07 June 2008

It Need Not Be

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I read several books this week while crisscrossing Wyoming, and one particular part thereof particularly commands my frustration and concentration.

I read The Whistling Season on the recommendation of a friend whose opinion I really value, but ever since I read a particular line from the book it has bothered me.
You and Rose--
--have done what a man and a woman do. That's so. Nights are long here...
Doig writes this as if it's a forgone conclusion that every single man and every single woman will simply gratify the lusts of the flesh. I have spent most of my life trying to disprove that notion.

I am attracted to women. I happen to enjoy what Doig references in this passage. However, we are not all animals, and we need not be.

This particular passage has obfuscated every other notion I might have retained from the book. It has consumed my thoughts and embroiled my frustrations. I refuse to accept the premise, and I adjure you to do in kind.

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