Myra-Breckinridge-Gore-Vidal

possess another person's body simply as a means ofachieving power is only one part of an infinitely complexresponse. To a point, I agree with him. It is of course truethat, power aside, a certain amount of tenderness isnecessary in human relations. Myron never understood thisand it is possible that no man really can. Yet we women areinstinctively tender, even when we are achieving totaldominion. As a woman, I was touched by Rusty's tears. Ieven experienced a maternal warmth while tidying up hispoor bloody bottom. That is woman's role, to make thewound and then to heal it. Not for nothing do the earliest ofmyths depict us as Fate itself, attending the male fromswaddling clothes to winding sheet. But there has beennothing in my experience which has quite prepared me forMary-Ann. Of course she is unique in her charm, herbeauty, her womanliness. I have never known a girl whocould arouse in me so many conflicting emotions. Even theuterine mysteries, so deplored by Myron, are now for methe be-all and end-all, the center to which one must returnand not simply in search of Rusty's phallic track but for thesake of the journey itself to the very source of life. We haddinner tonight with Letitia at Scandia, an excellentrestaurant on the Strip where Scandinavian food is servedto a most elegant clientele, among whom I counted fourbona fide stars of the Forties. It took me an entire day totalk Mary-Ann into having dinner with Letitia, whom sheregards as "the other woman." She only agreed when Iassured her that Letitia was the one being used by Rusty,not the other way around. Letitia and I had agreed on this