Pronouns matter; history even more

I used to admire Arthur Koestler's The Act of Creation, the diagrams particularly. As entranced as I was there are some passage that did not escape my critical notice. For example I circled the feminine pronouns and wrote "heterosexism" in the margin next to this passage.

Once one embraces an idea, and lives with it day and night, one can no longer bear the thought that she, the idea, has formerly belonged to someone else; to possess her completely and be possessed by her, one must extinguish her past.

The idea, he ... his past. Mere substitution doesn't expunge the ridiculous notion that ideas are harlots. Even more ridiculous is the idea that passion is hostile to history.

And so for day 471
28.03.2008