READERS RESPOND

"I wish to take issue – vigorously – with F.L. of Rhode Island for her insistence upon 'stories which leave us with a feeling of bright hopefulness' as against 'strong unhappy endings'.

"It's true, as she says, that many Lesbian novels – maybe even the majority are a 'sordid mess'. But then, even though I deplore the muck and nonsense of Ann Aldrich's books, so are the lives of many Lesbians

"I guess it rests on what the members really desire of life. Do we really want THE LADDER to become a mutual admiration sopiety, with all of us brightly, hopefully, positively telling one another what wonderful people we Lesbians are and how the world would be such a lovely place if we could just make all those nasty prejudiced people stop persecuting us, and continue living our lives any old way we wanted to? Or do we really want self-understanding, search and a realistic approach – which admits that a happy ending is rare in real life, not only for the Lesbian but for any person with strong convictions which are out of step with the pattern of the world in which he, or she, must live?

"Do we want THE LADDER to become, for the Lesbian, what the slick women's magazines and soap operas are for the housewife sweet and syrupy pap based on the formula that love conquers all and that all will come right in the end if we endure?

"Or do we want an honest question, a strong-minded approach, an integrity which stands up and admits frandly 'We are thus and so. Society is otherwise. We have faults. Society has faults. Probably our faults add to the sum total of society's faults, and vice versa. 1

"Isn't there anyone with the courage to stand up and admit

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