Janet and Nicola,
Having more recently read Woman on the Edge of Time and Small Changes, the
non-science fiction book Nicola mentioned, I have to concur that both are
very dated. I loved He, She and It for the exploration of artificial
intelligence/life issues from a woman's perspective. I've recommended it
to many women friends who all appreciated it, even those who don't
regularly read sci-fi (I know, they must be forgiven.). And on a
political note I have to say I appreciated the visibility of lesbian
characters in He, She and It (as in many of Piercy's other work).
Something I value greatly in Nicola's work as well, having just read Slow
River and Ammonite.
It may be interesting to ask Piercy about her experiences as a general
fiction writer who has written two pieces of very popular and highly
respected science fiction. While science fiction is not her principal
genre is there something compelling about the power to speculate and
extrapolate into the future which appeals to feminist authors? I'm also
thinking of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, which is another
example of a feminist author 'occasionally' writing science fiction.
Happy to have joined the list,
Robin.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:05:56 PDT