Before the 1973 publishing of Erica Jong’s novel Fear of Flying and her poetry book Half-Lives, editors and reviewers worked through Jong’s uncorrected proofs to ensure correctness and to pose literary criticisms before the works’ publication. Though the notes throughout each work vary, the meanings behind each marginal note remain poignant and interesting when compared to the published work.

In the Half-Lives proof, there are no notes or edits. The only time a pen seems to have touched the paper is to add page numbers. This absence is interesting within itself, as it leaves Jong’s poetic ideas untouched. This reviewer did not take it upon themselves to criticize Jong’s poetry, or make their own remarks surrounding the work. This reader wanted to leave Jong’s work as it was, without the remarks or criticisms of an outside reader.

In the proof of Fear of Flying, however, is the exact opposite. All over the novel are black and red underlinings, as well as one-word notes including “ego-centric” and “over-written.” These small edits and criticisms shed light on the reviewer’s opinions of Jong’s work as well as their purpose in reading the work. The reviewer of the Fear of Flying proof was Terry Stokes, a writer for The New York Times who was charged with writing a review of Jong’s debut novel. Though he seems to think some things are writerly “excess,” the most resounding aspect of his marginal additions is the sheer number of underlines and stars next to passages he finds important for his article. His comments also beg certain questions from onlookers: are Stokes’ comments excessive and if so, why? Is he overly critical of Jong’s work because of its blunt addressing of female sexual fantasy, or does he believe that Jong was gratuitously over-descriptive?

Sources:

Jong, Erica. Fear of Flying. Holt, Reinhart, and Winston Publishers, 1973.

Jong, Erica. Half-Lives. Holt, Reinhart, and Winston Publishers, 1973.

 

On November 11, 1973, The New York Times reviewed feminist author Erica Jong’s debut novel Fear of Flying. A book focused on female sexuality and freedom, Jong’s book was selling rapidly all around the country. Her honest views of sex outside of marriage were a hit with many, yet some found Jong’s work “filthy” and too erotic to digest. As one of the most influential newspapers in the nation, The New York Times quickly reviewed the novel and gave it a certain level of credibility. The small bit of literary value that The New York Times gave to Fear of Flying was, no doubt, influential in sales and revenue for Jong and the publishing house, Henry Holt and Company.

In his review of the novel, Terry Stokes called Jong’s book “energetic, bawdy, and well-conceived,” yet he also goes on to object to Isadora’s “whining,” which “reduce[s] the experience for the reader”. Stokes also makes an important statement about the men of the novel, which possibly turned many men away from reading Fear of Flying altogether: that they were “either lifeless or fall guys for Isadora’s proclamations.” Stokes’ opinion of this is interesting, as this was, in a way, Jong’s intention. These men are just as lost as Isadora is, yet it is a female protagonist searching for the answers. This shift from the usual male leader being the hero to a woman doing the same thing was strange and it was shocking to male readers.

http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/97/07/20/reviews/jong-flying.html

Sources:

Stokes, Terry. “Fear of Flying Review.” The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 11 Nov. 1973, movies2.nytimes.com/books/97/07/20/reviews/jong-flying.html. Accessed 29 November 2018.

 

On January 2nd, 1975, Erica Jong joined “Tomorrow” television host Tom Snyder for a promotion interview about her revolutionary book The Fear of Flying. In this interview, Jong discusses her book and its reception. While her book was reaching large audiences all over the country, many still called Jong’s book “dirty,” and host Tom Snyder even mentions that multiple organizations refused to advertise her book due to their beliefs it was inappropriate for audiences. While Snyder seems complimentary of Jong’s book, he brings up a valid point: Jong’s work was often rejected by mainstream services because of its content and reputation. When Snyder asks how Jong achieved such critical acclaim for an “erotic novel,” she retorts that her novel isn’t erotic, it’s about “unfulfilled sexuality” for women. But Jong continues, saying that the novel isn’t about sex and the physicality of it, but rather how sex goes wrong and the “comedy” surrounding sex. Jong explains in her interview with Tom Snyder that for her and for her readers, this was an important distinction between a simple erotic book and an in-depth depiction of the “honest” way that “men and women think about sex in their heads.” Jong states that, as a writer, she must write as honestly as possible about sexuality and the fantasies men and women share.

While Jong discusses her book as a whole, she also notes the “roles of the sexes” and her belief that no role is “intrinsically male or intrinsically female.” The larger discussion about the roles of women opens up a new dimension for women. Jong pushes the audience to see the world through eyes free of male and female stereotypes. Tom Snyder presses Jong further and asks why people are so concerned with these stereotypes that seem to define society. Jong retorts that the world “cling[s] to [these stereotypes], because people are afraid of change.” Fear of Flying addressed traditional gender expectations and challenged them; in Jong’s hands women were no longer silent beings confined within their marriages and children. Female sexuality was revolutionized and reclaimed to fit a changing society.

Sources:

January 2nd, 1975 Tomorrow Tom Snyder Interview with Guest Erica Jong.” YouTube, YouTube, 8 Apr. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LWwkneLegs. Accessed 29 November, 2018.

Jong’s novel Fear of Flying primarily focuses on heterosexual women and their desires, yet in “The Woman of It” she beautifully describes a lesbian love scene. The poem opens with “your slit so like mine: / the woman of it” and continues to reach more sexual imagery with the lines “knowing your nipples like mine, / and the likeness of it, / watching the mirror make love.” Jong’s exploration of lesbianism was powerful as the subjects of love and sex between two women remained taboo and controversial. The poem is erotic throughout, especially because of the vivid imagery Jong uses to describe the scene to the reader.

