Paula Mota’s Reviews > De Língua Afiada: Mulheres que Fizeram da Opinião Uma Arte > Status Update

Seduction was forged by intellectual discussion. But he [H.G. Wells] refused to touch [Rebecca] West, despite her advances.It was not out of deference to his wife Jane.The Wells's marriage was an open one, his affairs conducted with Jane's full knowledge.But Wells had another mistress on the go at the time and his practical streak seemed to have kicked in.Two mistresses would have been a lot even for a liberated man.

Like a lot of Fitzgerald's friends, Parker wasn't particularly fond of Zelda. (...) Perhpas there was a feeling of competition: there are rumors of a sexual affair between Scott and Parker though no proof of that survived.

"Their sardonic ways became grounds to ignore these women, to deem them "not serious". Irony, sarcasm, ridicule: these can be tools of outsiders.
(...) There is always intelectual value in not being like everyone else at the table, in this case not being a man, but also not being white, not being upper class, not being from the right school.