RE: JCO: RE: Female of the Species

Cyrano,

That's the one. I believe it appears in Where Is Here?

For me this is such a powerful story because of the woman's seeming
inability to alter the outcome of running toward those men. The story is a
wonderful example of something we see so often in JCO's writing, the woman
who participates in her own victimization -- in this case it is she who
turns herself into a victim.

Kim

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-jco@usfca.edu [mailto:owner-jco@usfca.edu]On Behalf Of
> Cyranomish@aol.com
> Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 8:19 PM
> To: jco@usfca.edu
> Subject: Re: JCO: RE: Female of the Species
>
>
> Hi, Kim. I remember that story very well, tho I'm too indolent
> to get up and
> see which collection it's in. The runner is coming down a hill, and her
> husband is several hundred yards behind her, so the two guys at
> the bottom of the
> hill don't see him yet. One of them steps into the woman's path
> in a somewhat
> menacing way: maybe he just wants to make her swerve around him
> as a "joke"
> or maybe he's going to give her some real trouble. The woman is
> increasingly
> worried as she approaches the two men -- a situation most women have
> encountered at one time or other: will this be just a harmless
> dopey joke or some
> unpleasant incident I can't handle alone? As soon as hubby
> appears on the crest of
> the hill, the guy steps back out of the woman's path, which suggests that
> whatever he had planned to do wouldn't have set well with hubby.
> Maybe it was just
> his oaffish way of flirting with what at first appeared to be a
> single woman;
> or maybe he intended to trip her or yell some obscenity -- or just yell
> BOO!!!-- as she passed by. We never find out. I can't remember
> the runner's
> reaction, aside from relief, but it was a nice little vignette.
> Best,
> Cyrano
>
> In a message dated 1/22/2006 6:34:58 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> kstarrett5@comcast.net writes:
>
> << There is one story I especially enjoyed and admired -- I
> believe the title
> is The Runner though I don't recall in which volume it was collected. In
> this marvelous story a woman is running on a wooded path with
> her lover from
> whom she becomes separated. While running alone she sees on the path up
> ahead two men, not running, just standing there. What follows is
> her swift
> transformation from strong, confident woman to helpless victim and it all
> takes place in the woman's mind. At the same time she continues to run
> toward these strangers seemingly unable to divert her steps or act in any
> other way to overt her victimization which she has already
> resigned herself
> to. >>
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