>From: farah mendlesohn <fm7@YORK.AC.UK>
>
> 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.
> SNIP
> It might be worth mentioning that in a poll conducted at the end of the
> class the most popular stories were 1) McCaffrey's "The Ship Who Sang,"
> 2) Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time, 3) Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh
> Mistress, 4 LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness, and 5) Griffith's
> Ammonite tied with Bujold's Ethan of Athos. The McCaffrey and Heinlein
> stories, of course, were in there to show old-fashioned, sexist attitudes.
> Surprise!
1)You have to take into account that _The Female Man_ is something of a
polemic. It's not trying to make you like it, it's trying to start a fight
(or at least an argument). McCaffrey and Heinlein, on the other hand, are
trading largely in Sense-of-Wonder. Does it surprise you that people would
rather be dazzled than argued with?
In support of my point, _Woman on the Edge of Time_ , which you list as
coming in #2 is both radical and an engrossing tale. (BTW, has anyone else
noticed how much the dystopia in WOTEOT resembles cyberpunk?)
As an experiment, you might try using "When It Changed" in a lineup of
short fiction -- as someone pointed out already, the story packs a much bigger
emotional punch... It rocked my 14 year old whiteboy world...
2)It's easy to forget that Anne McCaffrey wasn't always the mistress of
Pern INC. I gather, from the awards of the time, that she was something of a
groundbreaking and innovative writer in the late 1960's. (Although not a
feminist one.) Cs "Ship" really that bad? Contrary to Tanya Wood's comment,
I recall the scene ofI sexual frustration in "The Ship who Sang" to be more
nuanced and moving than just a scenario of failed rape. YMMV.
Daniel Krashin
[re-lurking]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:02 PDT