrounds, protagonists I can usually identify with on one level or another, and an often interesting fantasy/spiritual basis for the plot-producing strangeness…
There’s a fascinating chapter on the pleasure center and altruism center of the brain. The pleasure center fires up when we’re, say, gambling — greed appeals to it, for example. Apparently these centers can’t both run at once, though… and the altruism center is always overridden by the pleasure center if we get conflicting input….
I have a new book club! I’m very pleased; I hope it works out well. The club is reading Sway: the Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman. Very readable! I don’t know if the examples of studies given are all completely accurate (I’m not going to research the book that…
I emphatically do not understand this. How can a woman on the one hand lyrically proclaim not just the equality, but the apparent spiritual supremacy of women – and then in practically the very same breath, choose to kneel at the feet of a male deity that demands not just submission, but has a brutal…
Perhaps most dramatically for me: why does Weber wish to stay with a Church which effectively defiles her sacred nature, when she is so clearly aware of the beauty and joy of the Goddess?! Throughout the book Weber practically flirts with the Goddess’ myriad forms, dancing along the knife’s edge of admission and acknowledgment of…
Unfortunately, I ultimately found the four archetypes offered by Weber to be somewhat limiting, in that they all seemed to define a woman in terms of her availability to, or relationships with, men. That choice of imagery enshrines the male as the conceptual center of the universe, and I simply do not believe that is…