Customer Reviews

Letters from a War Zone

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the importance of this book can be found in how much it offends certain people and the way in reduces their responses to gibberish.
while i don't agree with everything that dworkin says, i can sympathize with a lot of it, especially her account of what it's like to do the "dirty work" of the womyn's movement. these feelings are applicable to anyone who has to deal with harsh realities in the pursuit of a better world. rather than take the easy path and just ignore the horror's of patriarchy, dworkin addresses them head on in a style that refuses to sugar-coat itself. her account is harsh, which is the way it should be. she's talking about things like domestic abuse and sexual assault, and people expect her to be civil?

this book made me rethink a lot of my attitudes towards gender and sexuality. whether you agree with it or not, it is an important part of feminism and deserves a reading by people who are concerned with such issues

You know someone is a danger to the status quo when they're vilified in the midst of whatever human rights campaign they are part of--it happened to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it happened to Malcolm X, it happened to Nelson Mandela, it happened to Gloria Steinem, and now Andrea Dworkin shares a place on the list of luminaries. _Letters From A War Zone_ details the very sad and very real struggles of one-half of the human population to be treated as equals by the other half. Fiercely intelligent and never mincing her words, Dworkin challenges the hurtful and dehumanizing norms in our society which keep individuals of both genders, but particularly females, from living peacefully and to their fullest potential. The overall tone is angry and yet, when measuring her words, rightfully so--within the themes and contexts of rape and abuse in a world which is nightmarish at best for many, it becomes painfully clear to the reader that the real outrage is to NOT be outraged. Dworkin presents the realities of a world drowning in patriarchal values, and it isn't pretty--yet she also conveys her courage and her hope to make it better, citing her efforts to increase understanding of these issues through lectures and publishing, and even with a mention towards the end of her male lover which gives the lie to the antiquated (and always amusing) notion that all feminists are automatically man-haters for voicing any comment that doesn't put the opposite gender on a throne--the similarity to Malcolm X's relating of his experiences with white people sympathetic to the black people's struggle for equal rights (at Mecca) is both striking and beautiful. Apologists, fence-sitters, insecure male individuals who need their egos stroked and those of both genders who have a vested interest in keeping womyn--or indeed, any persecuted group--abused and "in their place" will of course hate this book. Those with open minds and an interest in feminism or indeed human rights of any kind will find this work to be both a thoughtful and passionate challenge to social injustice.

Andrea Rita Dworkin (1946-2005) was an American radical feminist and writer, as well as anti-war activist and anarchist in the 1960s, best known for her criticism of pornography; she was married to John Stoltenberg. She wrote many books, such as Pornography: Men Possessing Women (Plume), Our Blood / Andrea Dworkin., Woman Hating (Plume), Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant, Intercourse, Scapegoat The Jews, Isreal, and women's Liberation, Life and Death, Right Wing Women, Mercy: A Novel, and Ice and Fire : A Novel.

She wrote in the Introduction to this 1993 collection, "These are essays and speeches, an occasional interview or book review, written from 1976 to 1987. I wrote them to communicate and to survive: as a writer and as a woman... Every piece in this book is part of my own war against the silence of women... These essays and speeches present a political point of view, an analysis, information, arguments, that are censored out of the Amerikan press... by the pornographers and to punish me for getting way out of line."

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"One can know everything and still want desperately to know nothing because to face what we know is to question whether life is worth anything at all." (Pg. 21)
"Q: There are a lot of rumors about your lesbianism. No one quite seems to know what you do with whom. A: Good." (Pg. 59)
"Rape signifies that any woman, no matter how uppity she has become, can be reduced by force or intimidation to the lowest common denominator---a free piece of a__, there for the taking." (Pg. 119)
"I represent the morbid side of the women's movement. I deal with the s___, the real s___." (Pg. 133)
"The ultimate goal of feminism is to make feminism unnecessary. And that makes feminism different from other political movements in this country." (Pg. 143)

This collection of Andrea Dworkin's speeches and writings are well written, powerful and most of all come from a place of compassion and humanity. Andrea writting often sinks into despair and it sometimes seems that she is wallowing in it, but for a woman who does "feminism's dirty work", it is understandable and seems to come more from a feeling of being overwhelmed than anything else. This collection is a must read for both men and women who care about equality and human rights.

i was shocked and horrified by Dworkin's exposure of the white male paradigms of hatred. this is a truly courageous book, and reminds me of the almost impossibly brave bell hooks. this book shows conclusively that what men desire most is to murder. now, as a society of women, we simply owe it to ourselves to protect ourselves, by *any* means necessary.

After numerous references, I decided to go to the source. This is a sad and hatful book. While her command at 'motivationally' structured composition is admirable, the fundamental elements of humanity and life are incredibly dim, dark and damaged. I feel sorry for her and for women who read this text and allow it to affect their relationships with men, which is more or less inevitable as she is so absurdly extreme. I cannot reccomend this title, in fact, I find it a source of considerable negativity in an area needing love, compassion, and understanding. Nonetheless, there certainly are those who will find the work both compelling and enlightening, and if they do so, I hope it is to pull them to a healthy balance with those of Y chromosomes, not to this hateful extreme.

That this book was motivated by the very best of intentions -- to improve the social situation of women -- is obvious. Where this book and its author go utterly, tragically wrong is in the expression of this desire. Dworkin vents her anger indiscriminately and unthinkingly in a vitriolic, incoherent and hateful manner. While I empathize with many of the sources of her anger, the expression of it in such a manner can only hurt the cause she cares so deeply for. It is the identification of books like this one with the women's movement that has made feminism the new 'F word'. I moun for the trees that sacrificed their lives so that this book could be published.

I admit that I did not read this book in its entirety. I had some gastro-intestinal problems that I feared might escalate to produce a rather embarassing situation in the library. Besides who needs the expense for dry-cleaning a cashmere sport-jacket? I hope that most women will reject this dangerous endictment of men. I fear that if the majority of women felt as Dworkin does, the human race might come to a standstill. Her views are as dangerous as the Islamic radical views that have damaged the Middle East. Books like this can be tolerated so long as they have limited appeal. Therefore, in order to ensure that those who think like Dworkin receive the ridicule they must want, if this book is any indication. I encourage all sane men and women to speak out and give this book the review it deserves. I would never advocate censorship, and ms. Dworkin can rant all she wants. However, we should feel free to ridicule and stress the danger and folly of Dworkin's 'war zone'.