Sunday, October 22, 2006

One of my favorite authors, Doris Lessing

On Religion: “You'd never believe, when I was young, we genuinely believed religious wars were over. We'd say, at least it's impossible to have a religious war now. Can you believe that? . . . I'm so afraid of religion. Its capacity for murder is terrifying.”
-- Doris Lessing interview by Harvey Blume, Boston Book Review

On Feminism: "What the feminists want of me is something they haven't examined because it comes from religion. They want me to bear witness. What they would really like me to say is, 'Ha, sisters, I stand with you side by side in your struggle toward the golden dawn where all those beastly men are no more.' Do they really want people to make oversimplified statements about men and women? In fact, they do. I've come with great regret to this conclusion." The New York Times, 25 July 1982

I did my Masters thesis on Doris Lessing, and she has led quite an interesting and unusual life, and I highly recommend reading her African Stories as well as her science fiction novels. My personal favorite is Mara and Dann.

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