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A Hell of a Woman by Jim Thompson
From my notion book review template
A Hell of a Woman by Jim Thompson
What It’s About – lowlife surrounded by other lowlife’s meets desperate woman – the lowlife reveals himself to be quite low over the course of the book
How I Discovered It – Amazon sent me an email saying I would like it, and it was on sale
Thoughts – The pacing is the most interesting part – Thompson starts the main character off in the first person as the inner dialogue of a regular guy, then it changes to the dialogue of the average lowlife, then it gets much worse – all very believable though.
Calling Thompson the “Dimestore Dostoevsky” is pretty accurate
What I Liked About It – the character progression as a moral descent, which in hindsight, was obvious. Also the book was a very fast read – I read it in two or three sittings.
What I Didn’t Like About It – the ending had too many new things which hurt the concepts a bit
Who Would Like It? – any hard boiled fiction fans
Related Books – Pop 1280, the Grifters
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A new way of labeling one’s position on abortion
We currently have the inadequate terms “Pro-choice” and “Pro-life” – which, while self congratulatory and cloying don’t describe the situation with any clarity or precision.
Are you find with abortion by medication (abortion pills) but think partial birth abortion/dilation and extraction should be illegal? Which are you? Are you pro-choice because you think the pills should be legal and maybe even covered by insurance, or are you pro life because you think abortion at 39 weeks should be illegal.
I propose a new way of thinking about the matter – instead of choosing a binary term (pro or anti) – why not use a numerical score of when you think abortion should be prohibited?
Assuming the following:
- The average pregnancy takes 40 weeks from a woman’s last period
- Conception happens at week 2 (on average)
- One’s opinions on contraception are not relevant to this metric
- Once the child is out of the womb it assumes it’s own existence and personhood separate from the mother
Why not start using numerical scales – someone who would prohibit all abortions would label themselves as A2, someone who thinks partial birth abortion/D & E should be legal would be an A40. Someone who favors the heartbeat rule would be an A12, etc, etc.
I think this would offer much more clarity in one’s positions than the current system of labeling.