Quote image editor
“Despite its particulars, Alice's story is depressingly familiar. It's basic structure is repeated, with multiple variations, everywhere all the time. Although occasionally overt, the cruelties are most often hidden, surreptitious jabs to shame and hurt the victim, a strategy most often adopted by girls, not boys, who go for the direct punch, blow, or kick in the groin. The duel at dawn, with its elaborate legalisms, its seconds and its paces (...) —all are granted a dignity in the culture that no female form of rivalry can match.” — Siri Hustvedt
Despite its particulars, Alice's story is depressingly familiar. It's basic structure is repeated, with multiple variations, everywhere all the time. Although occasionally overt, the cruelties are most often hidden, surreptitious jabs to shame and hurt the victim, a strategy most often adopted by girls, not boys, who go for the direct punch, blow, or kick in the groin. The duel at dawn, with its elaborate legalisms, its seconds and its paces (...) —all are granted a dignity in the culture that no female form of rivalry can match.