On Fri, 16 May 1997 17:36:28 -0500 Neil Rest wrote:
>
> Don't underestimate the Heinlein juveniles. Not too long ago, I ran
into a
> copy of _Citizen of the Galaxy_, remembered how I'd been struck
by it when
> I read it once, decades ago, and picked it up.
>
> While the protagonist is male, there are clear, easily swallowed
lessons
> about intellectual, emotional and moral maturing, and pointed
observations
> about the silliness of sexism and ethnocentrism. (I'm not sure the
word
> "sexism" had been coined when the book was written, but for one
interval,
> the boy lives in a matriarchal culture, and later is in one where the
men
> running things can't imagine women being competent to do Real,
Important
> things -- clearly making those men look foolish. And one of the
twists in
> the final resolution has the hero being saved by the disciplined
efforts of
> the sheltered rich girl he ends up pairing with.
>
>
> Neil Rest
A very good short story by Heinlein is The Menace From Earth about
the pains of adolescence and the possibility that marriage and
engineering are *not* incompatible. Also by Heinlein, Space Cadet.
The protagonists land on Venus and have to cooperate with female
Venusians. Only those who can survive. I am very against the idea
that girls need female characters to identify with. In reality I suspect
most girls prefer single sex novels because this allows them to
identify, quite simply, with whoever is having more adventure and is
more active. The problem with novels which have male and female
protagonists is that often the male part is still more interesting. Yes
look for good female protagonists, but don't see this as a necessity.
Farah
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