Word: goodmans
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...Goodman has a curious conception of what responsibility entails. He told the Forum that one's choice of sexual objects and practices should be absolutely free "so long as one does not exploit another person." But can the seduction of a young male student be considered non-exploitative? Even if society's condemnation of bisexuality is sick and repressive, such an initiation exposes the student to inevitable emotional damage...
...Goodman's willingness to embrace "the risk of opposing an intolerable society" does not entitle him to solicit youthful allies. Goodman, of all people, is aware of the patterns of transference which involve students with their teachers. A student's love is not directed simply at him, but also at his position. The teacher is responsible most for what it is in himself that a student responds to. That responsibility dictates that he must wait until the student has matured and both may see clearly what form their relationship will take. To rush immediately towards consummation is irresponsible...
...Even if Goodman's wife forgives his extramarital relationships, don't these affairs (for he assures us they are affairs "of love") incur the risk of hurting the partner who becomes deeply committed...
...emphasis on non-exploitation, Goodman is astonishingly callous in his lack of concern for the plight of the unloved, illegitimate child and the unwed mother. Of course society is wrong to regard them as something dirty, but in his desire for social revolution Goodman loses compassion for those who must suffer in its wake. And in spite of his insistence on interpersonal values, he speakes as if his major responsibility in marriage is to inconvenience himself by "making it home in time for five thirty dinner every night...
Like Norman Mailer, Goodman has chosen to become a personality as well as a writer. Unlike Mailer, he has not concentrated on this sideline to the detriment of his creative work. Goodman continues to produce books of dissent which have enormous social value for America...