Subject: File: "FEMINISTSF-LIT LOG0201B" ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2002 01:33:29 -0700 Reply-To: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC Sender: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC From: Mellen Subject: BDG for January Comments: To: feministsf@uic.edu, feministsf-lit@uic.edu Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Dear Discussion Groupers; Sorry this announcement is late this month, lots of goings on for me. For the month of January weıre discussing; A Women's Liberation: A Choice of Futures by and About Women, edited by Connie Willis and Sheila Williams. Discussion started on the 7th. Donıt know if itıs too late to order the next selection - Mary Elizabeth? Illicit Passage can only, as far as I know, be obtained from the author, via Mysterious Galaxy. Thanks to Mary Elizabeth of Mysterious Galaxy for making that so easy & giving us a discount on most books. mgbooks@mystgalaxy.com, or orders@mystgalaxy.com Also, it should be getting to be about time for the next round of nominations. Rev up your Harry Potter brooms (sure wish I had one) and get ready to nominate. Blessings - Mellen For the BDG Volunteers Upcoming Books- 4 Feb. Illicit Passage, by Alice Nunn *************************************************************************** The BDG provides a forum for focusing discussion on a particular book during a one month period. The books discussed are nominated and chosen in advance by a vote of all members of the FSFFU-L list serve who choose to vote. Start thinking about your nominations now. To quote our list-mistress, "This does not prohibit discussion of the BDG books at other times; nor does it prohibit discussion of non-BDG books." If you have any other questions about the Book Discussion Group (BDG), it's selections, previous discussions or the Feminist Science Fiction, Fantasy and Utopias Literature List Serve (FSFFU-L), you can start with the BDG website at; http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Comet/1304, or the FSFFU-L website at; http://www.feministsf.org/femsf/listserv/index.html ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2002 11:24:55 -0800 Reply-To: publicity@mystgalaxy.com Sender: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC From: Maryelizabeth Hart Organization: Mysterious Galaxy Subject: A WOMAN'S LIBERATION Comments: To: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit answering a few of my own questions... > Did you read the stories in the order printed in the book? If not, what > method did you use? Favorite authors? Chronology of publication? > More or > less familiar stories? > I read the stories in order. Kind of wished there were introductory remarks by the editors to explain their thinking in the order the were listed. I read everything, which meant a mix of rereads and "new to me" stories. > Which situations and / or characters lingered in your consciousness? > Why? > The title story definitely had resonance, as did "Rachel in Love" (even upon rereading) and "Speech Sounds," which touches upon one of my deepest fears, the loss of language. No books, email, letters, chatting with my family, etc.? Horror! > Did you read the collection as a whole in a short period of time, or > gradually, over a more extended time period? > I've been reading a story here and there since I got the book, so I read the 10 stories over about a 3 month period. Maryelizabeth -- ******************************************************************* Mysterious Galaxy Books Local Phone: 858.268.4747 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Suite 302 Fax: 858.268.4775 San Diego, CA 92111 Long Distance/Orders: 1.800.811.4747 http://www.mystgalaxy.com General Email: mgbooks@mystgalaxy.com ******************************************************************* ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2002 19:36:54 -0500 Reply-To: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC Sender: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC From: "Janice E. Dawley" Subject: Re: BDG: A WOMAN'S LIBERATION Comments: To: feministsf-lit@UIC.EDU In-Reply-To: <3C3926D1.F5458101@mystgalaxy.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed At 08:40 PM 1/6/02 -0800, Maryelizabeth wrote: >Were there FEMSF members who looked at the listed stories and read them >from other sources, rather than obtaining the collection? Six of the ten stories are included in anthologies I already own (and two have been expanded into novels that I also own), so it didn't really make sense to buy the book. I admit I spent some time in the bookstore "browsing" the introduction and the other stories this afternoon. >Did readers feel the stories were all suited to the stated tone / >intention of the collection? To tell you the truth, I am not sure *what* the intention of the collection was. There have been other, better, anthologies of SF by women (e.g. the two-volume "Women of Wonder", edited by Pamela Sargent), and there's a lot out there that is more explicitly feminist. Willis' introduction does nothing to explain why the book exists or why the individual stories were chosen (apart from being originally published in Asimov's or Analog). >Were there any stories you would not have >included? Are there stories from this area you would have preferred to >see included instead? The only story I objected to was Willis' own "Even the Queen". I found it insulting to just about everyone and thought it said nothing of interest about menstruation, its ostensible theme. Then again, I find Willis' "humor" annoying and utterly unfunny and couldn't get beyond the first 20 pages of *To Say Nothing of the Dog*, while others find her a laugh riot, so maybe I'm not the best judge. As far as what was missing... there is so much that could have been substituted. Suzy Charnas, Maureen McHugh, Karen Joy Fowler, Kate Wilhelm, and Alice Sheldon (as Raccoona Sheldon) have all published stories in Asimov's or Analog that, in my opinion, are superior to the Kress, Willis, Zettel, MacLean and McCaffrey. But once again, there's the question of why the editors picked what they picked. Given the tone of the introduction, it appears they wanted to avoid the "feminist 'women's issues' ghetto" by including a generous portion of heroic adventure stories -- but then they named the collection *A Woman's Liberation*, after the most explicitly feminist story in it! I am baffled! Where do they stand, anyway? >Did you feel the collection was truly a "feminist SF" collection, or >rather a "womanist" SF collection? They are feminist stories in that many of them take for granted female strength and centrality. Women are (or were, in these often post-catastrophe stories) doctors, lawyers, scientists, or academics, and take responsibility in large or small ways for changing the world around them. Except for the Le Guin story, sexism is either not present at all or is mentioned in passing rather than being dealt with head-on. In many cases, I believe these stories are built on the ground broken by earlier feminist authors, as Willis acknowledges in her note at the beginning of the collection. So I guess I would call the collection "second generation feminist SF", though the Willis story particularly takes a somewhat contrary position to the women's movement. >Did you read the stories in the order printed in the book? If not, what >method did you use? Favorite authors? Chronology of publication? More or >less familiar stories? I read the unfamiliar stories first, then re-read the others pretty much at random. >Did you read the collection as a whole in a short period of time, or >gradually, over a more extended time period? I took a couple of days to read through it. >Which situations and / or characters lingered in your consciousness? >Why? Well, this requires a little digging through the memory banks... I first read "Rachel in Love" in a bookstore in Harvard Square over ten years ago. I had intended to skim it, but was sucked in and gripped till the final page. Murphy's central idea, of a teenage girl's mind fused with a chimpanzee's body, had incredible metaphorical resonance for me (alienation from one's own body, people treating you a certain way because of how you look, rather than who you are), and the concrete detail of the animal research center was depressingly realistic. It pushed my buttons, and still does. S.N. Dyer's "The July Ward" was new to me. I love reading about the lived-in details of unfamiliar jobs or environments -- too often it's clear that an author has slapped a description together from a few imperfectly understood reference works. Though I'd never read anything by Dyer before, it was clear from this story that she knows her stuff, and has a sense of humor about it. I really enjoyed it. "Speech Sounds" made a strong impression on me when I first read it in *The Norton Book of Science Fiction". The bleakness, the death, and lack of sentimentality about it really shook my tree. Unfortunately, I think I have developed an allergy to Butler since then. I've reread this story a couple of times and find myself irritated by its assumption of a primal human (specifically male) violence, of a world where people *wouldn't* sort themselves out into "speakers" or "readers" and where gestural language is necessarily less complex than spoken. Grumble. Le Guin's story, the seed of the collection, was the most emotional experience for me this time around. The early events, particularly, are unpredictable, but described with such clarity that they make perfect sense. The humanity, both bad and good, shines from the page. (The image of Walsu leaping "into her death, into her freedom" brings tears to my eyes as I think of it.) The story falters a bit at the end -- to me it is not clear how Rakam's conflicted feelings about sexuality are resolved. For her to have found the Right Man at last seems like a bit of a cop out, though I like Havzhiva very much. Now I am curious what other people liked. 'Fess up, folks! (And thanks to Diane and Maryelizabeth for your comments.) ----- Janice E. Dawley.....Burlington, VT http://homepages.together.net/~jdawley/ Listening to: A Perfect Circle -- Mer de Noms "I've built my white picket fence around the Now, with a commanding view of the Soon-to-Be." -- The Tick ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2002 09:04:53 -0800 Reply-To: publicity@mystgalaxy.com Sender: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC From: Maryelizabeth Hart Organization: Mysterious Galaxy Subject: ILLICIT PASSAGE Comments: To: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC , Fem-SF MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit > Donıt know if itıs too late to order the next selection - Mary Elizabeth? > Illicit Passage can only, as far as I know, be obtained from the author, > via > Mysterious Galaxy. Thanks to Mary Elizabeth of Mysterious Galaxy > for making > that so easy & giving us a discount on most books. > mgbooks@mystgalaxy.com, > or orders@mystgalaxy.com > > I believe all but one or two copies have been purchased from MG. Thanks for the support, all. Hope the 20 plus copies purchased makes for a lively discussion next month. Maryelizabeth -- ******************************************************************* Mysterious Galaxy Books Local Phone: 858.268.4747 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Suite 302 Fax: 858.268.4775 San Diego, CA 92111 Long Distance/Orders: 1.800.811.4747 http://www.mystgalaxy.com General Email: mgbooks@mystgalaxy.com ******************************************************************* ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 11:13:02 -0800 Reply-To: publicity@mystgalaxy.com Sender: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC From: Maryelizabeth Hart Organization: Mysterious Galaxy Subject: Nalo on Booksense.com Comments: To: Fem-SF MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit http://www.booksense.com/people/archive/hopkinsonnalo2.jsp?jsessionid=1938511010689525875 >From the teaser: > Author Nalo Hopkinson > went to France to research > her next novel..and go to a > convention, get lost, and be > surprised by a certain > structure right outside her > hotel window. > -- ******************************************************************* Mysterious Galaxy Books Local Phone: 858.268.4747 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Suite 302 Fax: 858.268.4775 San Diego, CA 92111 Long Distance/Orders: 1.800.811.4747 http://www.mystgalaxy.com General Email: mgbooks@mystgalaxy.com *******************************************************************