At 17:56 4/22/97 BST, you wrote:
>On Sat, 19 Apr 1997 10:06:00 -0800 Emily Hackbarth wrote:
>
[snip]
>
>The bit in the story which really annoyed me was the stuff about child
>care. Shevek's mother is made to seem neglectful for leaving her
>child in a creche whilst she goes off to pursue her career. His father
>is given no such guilt trip for doing the same thing, and neither is
>Shevek who is happy to abandon his child to the care of his wife
>assuming that she will be happy with this arrangment.
>
>In addition, one of the *implied* faults of this utopia is its lack of
>beauty (it *is* a harsh world) but the loss seems to be focussed on
>the loss of feminity. Why? What was LeGuin trying to say?
>
>In the end, Shevek's wife (and I apologise deeply for not being able
>to remember her name, but she is *so* colourless) is subsumed
>beneath the personality and creativity of the great man. I can't see
>much difference for women before or after the revolution.
>
>
>Farah
>
Takver -- I find her fascinating, and gave a paper on her once. I
found, to my surprise, that at least one person in the audience saw
her as a greedy (grease around the mouth) childlike person, with no
personality. I saw her as a brave, vital, contributing member of the
society -- who could say she had been wrong in a very important matter,
and take long separations from Shevek when they became necessary.
That's something I have experienced myself, and believe me, it's not
easy, especially when you have full responsibility for the children.
Yes, the kids are in a kibbutz-like situation, so she doesn't have to
hold down a job AND do all the housework-baby-tending etc., but she
DOES have to manage when everyone around her is shunning her and her
kids, and giving them all a hard time. Utopia, indeed! And she does
not give in under that kind of pressure, either. A brave strong woman.
Martha Bartter
Truman State University
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