----- Original Message ----- From: "// ravi" <ravi at platosbeard.org>
But wait, I thought the sex in Rand novels is essentially rape, yes?
—ravi ___________________________________
Well, there's something like "rape" in Fountainhead, but it's arguably invited. The woman who is put upon actually whips the man who later attacks her, construing the whipping as an invitation, which it is. So it's a mixed story.
Otherwise, no rape anywhere else. But the sex is always a titanic conflagration of reciprocal wills.
I have always thought sex a fascinating, interesting, and ecstatic possibility....but grew up in a world that, at best, commodified the whole thing, so I found this aspect of Rand attractive when I was a teenager. When I got older, I realized even the sex in Rand was simplistic but ....
....I know she's a hack writer with delusions of grandeur, but I do thank her for that. There's very little literature in which a female character gets to desire, explore, and enjoy sex...other than Lawrence. I'm trying to think who writes about female sexuality in a half-way good way....hmmmmm....Donne, Chaucer, Collette....
???
Joanna