Early John Cheever with Gender Roles

Includes Torch Song - A Favorite

I’m not foolish enough to call John Cheever a feminist writer. He was typical of “greatest generation” men. He had the privilege. He assumed that fame and wealth gave him access to easy sex from pretty young things. The fact that many (most?) of the pretty young things were men doesn’t exactly make him a gay icon (especially since he was in the closet). However, like the producers of Mad Men recognized, John Cheever wrote about men and women in the 1950s and 1960s in an honest way and that definitely welcomed feminist interpretations.

Also one of his most memorable characters from this era was named Joan Harris. And she shared more than a few similarities with the Mad Men character.

So in these articles, I definitely talked about the gender roles that popped up in these stories.

First, there’s “The Summer Farmer” in which the protagonist engages in some manly farming as a holiday away from his dreary emasculating office. He’s also a WWII veteran which was not nearly as impressive in the 1950s as it was later. This is not a favorite, so I came up with several possible ways to approach the story. I went to grad school!!! Can you tell?

Then we have “The Torch Song” which I loved. Although I did push back against other critics who see Joan as a destructive force, a witch, a vampire, etc. Those interpretations are fine, but I think a better one is that the mediocre perspective character fears her because he’s such a loser, and if he’s failing at life, she should be dead by now. Only she survives all the mediocre men stronger than ever.

And finally we have “The Pot of Gold,” which is more about capitalism and trying to make than about gender roles, but the story does end with the protagonist going “I love my wife” as if that’s better than all the money that he lost out on. It’s pretty saccharine.

Anyhow, if you haven’t read these articles, enjoy. If you’ve read them, read them again. You might like them better the second time.

Since Sukkoth starts tomorrow, I probably won’t have a new Cheever article for you, but I went to see a few writers read including Catherynne Valente who remains one of the best fantasy/science fiction writers of the 21st century. Definitely buy Space Oddity. What she read was hilarious.

I’m also a fan of Nathan Rabin from back in his AV Club days. Buy his book on Juggalos and Phish Fans. It’s really great.

Finally, work is still slow. If you like me, please consider hiring me to edit your novel or write your term paper. Or get a paid subscription. Or you can contribute to my gofundme.