-- [ From: David Christenson * EMC.Ver #2.5.3 ] --
Mr. Krashin says:
> Reading these stories as a kid, I was much more impressed with
Calvin's
> intellect and her acerbic manner than I was concerned about her
stunted
> emotional life. She seemed a type of female Sherlock Holmes to me.
I think when we're young we tend to take out of our reading what is
valuable, and the nonsense is forgotten - one of the benefits of pre-
critical thinking.
> I don't think it's fair to lambaste Asimov on the grounds that
Simone de
> Beauvoir was already available in English by that time -- from my
historical
> understanding (caveat:I was born in 1967 and don't remember anything
prior to
> Watergate) feminism, or women's lib, was off the cultural radar screen
in
> America until the late 60's/early 70's except for a small minority of
people...
Not my intent to Asimov-bash, really. I've always liked Asimov. There
were male SF writers of the '40s and '50s who were better at drawing
unstereotyped female characters - Sturgeon comes to mind - but the list
of such writers is small. It's interesting that a genre on the cutting
edge in some ways is/was so backward in other ways, and it seems
contradictory that the genre could contain the real Judith Merril, but
also a host of fictional Susan Calvins, fantasy slave women, etc. Seems
to me one good conversation with Merril or her creative peers should
drive all the stereotypes out of one's imagination.
-- David Christenson - ldqt79a@prodigy.com"What is life? Life is stepping down a step or sitting on a chair, "And it isn't there." - Ogden Nash
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