Updike's Style Is An Exquisite Blend Of

The Joker In The Deck Of Lesbian Fidelity Is Female Vanity: No Woman Of Fifty Is Going To Undress In Front Of A Woman Of Twenty No Matter How Much She Might Lust For Her.

The American Woman's Concept Of Marriage Is A Clearly Etched Picture Of Something Uninflated On The Floor. A Sleeping-bag Withoutair, A Beanbag Without Beans, A Padded Bra Without Pads. To Work On It, You Start Pumping--what The Magazines Call "breathing Life Into Your Marriage." Do Enough Of This And The Marriage Becomes A Kind Of Banquo's Ghost, A Quasi-living Entity.

To Me, Elitism Means A Love Of Excellence And Superiority, But America Has Declared War On Both And Developed A Sick Love Of The Lowest Common Denominator To Make Sure No-one Becomes Too Fine For Our Touted Democracy. We Are Almost At The Point Of Regarding Every Virtue As Elitist.

One Of Life's Intriguing Paradoxes Is That Hierarchical Social Order Makes Cheap Rents And Outré Artists' Colonies Possible. Raffish Bohemian Neighborhoods Flourished In The Days Of Racial Segregation; Under Integration The Artistic Poor Have No Safe Places In Which To Create.... If America Lacks A Vigorous Culture It Is Partly Because Studios And Ateliers Have Become Crack Houses.

Southerners Are So Devoted To Genealogy That We See A Family Tree Under Every Bush.