FEAR OF FLYING
Isadora Wing #1by Erica Jong | Publication: October 18, 2011
Open Road | Genre: Fiction
Rating: ★★★
"Isadora is probably one of the most anti-heroine
you’ll ever encounter."
____________________________________________________________________
Isadora Wing is tired. Tired of being psychoanalyzed. Tired of grad school. Tired of fighting with her husband. Tired of having unfulfilled desires. She thinks she knows what she's searching for and how to achieve it. But her quest to engage in no-strings-attached sex quickly shifts into a journey of self-discovery that will leave her questioning her own mind, her ideals, and what she truly wants in life....
Originally published in 1973, the ground-breaking, uninhibited story of Isadora Wing and her desire to fly free caused a national sensation. It fueled fantasies, ignited debates, and introduced a notorious new phrase to the English language. Now, after fifty years, this revolutionary novel still stands as a timeless tale of self-discovery, liberation, and womanhood.
Originally published in 1973, the ground-breaking, uninhibited story of Isadora Wing and her desire to fly free caused a national sensation. It fueled fantasies, ignited debates, and introduced a notorious new phrase to the English language. Now, after fifty years, this revolutionary novel still stands as a timeless tale of self-discovery, liberation, and womanhood.
____________________________________________________________________
Zipless is Fearless
FEAR OF FLYING is a feminist classic that is not recommended for the prudish mind. This exploration of feminine identity explicitly describes the misadventures taken by her protagonist, Isadora Wing, to own her brand of liberation and sexuality. The terms and setting for this novel may be dated, but the themes offer plenty of insights that are still relevant to women of this generation.
“Any system was a straitjacket if you insisted
on adhering to it so totally and humorlessly.”
Told in the first person, Isadora Wing narrates her family life, misadventures, and reflections with much wit and honesty that for generations believed as scandalous coming from a woman. She is a published poet raised and bred in a middle-class family from New York. Isadora is probably one of the most anti-heroine you’ll ever encounter. She is compulsive, volatile, susceptible, and acutely irritating at most times.
"They screamed at me, but I couldn't hear.
I was reading. I was writing. I was safe."
On a trip to Vienna to attend a psychoanalytic congress with her psychiatrist husband, Isadora meets a reckless analyst who seems to be the embodiment of all her sultry sexual fantasies. He seduced Isadora to leave her husband for an existential journey across Europe, which turned out as a re-evaluation of her outlook and unvoiced desires in life.
"What was that other voice which kept calling me coward!
and egging me on to burn my bridges,
to swallow the poison in one gulp instead of drop by drop,
to go down into the bottom of my fear and see if I could pull myself up?
Was it a voice? Or was it a thump?
Something even more primitive than speech.
A kind of pounding in my gut which I had nicknamed my "hunger-thump."
It was as if my stomach thought of itself as a heart.
And no matter how I filled it—with men, with books,
with food—it refused to be still.
Unfillable—that's what I was.
Nymphomania of the brain. Starvation of the heart."
Since Isadora irritates her readers, Erica Jong gained respect as a true feminist writer. While Isadora pursues her desire for the ultimate “zipless fuck”, Jong showed her readers that a woman can feel and do what she wants in any context, even in sex. During Isadora’s plummet to self-abasement, Jong told us that we can also be our own hero if we so choose. It is safe to conclude then that when we lose our fears, we can gain our freedom.
"Freedom is full of fear. But fear isn't the worst thing we face. Paralysis is."
FEAR OF FLYING is a feminist classic that is not recommended for the prudish mind. This exploration of feminine identity explicitly describes the misadventures taken by her protagonist, Isadora Wing, to own her brand of liberation and sexuality. The terms and setting for this novel may be dated, but the themes offer plenty of insights that are still relevant to women of this generation.
on adhering to it so totally and humorlessly.”
Told in the first person, Isadora Wing narrates her family life, misadventures, and reflections with much wit and honesty that for generations believed as scandalous coming from a woman. She is a published poet raised and bred in a middle-class family from New York. Isadora is probably one of the most anti-heroine you’ll ever encounter. She is compulsive, volatile, susceptible, and acutely irritating at most times.
I was reading. I was writing. I was safe."
On a trip to Vienna to attend a psychoanalytic congress with her psychiatrist husband, Isadora meets a reckless analyst who seems to be the embodiment of all her sultry sexual fantasies. He seduced Isadora to leave her husband for an existential journey across Europe, which turned out as a re-evaluation of her outlook and unvoiced desires in life.
and egging me on to burn my bridges,
to swallow the poison in one gulp instead of drop by drop,
to go down into the bottom of my fear and see if I could pull myself up?
Was it a voice? Or was it a thump?
Something even more primitive than speech.
A kind of pounding in my gut which I had nicknamed my "hunger-thump."
It was as if my stomach thought of itself as a heart.
And no matter how I filled it—with men, with books,
with food—it refused to be still.
Unfillable—that's what I was.
Nymphomania of the brain. Starvation of the heart."
Since Isadora irritates her readers, Erica Jong gained respect as a true feminist writer. While Isadora pursues her desire for the ultimate “zipless fuck”, Jong showed her readers that a woman can feel and do what she wants in any context, even in sex. During Isadora’s plummet to self-abasement, Jong told us that we can also be our own hero if we so choose. It is safe to conclude then that when we lose our fears, we can gain our freedom.
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About the Author:
Erica Jong is the author of several books of poetry, fiction, and memoir, including Fear of Flying, which has more than 18 million copies in print worldwide. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, and she is a frequent guest on television talk shows. Erica and her lawyer husband live in New York City and Connecticut. Her daughter, Molly Jong-Fast, is also an author.
at Titania Wine Cellar, Makati.
Photo courtesy of Monique.
Posts
Ay, sayang, I'm not in the photo!
ReplyDeleteAnd to think that it was my first time to join you guys.
Anyway, till next time!
We were so engrossed with the discussion, we didn't thought of taking a picture earlier.
DeleteNext time we will amend that! ♥
I love this book. It didn't change my life but I love it anyway. I like Isadora's candor and musings. But if Isadora were a man, I might have different feelings.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, double standards?
DeleteBut somehow, I do agree with you. Considering psychological and physical attributes, a man will gain different reactions. :)
LOL @ acutely irritating! But I had fun reading this novel. It's strange how some of the issues faced by women in the 70s are still being experienced by women today. :)
ReplyDeleteIsadora irritates me to no end every time she compromises with Adrian. She does the yards not to disappoint him and be judged by him. For someone who's suppose to be intelligent and radical, that doesn't add up.
DeleteAnd that's where Jong got me the best. Because for me to react that way towards her character, she succeeded as far as I am concerned.