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diff --git a/essays/creep.tex b/essays/creep.tex index f2a491d..5bd9b13 100644 --- a/essays/creep.tex +++ b/essays/creep.tex @@ -1,9 +1,9 @@ \chapter{Creep} -When Helen Lefkowitz said I was "such a creep" at Interlochen in +When Helen Lefkowitz said I was \enquote{such a creep} at Interlochen in 1956, her remark epitomized the feeling that females have always had about me. My attempts to understand why females rejected me and to decide what -to do about it resulted in years of confusion. In 1961-1962, I tried to +to do about it resulted in years of confusion. In 1961--1962, I tried to develop a theory of the creep problem. This theory took involuntary celibacy as the defining characteristic of the creep. Every society has its image of the ideal young adult, even though the symbols of growing up @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ with condescending scorn, amusement, or pity. Because he seems weak and inferior in the company of others, and cannot maintain his self-respect, the creep is pressed into isolation. There, the creep doesn't have the pressure of other people's presence to make him -feel inferior, to make him feel that he must be like them in order not te be +feel inferior, to make him feel that he must be like them in order not to be inferior. The creep can develop the morale required to differ. The creep also tends to expand his fantasy life, so that it takes the place of the interpersonal life from which he has been excluded. The important @@ -87,14 +87,14 @@ My problem actually has to do with the enormous discrepancy between the ways I can relate to males and the ways I can relate to females. The essence of the problem has to do with the social values of females, which are completely different from my own. The principal occupation of my life has -been certain self-originated activities which are embodied in "writings." Now +been certain self-originated activities which are embodied in \enquote{writings.} Now most males have the same social values that I find in all females. But there have always been a few males with exceptional values; and my activities have developed through exchanges of ideas with these males. These exchanges have come about spontaneously and naturally. In contrast, I have never had such an exchange of ideas with females, for the following reasons. Females have nothing to say that applies to my activities. They cannot understand -that such activities are possible. Or they are a part of the "masses" who +that such activities are possible. Or they are a part of the \enquote{masses} who oppose and have tried to discourage my activities. The great divergence between myself and females comes in the area @@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ prerequisites, no institutional barriers to entry. One enters it by defining oneself as being in it. Yet no female has chosen to enter it. Or consider such figures as Galileo and Galois. By the standards of their contemporaries, these individuals were engaged in utterly ridiculous, antisocial pursuits. Society -does not give anybody the "opportunity" to engage in such pursuits. Society +does not give anybody the \enquote{opportunity} to engage in such pursuits. Society tries to prevent everybody from being a Galileo or Galois. To be a Galileo is really a matter of choosing sides, of choosing to take a certain stand.) @@ -126,9 +126,9 @@ the women's group of the Art Workers Coalition in New York. Many of the women there had seen my Down With Art pamphlet. Ail the females who have seen this pamphlet have reacted negatively, and it is quite clear what their attitude is. They believe that they are courageously defending modern -art against a philistine. They consider me to be a crank who needs a "modern -museum art appreciation course." The more they are pressed, the more -proudiy do they defend "Great Art." Now the objective validity of my +art against a philistine. They consider me to be a crank who needs a \enquote{modern +museum art appreciation course.} The more they are pressed, the more +proudiy do they defend \enquote{Great Art.} Now the objective validity of my opposition to art is absolutely beyond question. To defend modern art is precisely what a hopeless mediocrity would consider courageous. Again, it is clear that the opposition between myself and females is in the area where @@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ important part of my life; and to adopt a facade of conformity. Thus, I perceive females as persons who cannot function in my occupation. I perceive them as being like an employment agency, like an institution to which you have to present a conformist facade. Females can he counted on to -represent the most "social, human" point of view, a point of view which, as I +represent the most \enquote{social, human} point of view, a point of view which, as I have explained, is distant from my own. (In March 1970, at the Institute for Advanced Study, the mathematician Dennis Johnson said to me that he would murder his own mother, and murder all his friends, if by doing so he |