cosina
"I think being a woman is like being Irish." — Iris Murdoch
Still waiting for them to come down
Tags: 
books
books Nelson and Emma are still sitting in JFK, waiting for a plane. They got delayed and bumped and delayed again... [Note added: Just as I finished writing this entry, the flight was delayed another half hour! In the end, a 90-minute layover will have lasted seven hours.]
I can't do anything but wait. After having made such a big push to finish cleaning and have everything ready, I have nothing to do.
So, I picked up my book. I read the rest of Norah Vincent's Self-Made Man. In case you never heard of it, she lived as a man for a year and a half and tried to immerse herself in typical male situations.
There were some parts that were difficult to read, although most of it was funny. The chapter in which she goes into a monastery is the best, so if you feel like flipping through it in a bookstore, I suggest you go for it. Oddly, or ironically, that chapter is called "Life." The chapter called "Friendship," in which she joins a bowling league, is also very good, but the one about the monastery is... um, better.
It was an odd and sometimes disturbing way to get a glimpse into what men go through. How strange it is to be a man. I grew up in a family of sisters, so boys were always a foreign tribe. Still, I see and have seen the wacky, mean way men and boys treat each other, as if they are supposed to hurt one another.
There was one male experience she completely neglected: the whole sports fan thing. I remember once sitting quietly in a bar, and some big guys came up behind me -- clearly unaware of my presence, because of some sports event on the TV screen in front of me. They all suddenly shouted "YEAH!" "That's what I'm talking about!" and similar things, and (being unexpected) it was unnerving. They began to bump into each other, and pat each other, and I thought, "I guess sports provides a way that guys can be affectionate in a sort of impersonal way."
Not articulated well, I know. It was more of a feeling than a formulation at the time, anyway.
Ach... I don't really want to spill out my reactions to the book just yet. I'd like to have it cook inside me a little. I want to talk to Nelson about it, too. He's the one who told me about it -- heard an interview with Norah Vincent on NPR.
I googled her after I finished the book... wanted to write an email, and did find her website (the link is above), but there is no email address. Okay, I can understand that, but what astonished me beyond degree was the revelation that she is a CONSERVATIVE. What is up with that? I mean, she's a lesbian. She masqueraded as a man for a year and a half. She's perceptive and intelligent and she writes well. How in the world can she be a conservative? She does have that hard-edged, constipated facial expression that conservatives tend to adopt. That should have been my clue, but I just figured she was trying to look mannish for the book.
I can't do anything but wait. After having made such a big push to finish cleaning and have everything ready, I have nothing to do.
So, I picked up my book. I read the rest of Norah Vincent's Self-Made Man. In case you never heard of it, she lived as a man for a year and a half and tried to immerse herself in typical male situations.
There were some parts that were difficult to read, although most of it was funny. The chapter in which she goes into a monastery is the best, so if you feel like flipping through it in a bookstore, I suggest you go for it. Oddly, or ironically, that chapter is called "Life." The chapter called "Friendship," in which she joins a bowling league, is also very good, but the one about the monastery is... um, better.
It was an odd and sometimes disturbing way to get a glimpse into what men go through. How strange it is to be a man. I grew up in a family of sisters, so boys were always a foreign tribe. Still, I see and have seen the wacky, mean way men and boys treat each other, as if they are supposed to hurt one another.
There was one male experience she completely neglected: the whole sports fan thing. I remember once sitting quietly in a bar, and some big guys came up behind me -- clearly unaware of my presence, because of some sports event on the TV screen in front of me. They all suddenly shouted "YEAH!" "That's what I'm talking about!" and similar things, and (being unexpected) it was unnerving. They began to bump into each other, and pat each other, and I thought, "I guess sports provides a way that guys can be affectionate in a sort of impersonal way."
Not articulated well, I know. It was more of a feeling than a formulation at the time, anyway.
Ach... I don't really want to spill out my reactions to the book just yet. I'd like to have it cook inside me a little. I want to talk to Nelson about it, too. He's the one who told me about it -- heard an interview with Norah Vincent on NPR.
I googled her after I finished the book... wanted to write an email, and did find her website (the link is above), but there is no email address. Okay, I can understand that, but what astonished me beyond degree was the revelation that she is a CONSERVATIVE. What is up with that? I mean, she's a lesbian. She masqueraded as a man for a year and a half. She's perceptive and intelligent and she writes well. How in the world can she be a conservative? She does have that hard-edged, constipated facial expression that conservatives tend to adopt. That should have been my clue, but I just figured she was trying to look mannish for the book.
