Author(s): Laura Kipnis

Gender and Society

Who would dream of being against love? No one.
Love is, as everyone knows, a mysterious and all-controlling force, with vast power over our thoughts and life decisions.
But is there something a bit worrisome about all this uniformity of opinion? Is this the one subject about which no disagreement will be entertained, about which one truth alone is permissible? Consider that the most powerful organized religions produce the occasional heretic; every ideology has its apostates; even sacred cows find their butchers. Except for love.
Hence the necessity for a polemic against it. A polemic is designed to be the prose equivalent of a small explosive device placed under your E-Z-Boy lounger. It won' t injure you (well not severely); it' s just supposed to shake things up and rattle a few convictions. 'Lest the reader attack all this as simplistic, one-sided, or an icky endorsement of "sin," Kipnis insists that this book is a "polemic." It's supposed to be one-sided; it's allowed to be simplistic. She's arguing for the sake of argument, and let others answer or not, as they choose. For the sake of this argument, the author maintains that adulterers are, or may be, courageous social pioneers, challenging the larger society much in the manner of Oliver Twist: "Please sir, may I have some more?" More pleasure, more fun, more intensity, more authenticity.' Carolyn See Washington Post