Mounir F F itibaren Dewel, Pakistan
Loved it.
Excellent book – very accessible and engaging. Kipnis wants us to think about pornography not in terms of good/bad; instead she wants us to think about the larger questions and implications that pornography and taboos inspire. Instead of looking at culturally-sanctioned fantasies (examples: heterosexual rape fantasies, Playboy magazine ilk, straight porn), she analyzes the non-sanctioned varieties, which become taboo, highly regulated, and generally despised (examples include fat porn, transvestite porn, low-class porn like Hustler magazine). She argues that by looking carefully at how we police, legislate, and regulate sex we can learn quite a bit about our culture – our power structures, gender designations, and so forth. Interesting stuff.
Tess is a young woman when her father discovers that they are the remnants of a noble family. As a result, when the family's horse is killed, the mother convinces Tess to travel to relatives to claim kin. Tess obtains work at the estate but the son abuses her and sets off a chain of events that span years and destroys lives. Tess is never the same after the time spent with her cousin and it's a very sad story.
I have to admit the reason for not finishing this one is incredibly lame: it was a large print edition, and it drives me kind of crazy to read large print. If anyone tells me it is truly fantastic I'll try again, until then I think I have enough other books on my list to keep me busy.
Didn't finish reading this one. I was listening to it on CD (to which there are about 14) and made it nearly three quarters of the way, but it just didn't keep my attention... and it seemed a bit stretched-out. Maybe the next one will be a little more gripping (for all the praise Tunnels received...)