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stefhyena's review
2.0
I expected to enjoy this book a lot more based on the author's introduction. A Jungian perspective, but critical of the binarisms and sexism in Jung seemed like a wonderful thing considering how many older feminists that I know are into Jungan psychology but I have always still felt that Jung is no true friend to the feminist. So I thought it would bring these things into a tension that would give me insights. Then also Saxton promised a quirky sense of humour that not everyone "gets", with a hint that maybe they don't get it because it is post-patriarchal and that seemed promising.
In the end I found the book itself too esoteric to be enjoyable and at times heavy going philosophically (sort of a Pilgrim's Progress in a way I suppose but with depressingly negative and stereotypical gender relations added in -critically however which was good). I partially agreed with what the author was saying but found aspects of her analysis naive (that could just be due to the datedness of this book) and the philosophical question overworked at the cost of real plot or character. I also think people's Jungian inner worlds are too person-specific to make for good exhibitionism and the whole book was heavy with symbolism that I either didn't get or didn;t care for. I wonder if perhaps I was 41 back in 1989 (instead of now) the book might have resounded with me better...if I had got into the fashion for Jungian thinking.
The whole binary yin and yang Taoist (well Western-appropriated Taoist anyway) thing does not grab me with its basically irreconcilable (equal but opposite) binaries when in my experience I am not the "opposite" of male but also human despite the way power functions in a still sadly patriarchal world. I also thought Saxton's view of the problem and solution was ridiculously middle-class and assumed that males oppress purely because they don't know/understand. Reading [b:Epistemology of the Closet|85766|Epistemology of the Closet|Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1387705565s/85766.jpg|522947] gives a much better overview of how interests are played out in "ignorance" which is always partially a choice. The fact is women and men are simply NOT equally to blame for misogyny and also race and class do intersect into the whole equation (which these days seems obvious but I guess in the 80s it was possible to speak of a white middle-class feminism as "the" feminism). Anyway our heroine journeys away from her comfortable suburban house and garden into "travails" (not sure that is a good word for what goes on but maybe that is just me) and her worries for "all women" really come down to things like the agency of her white, middle-class, educated daughters and whether or not her wimpy boyfriend "understands" her. There is a rape scene early on but it is so cliche and silly that it is hard to see it for what it is, it seems like Jane goes from one emotional meltdown to another, often criticised but not really getting far.
Some of the attempts at problematisation are simply gross. But there is at least problematisation here.
I have mainly talked about the second (and longer) story because the first one was even less comprehensible to me. The author claims they are both essentially the same story. My favourite part was the introduction which was prickly yet humorous and reflexive. I feel that even though Saxton claims these two stores represent lack of forward movement over 20 year, in fact she is still learning and growing and these stories represent a work in progress thinking wise (albeit perhaps too personal and stream-of-consciousness to have published). It's a shame she seemed to stop there, she may have developed further if they had kept publishing her!
In the end I found the book itself too esoteric to be enjoyable and at times heavy going philosophically (sort of a Pilgrim's Progress in a way I suppose but with depressingly negative and stereotypical gender relations added in -critically however which was good). I partially agreed with what the author was saying but found aspects of her analysis naive (that could just be due to the datedness of this book) and the philosophical question overworked at the cost of real plot or character. I also think people's Jungian inner worlds are too person-specific to make for good exhibitionism and the whole book was heavy with symbolism that I either didn't get or didn;t care for. I wonder if perhaps I was 41 back in 1989 (instead of now) the book might have resounded with me better...if I had got into the fashion for Jungian thinking.
The whole binary yin and yang Taoist (well Western-appropriated Taoist anyway) thing does not grab me with its basically irreconcilable (equal but opposite) binaries when in my experience I am not the "opposite" of male but also human despite the way power functions in a still sadly patriarchal world. I also thought Saxton's view of the problem and solution was ridiculously middle-class and assumed that males oppress purely because they don't know/understand. Reading [b:Epistemology of the Closet|85766|Epistemology of the Closet|Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1387705565s/85766.jpg|522947] gives a much better overview of how interests are played out in "ignorance" which is always partially a choice. The fact is women and men are simply NOT equally to blame for misogyny and also race and class do intersect into the whole equation (which these days seems obvious but I guess in the 80s it was possible to speak of a white middle-class feminism as "the" feminism). Anyway our heroine journeys away from her comfortable suburban house and garden into "travails" (not sure that is a good word for what goes on but maybe that is just me) and her worries for "all women" really come down to things like the agency of her white, middle-class, educated daughters and whether or not her wimpy boyfriend "understands" her. There is a rape scene early on but it is so cliche and silly that it is hard to see it for what it is, it seems like Jane goes from one emotional meltdown to another, often criticised but not really getting far.
Some of the attempts at problematisation are simply gross. But there is at least problematisation here.
I have mainly talked about the second (and longer) story because the first one was even less comprehensible to me. The author claims they are both essentially the same story. My favourite part was the introduction which was prickly yet humorous and reflexive. I feel that even though Saxton claims these two stores represent lack of forward movement over 20 year, in fact she is still learning and growing and these stories represent a work in progress thinking wise (albeit perhaps too personal and stream-of-consciousness to have published). It's a shame she seemed to stop there, she may have developed further if they had kept publishing her!
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