http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Sun, 15 Apr 2007 12:08:55 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/07/28/121700.php#comment-576609 Hi Tim: I think in any relationship of this sort - father and daughter, or teacher professor, or psychiatrist patient, priest etc - then there is a power balance and that makes all the difference. The onus is the person with the greater power to respect those boundaries. Listen, i'm not a Harrison "fan" - and no, i'm not going to go along with your theory of, in short, "she wanted it" (in so many words, this is what you are saying when you say she wanted to sleep with him, no?). That's going too far. It's quite normal for young girls to be coy and <i>taquine</i> around older men, esp. their fathers, but again, the onus is on the parent not to do anything and deal with it as is. I'm working on a whole book about this re: Lewis Carroll who many say was a pedophile and i just don't buy it for one second. So it's hardly, as you can see i hope, that i am ready to jump on the shrill-feminist-bus of "he did it he did it he did it" with absolutely no proof positive. Harrison's book is <i>her</i> memoir. She's written other books that i think are far superior like "Exposure" which if you ask me is closer to the 'truth' (if indeed the story is true and i see no reason why she would make it up only to be flamed, and more, to be flamed by you, to have you flame me, etc etc - that is just stupid). I think she is genuine. Maybe she wanted the affair for a while or thought she did, but to think that she wanted this in her right mind is simply put, nuts. She was a young girl in crisis and in need of help and likely medication as well and i'm glad she finally got the help she needed. People will do things out of character when they are screwed up psychologically and they may even do them willingly, but does that mean we take advantage of them? OR would it have been better and more respectable for the father to have sought the help his daughter, who he supposedly loved? AS i said, i'm not a big fan of Harrison, but you put me in a position in which you are asking me to condone what essentially boils down to an unstable young woman experiencing a break of somekind likely and being taken advantage of by someone who, by rights and who ought know better, she ought trust. That's sad... pitiful. I can't say anymore about it. I'm afraid you and i are just going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I don't think she 'wanted it' at least, not in her 'right' mind. I understand you sticking up for men and that's fine; maybe it would help if men did not molest their daughters then there would be nothing to write about - that would be one rememdy and i write this as someone who loves men and who has done a great deal of reseach on the topic, as no doubt, have you... we're stuck. i think we've all said what we have had to say - at least, i have. I'm glad you read and chimed in though. You raise a valid point and make me address something that perhaps i did not address in the piece. 576609@blogcritics.org Sun, 15 Apr 2007 12:08:55 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/07/28/121700.php#comment-576566 Did it occur to you that she didn't say no to the relationship because she wanted the relationship? Why are women always victims? And why are men always predators? Is it really that unfathonable to think they were sexualy attracted to each other and went with their passion? This review of the book didn't do much for me because it had a priori moral judgments (which I guess is a fancy term I just made up that simply means prejudice) and that doesn't tell me anything about the book, just the author's puritanical worldview. Which perhaps that's what the field of criticism is really only about in the first place. 576566@blogcritics.org Sun, 15 Apr 2007 09:30:15 EDT