A fascinating aspect of the poem is that Jong primarily identifies as a heterosexual woman, but she is interested in exploring the many dimensions of a woman’s sexuality.
Jong’s poem suggests that the love between a woman and a woman is as “natural” as that of a man and a woman. Jong even says this near the end of “The Woman of It”: “we were natural together / as two little girls in the bath.” This shift towards serious sentimentality lends new meaning to Jong’s work, as the poem becomes about love, not just sex. Another crucial aspect of this poem is the strictly feminine imagery, even innocence, as evidenced in the line about “two little girls in the bath.” This is image is of naivety and beauty, and leads to the other line about hoping to “be women someday” and to the final line which reads “we hoped to grow up.” The imagery of little girls to women gives meaning to the idea that these two lovers hoped to grow up together; their love was innate and natural, and they desire to grow old together just as heterosexual couples do.

While the poem is very sensual and loving in some respects, in others it mimics the sexual desire in Fear of Flying. In Fear of Flying, Jong opens the book with the idea of the “zipless fuck” and the pleasure that would accompany sex with a complete stranger. In “The Woman of It,” Jong uses that same sense of sexual urgency to express the erotic nature of her relationship with her female lover.

Sources:

Jong, Erica. “The Woman of It.” Poeticous, Poeticous, Dec. 2016, www.poeticous.com/erica-jong/the-woman-of-it. Accessed 29 November, 2018.

While Jong’s most famous work is her novel Fear of Flying, her other works include many poems, one of which starkly contrasts with her novel. Fear of Flying rejected a sense of wifely duties towards one’s husband and mainly focused on female sexual desire. In her poem “The Truce Between the Sexes,” the speaker tells a sad story about how she “blamed men, / blamed marriage blamed / the whole bleeding world” for her inability to write freely. The speaker goes on to say that in order to free her poetry and herself she had to “divorce the lie.”

However, while the poem begins with a similar theme to Fear of Flying: dissatisfaction with marriage, it ends on a more positive note of finding Jong’s inner poet as well as a new lover along the way. This lover is different: “he is not Men, man, male- / all those maddening m’s,” he is “a person like [her].” This distinction is crucial, as it shows a more romantic side to Jong; her heart is lightened and trusting of the new man in her life, exhibiting her actual love for this man. In Fear of Flying, Jong makes Isadora’s desires primarily physical, yet in “The Truce Between the Sexes,” Jong is more interested in normal aspects of a real relationship: weathering anger and arguments, and holding one another in weak moments. She genuinely loves him, even after all of the contempt she harbored for the men of the world. To Jong, this man was not a man, but “a person with a penis / could dream, tell jokes, even cry.”

Jong then proceeds to wonder if she ever could truly enjoy the pause of the battle between sexes: “Erica, Erica, / you are hard on yourself / lie back & enjoy the cease-fire.” Jong’s use of her own name identifies this poem even more closely with the poet herself. This line captures this internal battle for Jong: could she really let go of the pain in her past at the hands of men? Could she trust that it wouldn’t happen again? Jong is not naïve enough to believe that all of her troubles are over, yet she says, “there will be trouble enough, / but of a different sort.” This line is truly striking as it gives the reader insight into Jong’s personal feelings. She knows that nothing is easy, yet this new trouble, with her new lover, is the type she can handle. For Jong, the true love is worth the troubles ahead.

Sources:

Jong, Erica. “The Truce Between the Sexes.” Poeticous, Poeticous, 4 May 2016, www.poeticous.com/erica-jong/the-truce-between-the-sexes. Accessed 28 November, 2018.

Erica Jong’s work Fear of Flying was revolutionary when it was published in 1973, as it touched on many taboo topics of the time, including sex outside of marriage and female sexual fantasies. While these ideas seemed radical at the time, society has slowly shifted from hyper-conservatism to a more progressive liberalism, especially when it comes to topics such as sexuality. Fear of Flying was one of the first popular texts by and for women; the struggle of sexuality was distinctly female and it was a “rare example” of a “woman, not a man, [struggling] to define what she wants her life to look like.” Though this was all true in the 1970s, the new question for today’s generation is whether Jong’s work not only has modern merit, but the ability to maintain its historical importance.

Throughout the article, women from all walks of life talk about how the novel affected them and their lives. Some women read Fear of Flying in their 20s and found it slightly less relatable because, unlike Isadora, these women were getting married closer to 30, not their early 20s. However, all of these women still agree on the power and importance of Jong’s work. In the article, one female author states that Jong’s work “encouraged [her]” and told her that she “could tell stories in [her] own voice.” While some critique Jong’s language in modern society, calling it more “cringeworthy,” the overarching meaning of Jong’s work persists through time.

Lastly, and perhaps the most crucial modern perception of Fear of Flying rests in how feminism is treated today. Naomi Wolf is an ardent feminist and author of many books including “Vagina: A New Biography” and has expressed that many women ask her, in the midst of this new age of feminism, if it’s okay to want to sleep with men or be sexually free. In this case, she points directly to Jong’s Fear of Flying. “They have an internalized notion that feminism is about saying ‘no’ to things…but Fear of Flying is a declarative ‘yes’.” Isadora Wing was an example for women then and now; she showed that women could chase their own desires, but they had a right to do so.

Sources:

Schillinger, Liesl. “A Woman’s Fantasy in a Modern Reality.” The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 18 Dec. 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/12/19/fashion/Fear-of-Flying-Erica-Jong.html. Accessed 20 November, 2018.