Reading, Writing, Women & War -- A few more for ya

The Eye of the Reporter, the Heart of the Novelist
"I learned to distinguish between those details that simply existed and those that revealed. Those telling details are the essence of fiction that feels real. The command of those details explains why Charles Dickens, a onetime reporter, has a byline for the ages." - Anna Quindlen

Long in Dark, Afghan Women Say to Read Is Finally to See
"'Blind' is the word many of these illiterate women use to describe themselves, and it speaks to the confusion and difficulties that they encounter as uneducated members of a society already harshly discriminatory against women.
"'Without knowledge, I am blind; I do not know white from black,' said Torpikay, 30. 'In town, I do not know where is the hospital, or the baths or the washroom, and I will take my dishes into the wrong place, because we just follow other women and don't know where we are going.' That last comment raised laughter from the entire class."

Single Girls: Sex but Still No Respect
"The media refrain has variations," Betsy Israel writes, "but in essence it remains the same: no matter what the single woman says, she can't really be happy. Her life is barren and disappointing."

Seeds of Protest Growing on College Campuses
"'I think there's a very strong antiwar feeling on campus,' said Shadi Hamid, a Georgetown sophomore. 'It wasn't so much an issue when we came back to school in August, but in the last two weeks there's been this new sense of urgency, and the issue has moved beyond the Muslim students.'
"Building an antiwar movement when students are not threatened by the draft is not easy. It may be particularly difficult in a generation that has little experience with political protest.
"'Campus activism at Penn is a bit frustrating because it seems like most people agree with us,' said Dan Fishback, a University of Pennsylvania senior. 'I'll talk about the various reasons we shouldn't go to war, and they'll be, like, "Yeah, I'm totally with you." But they're not, because they're not involved. They're so used to feeling helpless that it doesn't occur to them to be outraged.'"