Intercourse, by: Andrea Dworkin - Feminish

against the prison, and because her family— her mother in particular—wasdeeply ashamed that she had been jailed, Dworkindecided to leave Amerika for Europe when she was 19.She took the Orient Express from London to Athens, whichshe described as a “ sordid” trip, during which she gave all hermoney to a woman named Mildred who promised to pay herback when they arrived but didn’t.Strangely, Dworkin “never held it against her, ” despite thefact that this Mildred-induced pennilessness led Dworkin tostart sleeping with men for money. She made it to Crete, whereshe created a temporary home for herself perched above the“gem-like surface” of the Aegean. The dazzling beauty and utterforeignness of Dworkin’s surroundings seemed to free her.In a place where one is literally a stranger, there can be an ecstaticsense of liberation from wondering why one has alwaysfelt so strange in what is supposed to be home.Dworkin wrote constantly, producing a book of poems(called Child) and a novel (Notes on Burning Boyfriend, namedafter the pacifist Norman Morrison who had burned himself todeath in protest of the Vietnam War), which she self-publishedon the island. She had a passionate romance with a Greek man;“we’re so much joined in the flesh that strangers feel the pain ifwe stop touching, ” Dworkin wrote. But ultimately the allureand the money ran out, and Dworkin returned home to completeher studies.After graduating with a degree in literature, Dworkin returnedto Europe, this time to Amsterdam, because she wasinterested in the Dutch countercultural “ Provo” movement.But her life took an awful and unexpected turn when she metand married a Dutchman, an anarchist, who beat the livingshit out of her.