"Das Eva-Prinzip" - first thoughts

Currently I'm fighting my way through "Das Eva-Prinzip", so I can really comment on what was written. Up till now I've mainly commented on what I've heard about the book. It's not going well...

I've gotten myself the paperback, because there's no way in hell I'm paying more than necessary for this book. It's only got about 250 pages - an afternoon's read, normally -, but I've been working on it, bit by bit, for over a week now and I'm hardly past the prologue. I really wish I were a masochist, right now.

That's not mainly because of the style - which would be okay, nothing great, but not bad either -, it's because of the content.

I wasn't even through with the first page of the prologue and already angry about the book - not a good thing.

What angered me most, is the way this woman (or rather women, as she didn't write the book completely on her own) sketches up her ideal of female behaviour and expects everyone else to secretly nod their heads and agree with her. In her world, I fear, there's no lesbians, there's no unmarried women above a certain age, there's no women unable to conceive and there's no men who'd leave their family (whether out of their own will or by dying). Looking around me and seeing all those things - and more -, I wonder which cloud she's currently inhabiting. Or what kind of drug she took to reach this non-existent world. Must be damn good stuff.

Judging from the description of every woman in the world she gives in her book, I'm not a woman at all. Unfortunately I seem to lack the right equipment for a man, so what am I? Well, look to the title of this blog, you're not an average woman. Thanks.

Miss Herman denies there's women who can't bear children. She also denies, more or less, there's women who are happy without a man (either all alone or with another woman). In her eyes, all the women in Germany who like to work and are proud of having a good job just lie to themselves. They really don't want to do that, she claims, they just aren't brave enough to admit that they just want to marry and have children.

I've nothing against women who see this as their ideal way of life. If they choose it out of their free will, it's perfectly okay with me.

I've got a lot against people who see this as every woman's ideal way of life and would like to enforce it.

Those are just my first thoughts about the book, but I will continue to fight my way through the pages. And I'll continue to write about it.