BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

(excerpts from the above titled book) by Susan Sontag In June 1938 Virginia Woolf published Three Guineas , her brave, unwelcomed reflections on the roots of war. Written during the preceding two years, while she and most of her intimates and fellow writers were rapt by the advancing fascist insurrection in Spain, the book was couched as the very tardy reply to a letter from an eminent lawyer in London who had asked, "How in your opinion are we to prevent war?" Woolf begins by observing tartly that a truthful dialogue between them may not be possible. For though they belong to the same class, "the educated class," a vast gulf separates them: the lawyer is a man and she is a woman. Men make war. Men (most men) like war, since for men there is "some glory, some necessity, some satisfaction in fighting" that women (most women) do not feel or enjoy. What does an educated read: privileged, well-off-woman like her know of war? Can her recoil from its allure be l...

In undergrad school, for my senior thesis/ performance (I was an English Literature Major and a Theatre Minor) I choose a number of monologues to do that portrayed a variety of the themes theatre covers about women. Particularly as more than sex objects. One of the hardest ones for me was Martha from "WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINA WOOLF? " I love Albee's works and Virginia Woolf has been a favorite writer of mine for years. Woolf had a good grasp on the struggle of women to find balance and selfhood - a struggle which finally overcame her personally. But Martha is a tough role. She is very 3 dimensional and at the age of 22, despite getting a standing ovation, I knew I didn't have the inner experience to flesh her out the way I would have liked. I think about Martha a lot, in light of my divorce, because my marriage had some similarities to Martha & George's. (Though Martha's loose sexuality was diametrically opposed to my own sparse sexual experience a...