In the end, the depths of phenomenal and psychological maleness and male desire that Schorr conveys is withheld from Antin and Piper because the latter by all appearances neither attempt to desire what the male persona she assumes is claiming to desire, nor does she show us his desire (though Piper does write it out for us in her photo documents--which is a cognitive, not a phenomenal, sharing).
Never does she imagine her desires for love and romance being demolished--not now, not anymore, not after a thousand-and-one girls have denied her India ink letters and pressed dandelions before.
Does she still feel sexual desire?
Did she have the desire to try to do it all over again or was she happy with life after rowing?
"She does not desire to destroy the pre-embryos; she simply does not want them to be used for reproductive purposes.
For whatever reason she does not desire to take a chance that machines can reverse her organ failure so she would rather die than succumb to them.
So not only is whatever Martha desires good for her, but, in addition, anything which she does not desire but which nonetheless might bring her joy will also be good.
"He would be capable of anything he desires to do," she said.
"Everything that happened last year gave me a chance to re-evaluate what was important in my life, and what I really desired to do," she says.
She began to want to avoid the approach in bed, and then grew fearful that she would send him to the other woman by suggesting that she did not desire him; at the same time, she wanted terribly to put her hands, her mouth on the body beside her, no matter the humiliation of the act, which he fulfilled like a medical procedure, prescribed to satisfy her.
