I have lurked on this list for some time now, but have never found
the time to participate. The question concerning the first sf book
and the first feminist sf book prodded me to become actively involved.
My first sf book was also my first feminist sf book: The Left Hand of
Darkness (LHOD). At 16 a (male) friend of mine lent it to me. The
actual story I did not find so interesting but I was thrilled by the
concept of people with no/two sexes and what consequences that had
for the society. I tried to find similar books, i.e. science
fictions/utopias exploring gender issues - without much success
(that was 15 years ago). I read other books by Le Guin, interesting
but they do not meet that criteria (IMHO).
Nowadays, the bigger bookstores in Germany carry books in English
languages, in 1980 that was restricted to the classics. It usually
takes 2-3 years before English-written books are translated to German
and, of course, not all are done.
On my last visit to the US (in 1993) I happened to hit on The Gate to
Woman's Country. That was the starting point to look for more, also in
German bookstores. Things have changed a lot since the early
eighties. The homepage by Laura Quilter also helped. I often go to
business trips to the UK and nowadays I always take a list of feminist
science fiction to buy with me.
That reminds me, what happened to the homepage of the WisCon
conference and the James Tiptree award? Apparently it moved. Can
somebody help me with the new www address?
Another question: I have read LHOD in German (translated title
"Winter Planet"). What does the expression "left hand of darkness"
refer to? I imagine it is a standing English expression but could not
find it in any reference book. Or does it refer to any part of the
story? (I cannot remember enough of the details of the story.)
>From a German viewpoint science-fiction is a more or less anglo-saxon
domain, with few exceptions (e.g. Strugatzki, Lem?). Of course, there are
German science fiction writers, but it always feels strange, when the
scene is not in Northern America or the main actors are not of
US-American descendancy or all these English expressions for the
futuristic stuff are missing (my apologies to the British, but
when it is in English I tend to assume it is US-American). There are
only few successful German science fiction writers (male), but I have
to own I have not read them and at the moment I cannot remember the
names.
Petra
** Petra Mayerhofer ** pm@ier.uni-stuttgart.de **
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