WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A FEMINIST? I think I am...by my own definition. Especially when it comes to literature. And as a reflection of the human condition, I like literature that shows women as heroes--at home and in the street--where soft doesn't mean weak. So when L.A. Weekly asked me to choose my favorite L.A. novel, I chose the detective novel, Shooting Elvis, by Robert Eversz which features a kick-ass female protagonist.
In the interview, I talk about what I think it means to "come of age" as a woman and how it relates to the novel, Shooting Elvis. So THANK YOU L.A. Weekly for letting me contribute to the conversation in "17 L.A. Literary Figures Pick Their Favorite L.A. Novels." I hope you support it by clicking on the link and reading more.
"This is the female form,
ReplyDeleteA divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot,
It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction,
I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor,
all falls aside but myself and it,
Books, art, religion, time, the visible and solid earth, and what
was expected of heaven or fear'd of hell, are now consumed,
Mad filaments, ungovernable shoots play out of it, the response
likewise ungovernable,
Hair, bosom, hips, bend of legs, negligent falling hands all
diffused, mine too diffused,
Ebb stung by the flow and flow stung by the ebb, love-flesh swelling
and deliciously aching,
Limitless limpid jets of love hot and enormous, quivering jelly of
love, white-blow and delirious nice,
Bridegroom night of love working surely and softly into the prostrate dawn,
Undulating into the willing and yielding day,
Lost in the cleave of the clasping and sweet-flesh'd..." Whitman
Love that poem, David. Thank you!!!
ReplyDelete