Summary

In "Diving into the Wreck," Chapter 1, Solnit recounts the research and writing of her second book, during which many of her subjects harassed and demeaned her. She further discusses her frustrations with the Beat poets, naming particular works which discomfited her. Women everyone were forbidden their freedom. The more she read and learned, the angrier she grew. Other writers verified her concerns, noting the prevalent images of dead women in literature, the emphasis on male friendship as paramount to all others. One night, a particularly misogynistic face on the punk scene, William Burroughs, had a birthday party. Solnit and her editor attended, dressed in hyper-feminine attire. They made a point to bother and discomfit Burroughs.

In Chapter 2, the more Solnit worked in the writing and publishing world, the more she realized she did not know about how to stand up for...