Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning, and Sexual Power of Red Hair
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Popular American writer and radio commentator Roach explores the tales of red-haired men and women as sinners, the scientific investigation into hair color, and the perennial association of red-haired women with sex. Yes, she herself has red hair. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR Publishers Weekly A redhead herself, NPR commentator Roach has an odd chip on her shoulder about it, relating all sorts of travails and opinions connected to red hair that the average non-redhead may never have guessed existed. To get to the bottom of our perceptions and experience of red hair, she explores the ancient legends of Lilith and Set, the traditions that depict both Judas and Mary Magdalene as redheads, and an Eve in London's St. Paul's Cathedral that has blond hair before the Fall and red hair after it. She visits "witch camp" in Vermont, a high-end hair salon in Manhattan, and Emily Dickinson's house, where a carefully preserved lock of the poet's red hair transforms Roach's image of her. Along the way, Roach (Another Name for Madness) makes some poignant points about what it means to belong to the redheaded minority in Western society, making gently suggestive comparisons to more overt patterns of prejudice. Yet the author seems to accept preconceptions about the sexuality and vivacity associated with red hair, and her jumping between examples often reads more like breathless conjecture than fact and leaches energy from extended vignettes, such as her visit with the witches. Whether readers enjoy this book will have a lot to do with whether they like the narrator's self-conscious red-headed persona. And, of course, whether they are as fascinated as she is by red hair. Agent, Kris Dahl. (July) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Prologue : a lurid tale1Ch. 1Wild, oversexed heathens, banshees, and queens : redheaded women and how they make us feel the way we do9Ch. 2The old poker and the inhabitants of pandemonium : it is in his kiss - and in our blood - to fear the red-haired man37Ch. 3The blood that scares the hell into us : superstition, taboo, and the blood that divides us55Digestif : recipe for an identity91Ch. 4A monk, two very different Victorians, and the knockout mouse : how we were delivered the genetics of hair color96Digestif : recipe for a heritage120Ch. 5The itch of genetics/the genetics of itch : science has done little to extinguish the fire of the tale125Digestif : recipe for one redhead153Ch. 6The palette of the succubus : on Satan the color red is one thing; on women, it is altogether another157Ch. 7You may be many things, young lady, but you are no redhead : the tangle of sex and science are but two strands of the braid182
