8FOLD: Speak! # 2

[Tom Russell]

phippsmar... at hotmail.com wrote:
> I still think Greggory is an idiot.

That very well may be, and I won't contest that, per se.  Or rather,
"It's up to the reader's interpetation", etc., etc.

>
> Take Sandy for instance.  Maybe she wasn't all that.  But she was
there
> before he knew he had these powers.  And she sure as hell was going
to
> stick around now that she knew what he could do.  Indeed, it would
> appear as though Greggory had solved the one big problem that men
have
> when being intimate with a woman.

Well... he solved the one big problem men have being sexually intimate
with women, if that is a solution.  As to intimacy in general, there
are many, many man-woman problems, most of which stem from the simple
fact that women are mysterious and men are simple.  I don't mean that
women are these incomprehensible creatures that make things difficult.
And I would never say that.

There was this famous feminist essay called The Male Gaze, basically
about how guys dig looking at naked chicks-- the essay tied the concept
of "visual pleasure" to "patriachal dominance", etc.  Now, I'll be the
first to say that men like looking at women.  A woman's body is
designed much better than a man's.  Even a so-called "out of shape"
woman still has a certain grace to her form, pleasurable soft curves,
that "feminine mystique".  Men, on the other hand, aren't designed
nearly as well.  Even a "buff" guy is asymetrical, if only because they
have this dangly thing that has no match.  Two hands, two legs, two
eyes, etc., but just one penis.

I think the sexual organs are very important to man-woman
relationships.

(Well, duh.)

Or, rather, I think the differences between these organs explain a lot
about this whole mystery concept.  The woman's sexual organs are
inward, hidden, secret: mysterious.  Men can't see it, can't fathom its
depths, are in equal parts repulsed and attracted by her fertility, her
cycle.  Men, on the other hand, let it all hang out, so to speak.  What
you see is what you get.  Whatever your take on the myth of phallic
power, the fact is that even when the damn thing grows, it's still not
mysterious because with a man, everything is visible.

And so men consider women to be mysterious.  Women usually understand
themselves, don't find themselves mysterious, and certainly don't find
men that way.  Men are really very stupid, selfish creatures.  Even the
intelligent ones.  While a woman (and I know, it's very dangerous to be
speaking in these generalities, especially about gender roles) is more
likely to try to work something out, to sacrafice (or, at the extreme,
play the martyr, poor me), or to try and understand this person, men
cause problems.

And, I guess the best way to wrap up this digression is: Gregory is a
man.

>
> Hmm.  On second thought maybe it was time for Greggory to move on
after
> all.

There is much, much more of Sandy to come.

> 
> Martin


Tom