Response to Berto

The sad reality is that every one of these marriages will last a long time and heres why. Everyone has seen the couple that just hates eachother and wont leave eachother, because thats what they feed of off, their hatred of eachother- weird right, but its true. Similiarly to Nick and his wife, they are absolutely enamored with eachother, and their relationship is beautifully contrasted with Mel's in that they are happy being happy, and Mel is happy wanting others to be as unhappy as he is. Like the old couple, all of these dudes are in for the long haul. Carvers criticism, or "what we talk about when we talk about love", is that "love" per se, is not syn ominous with longevity in a relationship, but rather, the actual love inside it, which is unmeasurable.

The Woman Gets her due

Its hard to say that the fault completely lies on the man. While i believe Houston was very critical of the "Hunter" i believe she was equally responding to she who talks to the hunter. This criticism relates more to what Houston doesn't say than what she does. For example, she never says the woman voices her concern openly to her male companion. Similiarly, this seemingly intellegent woman, given that she attended graduate school, never has the hunter buy into her interests, whatever they may be, however she obviously does for the hunter (wearing the moose hide for a picture). Its obvious the "hunter" is abusive and manipulative to the woman, but its even more obvious that in the words of the typical Jerry Springer audience member, "she gotta kick him to da curb". Houston's work is very intriguing, but her message is what makes it most powerful. Why do women go for the men who will treat them poorly? Yes, every work can stipulate that the bad boy complex is attractive to a woman, but when did that complex mean that the men have to treat women so poorly. In short, the "Hunter" wouldnt exist if there was no woman to hunt. Like a predator on its prey, it only lives if their are things to hunt, for that it is how it lives. If women wouldnt buy into the abuse and fuel it, it wouldnt burn. So before we lay all of our blame into the obvious perpretator, the nameless woman deserves her due.