Pregnant women! They had that weird frisson, an aura of magic that combined awkwardly with an earthy sense of duty. Mundane, because they were nothing unique on the suburban streets; ethereal because their attention was ever somewhere else. Whatever you said was trivial. And they had that preciousness which they imposed wherever they went, compelling attention, constantly reminding you that they carried the future inside, its contours already drawn, but veiled, private, an inner secret.
—Ruth Morgan (1920–1978)
A full bosom is actually a millstone around a woman’s neck: it endears her to the men who want to make their mammet of her, but she is never allowed to think that their popping eyes actually see her. Her breasts ... are not parts of a person but lures slung around her neck, to be kneaded and twisted like magic putty, or mumbled and mouthed like lolly ices.
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
Here, for example, are a few of the doctrinal parallels: Instead of God, the Communists believe in history as a final principle and omnipotent judge. They regard “the great task of making history” as the highest activity open to mankind; it is their equivalent for doing God’s will on earth. To be cast “into the dustbin of history” is like being cast into hell. Instead of Divine Providence, the Communists believe in the Marxian dialectic as the principle that shapes our lives in society. Since the dialectic consists of three parts—thesis, antithesis, synthesis—it also bears some relation to the Christian Trinity; and it is the subject of quite as many learned disputations. Instead of Divine Grace, they believe in a spirit emanating from the working class; almost by magic it transforms one’s doubts and weariness into renewed hope.
—Malcolm Cowley (1898–1989)