Katha Pollitt and Andrew Sullivan

Dear Andrew,

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Now this is truly scary. I also dislike the writing of Martin Amis! Not a patch on his dad, a truly funny man--loved The Old Devils, Jake's Thing, many other of his books. He even wrote some clever poems as I remember. I mean, if you want reactionary sexist misanthropic comedy, Kingsley Amis is definitely your man! I tried to read that book of Martin Amis's that is written backwards in time and involves the Holocaust but I found it dry and also, at the prose level, dull--lots of vocabulary, not much rhythm or feeling or memorableness. I also tried The Information, but that struck me as flat, too. His fiction seems to me the result of an enormous act of will and ambition and strenuous striving--nothing lit from within, no grace or delicacy or feeling.

I think insurance ought to cover condoms, definitely--they are indeed a medical necessity. And think of all the stuff insurance does cover, like breast implants (prescribed as a cure for low self-esteem, no doubt) and sex changes and cosmetic surgery--and sterilization. All kinds of things. I wonder if the Catholic Church's opposition to birth control plays a part here--or just good old American Puritanism.

It's interesting about teen births going down. Sorry, though--I don't think there's evidence that welfare reform is involved. The states with the highest teen birth rates--Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama--have always had very low welfare payments; according to the welfare-reform theory, those states should have always had the lowest birth rates, which should be even lower now. But that's not where the decline is coming from. I think the use of condoms for AIDS prevention may be part of the story. Finally boys have some motivation to take some responsibility! But I need to find out more.

Let's not forget though that the US has the highest rate in the industrialized world of teen pregnancy and childbearing by a very large margin. In Denmark (don't laugh), says the Alan Guttmacher Institute, teen childbearing is virtually nonexistent. National health care really helps, also lots of sexual information, a relatively egalitarian society, access to abortion and a widespread sense that girls have other, better options. If the welfare-reform theory were true, Danish women would all have thirteen children!

Now I'm really going to get the laundry from the basement.

Talk to you tomorrow,
Katha

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