Jezebel 
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New York, 2:58 AM
Sat Nov 28
29 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/20/09
11/20/09
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11/20/09
11/20/09
Parents who use contrarian sexist banalities have children who use contrarian sexist banalities.
11/20/09
Yeah, the men had nothing to do with that. Damn sexual freedom for making my sister beat herself up.
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
One personality disorder ... er "trait" that many ultra-conservatives have is that they tend to be able to hold two opposing and contradictory thoughts in their head at the same time without cognitive dissidence. Go figure.
11/20/09
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11/20/09
Am I just misunderstanding that sentence, or did he just refer to his sister as "It"?
11/20/09
11/20/09
I agree that there's a definite possibility the end result might be problematic, but I wouldn't be able to tell it from this article. It's just a snip job that doesn't really say anything conclusive about the book.
Hell, the quote you're taking so uncharitably is trying to make precisely the point that it wasn't the 'fault' of the sexual revolution or the feminists that she ended up as she did, and that a simple 'return' to some unrealistic-yet-imagined "earlier, better time" wouldn't have saved her.
To the extent that we know anything from this article, it sounds pretty clear that he's making a book about how people fared in the sexual revolution, for good and for ill, *without* blaming the sexual revolution itself or claiming that society should have collectively 'done something else'.
What, exactly, is novel or controversial about the idea that with more freedom often comes new and different pressures, for better or for worse? Isn't this the basic idea behind schools that institute school uniforms?
I think a lot hinges on the book's portrayal of men -- whether or not their bad behavior is put under the microscope, subjected to real analysis.
If anyone deserves not to have pointlessly snarky conclusions jumped to, it's Martin Amis.
11/21/09
I'm an Amis fan. I put off reading the Guardian article until just now - mostly because I had little faith in the Guardian's ability to deal with Amis objectively given their general distaste for him but also because I didn't want to have to defend Amis for another poorly thought-out declaration. I was pleasantly surprised on both counts. For the most part.
I've read most of his stuff and I'd be quite surprised if he didn't put his men under the microscope. I don't think he protects any of his characters and certainly not his male characters - they are unreliable, violent and desperate in London Fields ; unreliable, violent and untrustworthy in Other People; inhumane, violent and delusional in Time's Arrow. He is just in the treatment of his characters and I look forward to his commentary on the sexual revolution. Though, really, he's commented on it all along and what I really look forward to is a synthesis of this commentary.
And anyway, this isn't the first time he's written about his sister. There's a little Sally Amis in all of his female characters.
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07/29/09
07/28/09
Just do.
Then be so thankful.
07/28/09
Bought it at the five-and-dime
Used it 'till my fingers bled
It was the summer of 69
07/28/09
Me and some guys from school
Had an orgy and we "tried" real hard
Jimmy's gay, Joey got married
Shoulda known, they'd never want more
07/28/09
07/28/09
07/28/09
I'll be a vibe of good faith
Then in love you live,
I'll make a stand. I won't break
I'll be the rock you can build on,
Be there when you're old,
To have and to hold.
07/28/09
Personally, I think the greatest feminist revolution took place much earlier, when in the course of evolution human females developed the clitoris. After having spent most of the modern centuries thinking that sticking their penises into a woman's vagina was all it would take for women to experience sexual pleasure, men discovering that female orgasms mostly came from the clitoris (which has no reproductive function) must have been like God popping out from underneath the covers and saying "Gotcha!"
07/28/09
07/28/09
I believe she was saying that the clitoris has no reproductive function, which I think is true...
07/28/09
07/28/09
So, although its function is CONDUCIVE to orgasm, it's not a part of the reproductive system. Kind of like how, for instance, taking prenatal vitamins can HELP you conceive, but they are neither necessary nor sufficient for reproduction (and usually have benefits aside from helping conception).
07/28/09
07/28/09
I happen to think this makes female orgasm especially awesome, because then one of its primary functions is to give women pleasure!
07/28/09
One adaptationist theory holds that female orgasms require something in addition to p-in-v as a mechanism for females to test male investment. If he makes you come, he must care. Maybe he'll even care enough to help feed your children!
07/28/09
07/28/09
That was kind of a long-winded question, but I guess I find it interesting, for a few different reasons. Anyway, I watched last night, and it was pretty interesting
07/29/09