Pynchon fans/good

[Diana York Blaine]

Yes, I was a tad shocked by the men/bad, women/good dichotomy--is that
really a feminist credo?  Sheesh.  I always thought I was a man--including
up through graduate school in all those Pynchon seminars where I was the
only woman.  I was there because I wanted to be, but I did notice a
divergence in our responses to the representations of dead women, which
seemed to abound in DeLillo, Pynchon, etc. and I began sadly to realize
that I wasn't one of the boys.  But before I became a card-carrying
feminist I had to learn that feminist theory regards gender constructions
as the constraint to be analyzed--constructions affecting men and women
both.  In fact in some ways I think men clearly have it worse--note the
earlier post about men dying younger and their lives being dangerous: this
could have come straight from the first day lecture in my Women's
Studies courses, but it came from someone who feels alienated by feminist
agendas! A real misunderstanding is afoot; I am glad to hear about it. Diana