The Female Man by Joanna Russ

The seat of romantic love is the solar plexus
while the seat of love is elsewhere,
and that makes it very hard to
make love
when you are on the
point of dissolution,
your arms and legs
penetrated by moonlight,
your head cut off and
swimming freely on its own
like some kind of
mutated monster.

Love is a radiation disease.

About the Author

Joanna Russ Links
The Creative Joanna Russ
The Linköping Science Fiction & Fantasy Archive's Joanna Russ entry

Cross-References

Like the best of sf, The Female Man pushes the formal limits of the novel in its exploration of society, character and politics. In that regard, her work evokes that of Samuel R. Delany, Thomas M. Disch and Kathy Acker.