The World is Full of Married Men

1. Despite the plethora of sexual acrobatics, I would suggest that, in narrative terms, the narrative is actually fairly moralistic, with an interesting (and contradiction-ridden) portrayal of the "rules" of sexual fidelity and transgression, moral behaviour and amoral justification. David Cooper, philandering advertising executive, is exposed as a sexual hypocrite and a male chauvinist, deserted by a previously loyal wife ("the perfect wife") who finds happiness and fidelity with Jay Grossman, and by his ex-porn star girlfriend, Claudia, who eventually finds the fame and fortune she has longed for. David is left with his pregnant mousy secretary, Harriet Field, caught in the "trap" of his own making, (his "just deserts"?). The starting point for discussion might well be the question of point of view: with whom are we encouraged to identify, why, and how does the narrator accomplish this? Look, particularly, at the narrative construction of the points of view of Claudia, Linda, and David. How are we to feel at David's two-faced condemnation of Linda's "transgression" when rather improbably, she is arrested at Hyde Park? What are we to make of David's double standards towards Claudia? What also do you make of the conclusion of the novel, when David is left only with Harriet and her dressing gown to satisfy him?

1. Setting. A vital ingredient of these novels is their setting, with characters drawn from the "wild and sexy world of superstardom", their treatment of the "fastest lane of all" [publisher's blurb]: What are the effects of this form of "romantic" (derived from 'Romance') voyeuristic fascination with a world where money is no object? In what ways are such ingredients more than just simply decorative, but involved in the construction of the novel's ideological messages to and for the reader. 'The Thriller', as we saw last week, relies on a similar voyeuristic incursion into the "realms of power, money and influence": is the appeal the same in novel's such as this? Or do such settings "hype" the narrative, from the realms of the ordinary to the magical world of the extraordinary? What glaring omissions do you find in the novel's portrayal of this constructed tinsel world?

1. Men and Women: Love, Sex and Power. Despite the settings of wealth, money and power, the novel also relies on some fairly fundamental ("natural") assumptions about male and female values, male sexuality and female sexuality, assumptions which serve, in turn, to carry (or naturalise) certain ideological messages - e.g. "Men are only after one thing", "Women are only after one thing", "What men really want is...", "What women really want is...". How does the novel portray these sort of issues? Look, for example, at the various sex scenes in the novel, and the extent to which other considerations are brought to the bedroom (or terrace, or bath). Is sex, in this novel, presented as a natural instinct, or a means of securing other forms of needs and wants? Linda, for example, manages to excuse her infidelity with Paul by David's affair with Claudia; Claudia, in turn, uses sex as a means of acquiring a penthouse, a film part, fame and fortune; Harriet, beneath her mousy flat-chestedness, is a sex-starved spinster who greedily submits to David's manly treatment of her; Linda, divorced at last, finds nuptial bliss with Jay Grossman, etc. What do these various scenes say about the "rules" and "logic" which govern the characters and sexes within this novel? Look also at the way in which the self-esteem of women characters in the novel (with the exception of Harriet Field and, presumably, Claudia's cleaners as well!) rest on their ability to satisfy the male sexual gaze. How does this square with the novel's portrayal of the unfairness of Linda's situation as David's wife, and her realisation (at various points in the novel) at how unfair and patriarchal a society it is that she lives in? Are these issues skirted over (if that's the right term)? Does it matter that Jackie Colllins is a female writer? And how do male and female readers, in your view, react to these issues and contradictions? What perspectives would a feminist or masculinist critical approach bring to the novel? For all its sexual display the novel raises these types of issues and contradictions, but doesn't finally resolve them? What happens, do you think, when we read the novel? Are we inured to its ideological depths and simply switch off our brains? Or do we negotiate, in our minds, some sort of compromise with these issues? It is, as we have seen, an issue that is raised by many of the texts which we have looked at in this course.

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