for hours, ignoring his mother’s cries.nHe described the sophisticated appealsnto TV of politicians, special interestngroups, and terrorists, who have developednthe ability to count the networksnamong their hostages: “By giving thenextremists exposure, we helped to gainnthem support.” A nation—mesmerizednby the tube—increasingly confuses fantasynwith reality, until, Schorr explains,nreality fades and disappears.nIt is stunning and powerful, the astutencriticism of a journalist who traffickednin televised news. Schorr does notnrenounce his credentials with the Washingtonnpress corps, or temper his obeis­nance to the First Amendment. He asksnquestions, but does not answer them—hendoes not “clear the air.” Yet, it seems, henslips out of television journalism andnlooks about, briefly, his prejudices stirrednand somewhat disheveled. His book isnfull of uneasiness, of puzzlement, andnperhaps, therefore, of hope. DnA Novel as Manifesto, or Mem Kampf RevisitednMarilyn French: The Women’snRoom; Summit Books; New York,n1977.nby Mary Ellen FoxnOnly a generation ago we foughtna monumental war in order to combatnthe principle that a group can claimnabsolute, or total, superiority overnanother group and impose its dominationnby force through this claim. Althoughnany sort of chauvinism, and group andnclass conflicts, are deplorable facts of life,nthe Western democratic civilization isnbuilt on the premise that compromisesnare always possible. It was impossible,nhowever, to compromise with the totalitariannworldview of Nazism, which hadnto be irrevocably defeated through warnat the cost of immense human suffering.nUnfortunately, in the last decade, therenappears to be a frightening echo ofnHitler’s Weltanschauung surfacingnwithin the women’s movement. Now wenhave a novel which confirms the worstnfears. French, its author, is a proponentnof feminism evolved into totalitarianism.nIf there is no emphatic rebuttal of thisnaspect of the movement, the rest of thensociety will have no choice but to considernthe attitudes codified by this novel notnthose of a mere radical fringe, but as thenvery essence of feminist ideology. Thisnideology can be defined as sheer hatrednof one half the world’s population. Sonvirulent is Marilyn French in her denun-nDr. Fox, Yale ’74, specialized in femininencharacters and destinies in the XIXncentury novel.nelation of men that it seems comparablenonly to Hitler’s paranoid ravings againstnthe Jews. There is no man innocent ofncrimes against women; simply by beingnborn male he participates in the collectivenresponsibility and guilt for all of women’snwoes. And, according to French, theynare devastating.nAs in every ideological manifesto, thenroles and functions in the basic moralitynplay have to be clear-cut. Never, exceptnin some nineteenth century melodrama,nhas poor Woman, quivering and helplessnlike a threatened widow or orphan, beennso vulnerable to the sinister advances ofna mustachioed villain. Every time a mannappears, we are supposed to know he isnup to no good, and filled with righteousnindignation, we are expected to hiss atnappropriate intervals. However, just likenthe skeptical Thelma Ritter character,nin the vaome AllAboutEve, who sarcasticallynremarked about the tearjerkingntale of young Eve, 1 too can see “thenbloodhounds baying and salivating andnsnapping at our poor heroine’s heels.”nWe first encounter Mira, French’snmoral and existential emblem, hiding innthe ladies’ room at Harvard in the latensixties. However, since “lady” is presumablynconsidered a four letter word by thosenin the femlib movement, the sign on thendoor has been graffitied over to readn”women’s room.” Anyway, Mira is hidingnin the toilet, having one of her nervousnbreakdowns.nMira was born with enormous disadvantages:nshe is a woman in a societynmade by and for men; as a child she wasntaught not to cross her legs at the knee;nnnand she is a pretty girl, which makes hernthe object of male importunate attentionnand thus the perennial victim.nAs such, Mira married Norm, anmedical student and male chauvinist. Herndownfall has begun. To destroy a woman,naccording to French: “You don’t have tonrape or kill her; you don’t even have tonbeat her. You can just marry her.” Norm’snineptitude deprived Mira of the pleasuresnof sex but not the consequences: twonbabies in two years, and the drudgery ofndiapers, dishes and dinners. It is 1959:nNorm has voted for Nixon, Mira fornKennedy. He becomes a doctor and theynmove to a suburban split level. Here Miranmakes friends with other young marriednwomen and an inchoate feeling ofnwomen’s solidarity against their commonnoppressor takes root. For the men havennow begun to mistreat their wives,nunfaithfulness and even beatings follow.nChildren can be cruel, too, when notnimmersed in television. Husbands growntired of their wives and leave them fornother women. This is exactly what Normndoes to Mira.nThis is why Mira, the everywoman,nhas her nervous breakdown, attemptsnsuicide, and hides in a facility of physiologicalnrelief, which becomes an ideologicalnsymbol and literary metaphor. Shenmanages to pull herself together, however,nputs her sons in private schoolsnand goes off to Harvard on her alimony.nShe studies, she meets new people andnmakes friends. It is the late sixties andnshe becomes involved in radical politicsnand women’s groups. She finds, for thenfirst time, real companionship and anmarriage of true minds. There are endlessn15nChronicles of Calturen