Talk:Rubyfruit Jungle

Literary significance and criticism should be expanded

Vague unsourced comments about how other lesbians have related to the novel aren't sufficient, in my opinion. W.C. Harris and Leslie Fishbein among others have excellent literary criticism of the novel, and a simple Google search brings up plenty of less scholarly articles (on places like Medium) by lesbians reflecting on how the novel had personal significance to them. I don't have much experience editing Wikipedia but once I get a chance I'd like to go through and add some content to this section.

149.130.183.250 (talk) 20:07, 28 April 2018 (UTC)

"As Commentary on Cold War Communism"? Really?

A few months ago, User:65.96.92.140 added: "Several critics have posited that the work is largely an allegorical representation of, and commentary on, fascist political movements of the mid Cold War, East Germany most specifically." Citation was to Strobel, Katja. Wandern, Mäandern, Erzählen: Die Pikara als Grenzgängerin des Subjekt. Munich, Germany: Fink. 1998.

I'm not going to mess with this verifiably cited claim, but does anyone else find it a little bit goofy? Literary scholars love to make far-fetched, speculative connections -- that's how they get tenure -- but having this particular one in a very brief article on this book seems unfair to the high school student who is trying to write a book report on "Rubyfruit Jungle". Couldn't it be something like, "Literary critics have applied a wide variety of readings to this novel, among others, that..."

That being said, if in fact this is a mainstream and plausible view among Rita Mae Brown experts, I withdraw the comment. (I didn't know until reading this article that she got a PhD in political science, so maybe she was immersed in Cold War German politics while writing Rubyfruit Jungle? Llajwa 12:41, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

I am removing this. The source cited is in German and very difficult to access, no page number is given, and the comment makes no sense. The heading says the book is a comment on 'Communism', and then the text says it's a comment on 'fascism'! (and since when was East Germany "fascist"?). It may be based on something legitimate, as the book is real enough, but per WP:REDFLAG it seems too problematic as it stands. Paul B (talk) 13:04, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Much ado about nothing indeed

Concerned editors removed a harmless, childish comment on the talk page but not the silly, questionable "In popular culture" section in the article. Gandydancer (talk) 04:24, 15 November 2011 (UTC)