I just joined this listserv last week and have yet to join the
conversation--I've been lurking back and enjoying all the intelligent
conversation. Because I am new, I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned
Susan Squier's book _Babies in Bottles: Twentieth-Century Visions of
Reproductive Technology_ (1994). This book looks at images of reproductive
technology in twentieth-centruy culture, considering the writings of Julian
Huxley, JBS Haldane, Charlotte, Haldane, Aldous Huxley, and Naomi
Mitchison, and weaving in the history of reproductive technology and its
popular representations. The premise of the book is laid out in the
introduction: "If we spend a little time teasing out the implications of
these images of babies in bottles, we can see that they all enact the
fantasy of the womb as a see-through container for the previously invisible
fetus, but they differ in the meanings they attach to it." This book might
be of interest to those out there interested in how science fiction,
science writing, and fiction have reflected issues of reproductive
technology. Although not strictly related to the issue of birth control (or
the lack thereof), it is intricately tied to the notion of birth itself and
woman's role in that process, and it is an excellent scholarly work that
credits SF as a cultural force.
Let me also take this space to introduce myself. I am a graduate student
in English (twentieth century American fiction and feminist theory) at the
Pennsylvania State University. When I was younger I read a lot of science
fiction, and I wrote my undergraduate honors thesis on Feminist Utopias
(mostly twentieth century, such as Atwood, Piercy, