Ode to the heroine of the future

In this short story Tama Janowitz explores two major taboo subjects during the 1980s, drugs and homosexuality. The story for me is a warning message of the dangers of falling into the excesses and paranoia that fuelled the decade. The protagonist narrates the last time she saw her sister Amaretta, who she romantically likens to a greek tragedy- "I had arranged to meet her in one of the bars she spent all her time in- all she did besides take drugs and drink and pick up men". [245]

Her reliance on alcohol and drugs causes her to get her driving license being taken away for drink driving, causing her to rely on the 'stabilising' influence of a group of drug dealers and gurus who exploit her and "made her think she made no difference at all." After this long string of events she commits suicide while under the influence by jumping naked from the top of a seven-story building.

This was a time when stoic politics and ignorance towards sexuality was optimised by the AIDS panic. Amaretta spends time with men such as 'Jonny' whom she regularly takes coke with and who it is implied gave her a black eye, which she plays off as having walked into a cabinet door. Her drug of choice is coke, which resonates with the crack epidemic that occurred from 1984-1990 as crack became cheap, easy to use and easy to produce, that caused a moral panic at the time.

She is used by all the men in the story, with Jonny's only real interest in her occuring when she recalls an experience with a woman she meets at a lesbian bar. She chastises the women for looking like 'dykes', for being overly masculine and generally shows an attitude that reflects the time. "The old dyke actually wore men's jockey shorts!"[258] At one of the self help classes she attends she is told that "everything happens to you because you want it to" [249]. It is therefore implied that Amaretta chooses to take her life in a purification for her moral sins in society for taking cocaine and participating in experiences with women. Her sister does not seem that surprised or show much emotion at the end of the story "there aren't many more thoughts in my head", as if after hearing Amaretta's tale was the reason for her demise and that she was "beyond help" like she had been told when she took her drunken-driving evaluation. This certainly reflects the attitudes of the time towards people like the narrators sister.

References
http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/crackcocaine/a-short-history.html