In this forceful and witty collection of essays, Jane Rule speaks frankly of the issues she has confronted as a woman, an artist, and a lesbian, and of the difficult conflicts between personal privacy and social commitment. With the skillful probing of human nature so characteristic of her novels and short stories, she presents thoughtful, provocative remarks on our attitudes to children, the elderly, and the disabled; considers the differences between Canada and the U.S. and marvels at Canadian defensiveness; and, in the finest tradition of Germaine Greer and Kate Millett, challenges our traditional views on morality, sexuality, and creativity.
A Hot-Eyed Moderate, a collection of 47 essays by Jane Rule, was published by Naiad Press in 1985 and in Canada by Lester & Orpen Dennys. Arranged in four sections that grow more personal as they go, the essays range over the practice of writing, censorship, morality in literature, sexual fidelity, aging, feminist politics and Rule's own position as a lesbian writer, in pieces such as "Lesbian and Writer" and "Lesbian Leadership."
The Women's Review of Books found that the title captured Rule's blend of honesty and cool analysis with moral and artistic passion. The book gathers the public voice of one of Canada's most respected lesbian writers in the years when she was also writing for The Body Politic, the Toronto gay liberation paper, where her column "So's Your Grandmother" took on pornography, monogamy and other contested questions of the day. Key Porter Books reissued it in 2002.
Comment
A Hot-Eyed Moderate, a collection of 47 essays by Jane Rule, was published by Naiad Press in 1985 and in Canada by Lester & Orpen Dennys. Arranged in four sections that grow more personal as they go, the essays range over the practice of writing, censorship, morality in literature, sexual fidelity, aging, feminist politics and Rule's own position as a lesbian writer, in pieces such as "Lesbian and Writer" and "Lesbian Leadership."
The Women's Review of Books found that the title captured Rule's blend of honesty and cool analysis with moral and artistic passion. The book gathers the public voice of one of Canada's most respected lesbian writers in the years when she was also writing for The Body Politic, the Toronto gay liberation paper, where her column "So's Your Grandmother" took on pornography, monogamy and other contested questions of the day. Key Porter Books reissued it in 2002.