How we cite our quotes: (Part.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #4
I've never slept with a girl. I couldn't. I wouldn't want to. That's abnormal and I'm not, although you can't be normal unless you do what you want and you can't be normal unless you love men. To do what I wanted would be normal, unless what I wanted was abnormal, in which case it would be abnormal to please myself and normal to do what I didn't want to do, which isn't normal. (4.11.9)
Laura and Joanna both grow up in a world where lesbianism is stigmatized, and both go through serious internal struggles before they act on their desires. How does Janet enable each of them?
Quote #5
Love is a radiation disease. Whileawayans do not like the self-consequence that comes with romantic passion and we are very mean and mocking about it; so Vittoria and I walked back separately, each frightened to death of the weeks and weeks yet to go before we'd be over it. We kept it to ourselves. (4.16.18)
The social conventions surrounding sexuality expression on Whileaway are very different from those in Jeannine's, Joanna's, and Jael's worlds. In Jeannine's and Joanna's worlds, romantic passion is associated with beauty, attraction, possession, and the "thrill of the hunt." What kinds of sexual expression do Whileawayans value?
Quote #6
No man in our world would touch Elena. In Whileawayan leaf-read pajamas, in silver silk overalls, in the lengths of moony brocade in which Whileawayans wrap themselves for pleasure, this would be a beautiful Helen. Elena Twason swathed in cut-silk brocade, nipping a corner of it for fun. (7.4.36)
This passage marks a turning point for Joanna/the omniscient narrator, who ran screaming from the room when Janet and Laura first went to bed. As she begins to explore her own attraction to women, why does she make a point of noting that no man in her world would touch Elena?