It took until page 271 for me to find somethign I liked in this book.
"To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision. Few, if any, survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of adult comformity. It becomes easier to die and avoid conflicts than to maintain a constant battle with the superior forces of maturity.
Until recently each generation found it more expedient to plead guilty to the charge of being young and ignorant, easier to take the punishment meted out by the older generation (which had itself confessed to the same crime short years before). The command to grow up at once was more bearable than the faceless horror of wavering purpose, which was youth."
and
" Even those sought-after girls were asked to 'give it up or tell it where it is'. They were reminded in a popular song of the times, 'If you can't smile and say yes, please dont' cry and say no'. If the pretties were expected to make the supreme sacrifice in order to 'belong', what could the unattractive female do? She who had been skimming along on life's turning but never-changing periphery had to be ready to be a 'buddy' by day and mabye by night. She was called upon to be generous only if the pretty girls were unavailable.
I believe most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise. They shield themselves with an aura of unavailableness (for which after a time they begin to take credit) largely as a defense tactic. "
those are the only two passages that made the reading of the book worth it to me.
Until recently each generation found it more expedient to plead guilty to the charge of being young and ignorant, easier to take the punishment meted out by the older generation (which had itself confessed to the same crime short years before). The command to grow up at once was more bearable than the faceless horror of wavering purpose, which was youth."
and
" Even those sought-after girls were asked to 'give it up or tell it where it is'. They were reminded in a popular song of the times, 'If you can't smile and say yes, please dont' cry and say no'. If the pretties were expected to make the supreme sacrifice in order to 'belong', what could the unattractive female do? She who had been skimming along on life's turning but never-changing periphery had to be ready to be a 'buddy' by day and mabye by night. She was called upon to be generous only if the pretty girls were unavailable.
I believe most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise. They shield themselves with an aura of unavailableness (for which after a time they begin to take credit) largely as a defense tactic. "
those are the only two passages that made the reading of the book worth it to me.