European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 24, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Our county Tiao deeply hypocritical about met that Maual honesty a still not with use the the much vaunted sexual revolution " a piped 10crka Lone still Fly ing fearlessly upfront by Ken franckl1nq United press International thirteen years Aller fear of flying shocked and Litile laced America Enca Jong still considers herself a tactical writer. Radical no because of whal she pens but the Way i which her books Are received by the Public. People Are shocked by honesty. I think they Are More shocked by honesty than they Are by sexual acts Jong says. When you ate honest and up troll about feelings that is profoundly shocking to people. And that s what my books  in 1974, Jong and her soaring heroine Isadora Wing broke the Barrier for sexual frankness in literature in i Ian by and about women. It kicked off a string of books exploring the heart and soul of liberated womanhood in a changing society what it Means to be a woman a jew a Mother the nature of love the need for imagination in our lives fantasy is the key to her Lac so uttering an pm purple adventure tilled Sereni Sima. Its 400-year time Warp lands the Middle aged heroine. Actress Jessica Spruill in the 6lh-Cenlury jewish ghetto of Venice Nlaly and in the sack will a Young William Shakespeare the always Boon a great Tan of Iho of books and me Grimm airy sales. I think it 15 delicious to write a Book Hal owes its inspiration to Whoso books. It was great Tun to read them it Weig great fun to write one Jong says. Ii is a novel Hal plays with linear time and shows Lime arching Back on else it and Why is it any More unbelievable than any other Book i Feol thai All time is eternally present and that we can imagine ourselves in other limes and other Stales of being. I Don 1 believe in the tyranny of Ime i think certainty As a poet and a novelist Why should i believe in it 1 can stand in the ghetto of Venice act populate the scene with people of 400 years ago easily Jong says. I have an imagination and the Reader has an imagination. One of the reasons one reads is to be  Jong s Manhattan Brownstone has a Lavender theme from the front door to the Walls and marbled fireplace in her living room. Eight european drama masks Lead up the carved Oak staircase. Silting in her sunny third floor office a few Steps from her boudoir Jong kicks off her shoes on a summer like Day and she with one Bare foot tucked beneath her skirt. With Sereni Sima now on the shelves Jong says she is working on a new novel about a super woman of the t9bos who becomes a victim " she is also collecting her essays for publication she plans to include a not yet written Memoir about Henry Miller whose Tropic of cancer broke bold sexual ground among male writers in the 1930s, but was not published in America until 1961, when we both lived in Cali Lomia when he was a very old Man in Pacific Palisades and i was living in Malibu we talked endlessly Aboul his old Paris Days Jong explains. She is not sure whether the Reading Public will Haar again from Isadora Wing the fictional writer whose search Lor identity love and sexual fulfilment moved from fear of flying to How in save four own Ufa in 1977, and Parac Tulos and kisses in 1984. Isadora is a kind of Odysseas heroine. She is left at the end of parachutes and kisses is ill very far from Home. It May be necessary to Wale a Coda in which i bring her Home and bring her to some kind of serenity and enlightenment. But i m not contemplating it Al the moment. I Don t know whether in would to like a 100 Page Coda to the three books of a whole other volume Jong says. Times Heue changed since fear off Ying when Jong coined a zip less phrase describing her heroine s intense Andrca Retro sexual couplings. The first typesetter Wouten i handle the manuscript. The networks would t run to advertising and Jong remembers being told by Adela Rogers St. John that women did t have sexual fantasies and that my Book was baloney because women did t think that Way the tame that came Wilh fear of flying Haa been a great Blessing but in other ways Jong says in Levels like an Anchor. I always fear that my Tombstone will read Here lies the zip loss Erica Jong ii is something of a curse. I would like to shed it. Even Pia Zadora and Farrah Fawcett have shed their images Why can 11? the fact is i be done an immense number of other things. I did the Book on Wilches. Children s books five volumes of poetry and in would seem hard to drop that image. But fear of flying was so explosive and such a ubiquitous Book really ii was a Book everybody Ruall and pressed on heir boyfriends and girlfriends. It was Mure than a Book to people in was an event. So. When you have written something like 1hal, it is vary hard to get away irom it she said. Despite the stereotype Jong says in is a great Blessing to be Woll known and have your books read passionately to have people write you letters saying you be changed their lives. That s what every writer  although the publishing atmosphere today is far different from whal in was when rear of flying appeared Jong says authors and readers must remain vigilant Aboul censorship there Are always groups that want to censor sex and claim that Reading about Rex and sexuality is bad or us i actually think that the reverse is True that the spoken word and the written word Are a safety Vaive Lor Lan lasy rather than promoting promiscuity and undesirable  sexual behaviour. I think Hal books chronicle the inner Lite of people and that s a Good thing la do Ana they change the world in the Long run usually in a beneficial Way. Our country is so deeply hypocritical Aboul sex that sexual honesty is still not with us despite the much Vaun Lod sexual revolution " Jong said. I think the glee with which everyone has embraced the aids problem the glee with it appears to be Iho solution to everyone s Lears Aboul sexuality shows you How hypocritical anti Punla Ruta we still Are " Page 14 the stars and stripes wednesday j