DIANA TRILLING
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secure are we tha t these sexual bes t-sell ers and also the fil ms whi ch will
take li cense from them are not contributin g
to
a myth ology as reu"o–
grade to truth as an y of whi ch they p res ume
to
be riddin g u s? Ours is a
technological worl d. We want the best indu stri al and soc ial tech nol–
ogy, the best psycho logical techno logy, th e bes t erotic technology. Few
of us can maintain faith in o ur own in stincts or even in what we m ight
like to call knowledge in the face o f a litera ture intent on telli ng us tha t
we've been li ving so far below our producti ve po tenti al. To separate
the specifi call y erotic p edagogy of these novels, so much of it of
ques ti onable wo rth , from the usefulness these books may nevertheless
have in the libera ti on o f fema le spi rit is a daun tin g project, for it
demands not onl y an awareness o f th e centuri es-old defea t o f fema le
sp irit, whi ch we try to redress overni ght-it is
LOO
much
to
ask o f
ourselves-but also a comp lex understanding of the female d il emma as
no t just female but human . It req ui res tha t, on the one hand, we
recognize tha t women have quite the same ri ght as men have
LO
be
messy, tri vial and self-deceiving, and , on the other hand, that mess i–
ness, tri viality and a false rhetori c of the emo ti ons dehumani ze women
no less than they do men.
It is not a t all my sense o f our current fi cti on of libera ti on that it
means to have a dehumani zing influence, or even a desociali zing one.
T ha t is no t its pl a tform. Its intention is pl a inl y wha t we have come to
regard as " p rogressi ve." T hi s is so, I think , even in the case of th e mo re
sensa tion al o f current libera tioni st novels; indeed , if we describe
sensati on alism as the wi sh to excite, and if, in a culture whi ch has been
demon strabl y h ypocritical abo ut sex, we look upon all sexual overtness
as a brief for truth , then our fi ction of sexual excita ti on becomes by
definition a force for social betterment. But we do no t yet know how
things will work out; we cannot yet know because the ev idence is no t
in, and in the meanwhil e I find myse lf no t a t all certain tha t in the
name of a life truer to ou rselves we a re no t acceding in ra th er
fri ghtening n ew suggestion s for wh at it is tha t enhances th e h uman
personality. In fact, three scenes from these books I have been
reading-they are three among many examp les-haunt me fo r wha t
they may p ropose of our fa te as peopl e of feeling.
T he first is in Do ri s Less ing's
Summer Before lhe Dark.
Kate, the
midd le-aged h eroine who is running away from the entrapments o f her
trad itional female life, has just rented a room from an un kn own youn g
woman named Maureen and is taking possess ion of her new qua rters.
Maureen comes into Ka te's room, looks a t herse lf in the m irror in
whi ch Ka te is also looking, does a circl ing flin ging da nce, th en st icks
