Customer Reviews

Pure Lust: Elemental Feminist Philosophy

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mary Daly (1928-2010) was a radical feminist philosopher and theologian who taught at Jesuit-run Boston College for 33 years; she retired in 1999, after a discrimination claim was filed against the college by two male students who claimed to want to be admitted to her advanced Womens Studies courses. She also wrote the books The Church and the Second Sex, Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation, Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism, Websters' First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language, Outercourse: The Be-Dazzling Voyage, QUINTESSENCE: Realizing the Archaic Future A Radical Elemental Feminist Manifesto, and Amazon Grace: Re-Calling the Courage to Sin Big.

She wrote in the Preface to this 1984 book, "This book is being published in the 1980s---a period of extreme danger for women and for our sister the earth and her other creatures... (this) is a sister-work to my books 'Beyond God the Father' and 'Gyn/Ecology.' In some ways, (book) can be seen as the parthenogenic daughters of those earlier works... (which) continues the Otherworld Journey of Exorcism and Ecstasy... I hasten to explain that ... Chiefly, it is a Work of Feminist Erraticism..."

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"Metaphors are necessary for Elemental feminist philosophy, for this is about and IS transformation, movement." (Pg. 26)
"Of course, if a significant cognitive minority of women ever should re-member Elemental powers and our connections with the elements, the most powerful threat to the patriarchal system ... would be unleashed." (Pg. 98)
"The doctrine (of the immaculate conception) certainly can be read as an expression of the impotent priests' hatred of Female Power." (Pg. 104)
"Feminism is a name for our moving/movement into Metabeing." (Pg. 194)
"Undaunted women become Dauntless and Undauntable. valuing be-ing, women are Valorous/Valiant. As Amazons, women are Audacious. As Phoenixes we are Intrepid, Fearless, rising from the fires that were meant to destroy, entering the Fire that we mean to enjoy." (Pg. 285)
"Women in academia are killed softly 'his words,' by the proliferation of bland and boring texts, by the obligation always to return to elementary consciousness-raising (consciousness-razing)---(an) objective achieved simply enough by the requirement that males be admitted to Women's Studies classes. Women's Studies thus can serve the establishment of Boredom, becoming an agency of anti-Change, anti-Metamorphosis." (Pg. 324)

I really love this book, and I really love Mary Daly. Who else could expose the white male agenda of hatred with greater aplomb while focusing exclusively on Women! This is a treat, both intellectually and emotionally. Mary Daly is a genius.

A thought provoking, fun, enlightening, frightening, epic work that is not for the feint at heart. Ms. Daly is poetic, hectic, a wonderful Webster indeed. If you are white and male, be prepared but try not to put up too many defenses--read and try to understand what 4000+ years of oppression has wrought. If you are female and you don't read this work, you have done a diservice to yourself, your mothers, your daughters, and all of humankind. Ms. Daly has shaken my slumber and kicked my rear and said the work is not yet done.

This book opens doors to discussion with it's flowing prose and evocative stance. Shake 'em up Mary! Pure Lust is skillfully wrought and well worth the time to track down out of print copies! (Yes! They are out there! You may want to order two copies as you will surely have one copy out on the rounds on permanent loan.) My lovely edition was the only item stolen from a women's locker room- best wishes to she who has it now- please pass it on... Enjoy!

I have to confess...I LIKE reading Mary Daly. She is a complete kook. You don't get beyond the introduction of this book without realizing where she is coming from, viz., a la-la land of misandry, where everything male is evil, violent, and destructive, and where everything female is life-affirming sweetness, and light. I sometimes use this text in my classes, and when I finish reading students the introduction, even the women sit there with their mouths agape...they just don't appreciate the articulate, nay, the poetic, ramblings of a damaged, if brilliant, mind. Sadly, though, Daly's brilliance IS corrupted by her woefully distorted view of the world...She yearns for a better world, a world without men, where women don't enjoy a male caress, and can reproduce without a man's contribution (see Gyn/Ecology).

And no, men are not threatened by Daly. That's too easy a dismissal.

I give this book only 1 star because it is offered in all seriousness, and what it offers is in fact hateful nonsense that will appeal only to minds and hearts as damaged as Daly's. If, though, you want to read it as a parody of the most extreme sort of feminism (and Daly IS extreme--she would not allow men in her feminist ethics classes at Boston College, and was eventually, FINALLY, forced out of academia for it), then I give this 5 stars. It's a crazy ride, full of vivid language and wild rants. It can be lots of fun, viewed the right way.