It doesn't suit me to be on the winning side, I suppose.
The Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the Twentieth Century. Michael Moorcock, Quartet Books, London, 1976.
pp. 84-85
"But you won't accept leadership, will you? Is that the feminine part of you?"
She considered this. "I know many men who feel as I feel. I gave up Albania for the same reasons that I gave up the stage when I became successful. It doesn't suit me to be on the winning side, I suppose. I'm embarrassed by lack of criticism. Could that be it?
"You haven't thought of it before?"
"I've reached no conclusions. Besides, I felt sorry for Zog."
"You see!" [Prinz Lobkowitz] was not wholly serious. "You are a woman! You could argue, couldn't you, that femininity is the essence of radicalism? You must be in opposition or you are not happy. You must feel that the force to which you are opposed is more powerful than you."
"Are you talking about women in general?"
"Yes." He frowned, smiling to himself. "Well, perhaps I'm not talking about Queen Victoria. Unless her petulance was the result of her resenting the responsibility she was told she had. Don't all revolutionaries similarly resent the power they are given? Is that why they will often invent new enemies, when their original enemy is defeated? Why they never realize that they have ceased to become the least powerful force and have become the most powerful one?"
Una lit a cigarette and immediately felt a pain in her chest. She put the cigarette down but did not extinguish it. "What about Dalmatia?"
"I'm sorry if I seemed condescending, Una."
"It's not that. Frankly, the discussion bores me. I've had it so often, you see."
"Yes. Forgive me anyway."
pp. 84-85
"But you won't accept leadership, will you? Is that the feminine part of you?"
She considered this. "I know many men who feel as I feel. I gave up Albania for the same reasons that I gave up the stage when I became successful. It doesn't suit me to be on the winning side, I suppose. I'm embarrassed by lack of criticism. Could that be it?
"You haven't thought of it before?"
"I've reached no conclusions. Besides, I felt sorry for Zog."
"You see!" [Prinz Lobkowitz] was not wholly serious. "You are a woman! You could argue, couldn't you, that femininity is the essence of radicalism? You must be in opposition or you are not happy. You must feel that the force to which you are opposed is more powerful than you."
"Are you talking about women in general?"
"Yes." He frowned, smiling to himself. "Well, perhaps I'm not talking about Queen Victoria. Unless her petulance was the result of her resenting the responsibility she was told she had. Don't all revolutionaries similarly resent the power they are given? Is that why they will often invent new enemies, when their original enemy is defeated? Why they never realize that they have ceased to become the least powerful force and have become the most powerful one?"
Una lit a cigarette and immediately felt a pain in her chest. She put the cigarette down but did not extinguish it. "What about Dalmatia?"
"I'm sorry if I seemed condescending, Una."
"It's not that. Frankly, the discussion bores me. I've had it so often, you see."
"Yes. Forgive me anyway."