On Tue, 15 Apr 1997, farah mendlesohn wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Apr 1997 14:29:48 -0500 Michael Marc Levy wrote:
>
> >
> > I taught The Female Man last semester in a course on science fiction and
> > gender. Also did books or stories by LeGuin, Slonczewski, Bujold, Charnas,
> > Arnason, Tiptree, Heinlein, Piercy, Griffith, C.L.Moore, McCaffrey, Delany,
> > etc.
> >
> > Of all the stories we read, The Female Man was clearly the least
> > successful, at least in terms of class participation. Most of the
> > students hated it and/or were totally confused by it. In part this was
> > simply because the novel is complex and hard to follow, but many felt
> > that it was dated, that too many of its literary and historical allusions
> > were obscure because they were so clearly tied to the 60s and 70s.
> >
> > I'd be interested to hear from others who have taught this book. Did you
> > have a similar experience? Did you find successful avenues into the text?
>
>
> Are you attempting any sort of historicity? If so, Heinlein's Beyond this Horizon or
> The Menace From Earth still manages to be a lot less sexist that McCaffery and
> truly radical for its period. Give Heinlein a fair chance! And try Tiptree's The
> Screwfly Solution or Houston Houston Do You Read.
>
> Farah.
Yes, the course was historically based. I used the Moon is a Harsh
Mistress intentionally because I wanted something to contrast with the
other, clearly feminist works we were using. I also discussed Heinlein's
odd, but very real "proto-feminism" (or whatever you want to call it). I
think that the bunch of students I was teaching would have hated "Houston
Houston" in part for the same reasons that they hated The Female Man.
They may have been initially impressed by the quality of Tiptree's
writing, but, due to the ending and an unwillingness to think too deeply
about what they read (a glancing reference here to another thread going on
elsewhere on this list!), they would probably have seen the story naively as
nothing more as an anti-male diatribe.
Mike
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