The Scarlet Letter Society by Mary McCarthy Page A

thinks it’s hot and wants to watch, that’s all.”
    The women laughed.
    “So, who wants to talk about the zipless fuck first?” said Maggie.
    “I think it’s a conundrum, almost an oxymoron,” started Lisa. “Jong defines the zipless fuck as sex with no consequences, but in order to have sex in the first place, zippers are coming down.”
    “I just love Isadora Wing so much,” said Eva. “She’s the best feminine literary character I’ve ever encountered.”
    “That is possibly because she’s the first literary character you’ve ever encountered,” joked Maggie. “Just kidding. Well obviously she’s my favorite, since I named children and businesses after her. I love her strength. And her admission of weakness. I love her humanity.”
    Lisa read from her journal.
    “’We drove to the hotel and said goodbye. How hypocritical to go upstairs with a man you don’t want to fuck, leave the one you do sitting there alone, and then, in a state of great excitement, fuck the one you don’t want to fuck while pretending he’s the one you do. That’s called fidelity. That’s called monogamy. That’s called civilization and its discontents.’”
    “That is some complicated shit,” said Zarina. “I love Jong’s honesty. She’s a pioneer. For 1973, this book is a groundbreaker. Any bullshit literary criticism it received came from the male-dominated mindset held even by some overly old-fashioned women who obviously weren’t getting laid.”
    “She definitely wasn’t afraid to say what women were thinking in the 70s,” said Eva. “And she said it with great style.”
    “I like the tug-of-war Isadora has within herself,” Lisa said. “It’s so raw and genuine. Her perspective is so unique and interesting to experience. You genuinely care about what happens to her, even though she’s a fictional character. I felt like she was real.”
    “Well there has always been a lot of discussion about how much Erica Jong there is in Isadora Wing,” said Maggie. “That may be why the character is so real—because in some ways, she is real. You know, the whole ‘all fiction is nonfiction’ thing.”
    “What did you think about the ending?” asked Eva. “I felt like I wanted it to be more Hollywood—the big embrace.”
    “But we know that in the end, even in the end of a book that is all about sex, in the end she chooses love,” said Lisa. “Ok, one more quote, and then I promise I’ll stop: ‘Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. That’s why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.’”
    “We all cheat for a reason,” said Maggie. “And it’s usually because we feel like we’re missing love. Jong lays that out. Call us a whore or a slut or sew a goddamn scarlet letter on our damn t-shirt if you want, but at the end of the day, we all just want to go to bed with someone who makes us feel loved, and wake up next to that same person the next morning.”
    “Yeah,” said Eva. “It just sucks that love is a complete pain in the ass sometimes.”
    The women laughed softly, and knowingly.

August 2012
    “There’s just this empty place inside of me that only he can fill.”
    - Torn Between Two Lovers , Mary MacGregor
    Monthly meeting of the Scarlet Letter Society.
    Zoomdweebies Café
    Friday, August 3, 2012
    5:30 a.m.
    You’re off the hook. Everyone traveling and whatnot, so this month we will take a “book club” summer vacation. Too hard to follow Erica Jong anyway .
    “The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread.”-- The Scarlet Letter , Nathaniel Hawthorne
    “So how’d your Ho-prah book club meeting go?” asked Wes as he sifted through the rack of vintage 1960s men’s t-shirts at Maggie’s shop.
    Maggie stood at the counter, pricing a box of women’s