Chamblee54

PG took his brother GP grocery shopping. While waiting in Georgia’s worst parking lot, PG read Fear of Dying, Erica Jong’s rhyming followup to Fear of Flying. On page 170, PG realized that he might not want to finish the book: “So, this is a story about heaven and hell. The hell of writing is self censorship. The heaven is the speaking of the truth. Women have a particular problem with this.”
Erica Mann Jong (born Erica Mann, with no middle name) does not have a problem with sounding pretentious. EMJ is a feminist, and a Jew, details that are obvious to anyone who reads her. Her saving grace is writing fun books. Her amorous adventure stories are finely crafted works. Even with the parking lot discovery, PG is only 27 pages shy of the end. This is due day at the library, so that may be that. (Roxane Gay might have a different opinion.)
FOD is about wealthy Jewish women that get old. Her parents and poodle die. Her old and wealthy husband has an anuerism. . Wealthy older husband does not need to know about his wife’s adventures on zipless.com. The readers are not spared.
EMJ is good at the book tour game. While promoting FOD, she appeared on The Diane Rehm Show. This is public broadcasting, complete with upbeat intro music, and a hostess from the Lois Reitzes school of non commercial announcing. EMJ began the show by saying “It’s wonderful to see you, Diane. And you — age cannot wither nor custom stale your infinite variety. You look fantastic.” Skype is good for white lies. Later, EMJ tries to explain that she is not exactly Isadora Wing.
JONG Connection, we don’t need fast sex anymore. We need slow sex in a fast world.
REHM In a relationship is what…
JONG We won’t be satisfied by a ZF.
REHM Exactly.
JONG Nothing — we never were, actually. People made much of it, but I, as, you know, the author, never, never liked that kind of sex, never. But I intuited that it was in the zeitgeist. And I remember thinking when people would write in magazine, if the Erica Jongs of this world had their way, women everywhere would hop from bed to bed to bed to bed. And I thought, but I’ve always been monogamous…. Sometimes when a relationship is breaking down, I get itchy, as does the man I’m involved with, but as long as the relationship is totally satisfying, I have always been monogamous. So people do confuse the fantasy in a book with the reality of the author’s life.
A few minutes later, the ladies have a disagreement.
REHM And now it does seem to me that what’s happened with this book is that you’ve gone through all of that. You’ve experienced all of that. You’ve put that behind you, and somehow now you are facing into the reality of your own, as well as Vanessa’s, mortality. And what I want to know is what are you afraid of?
JONG Well, you know, Woody Allen said, who blurbed this book, I’m not afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.
REHM Yeah. I saw that, and I recognize that you’ve gotten lots of wonderful blurbs. Here’s one from Judy Collins, who was just on this program the other day. She says, fear of dying by Erica Jong is hysterical and touching, compelling and heartbreaking and makes me want even more to live joyfully forever. So I wonder because, you know, Erica, I’m not afraid of dying, and I would like to understand what it is that you think is making you afraid.
JONG I don’t think I’m afraid anymore. (EMJ makes choking sounds.)
REHM Erica is having a little problem with her throat. She’s just put a lozenge in her mouth. Let me give you time to relax and get your voice back, have a little sip of water …
JONG Endless book tour. In fact I am not afraid of dying.
REHM You’re not. Good, I’m glad to hear that.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.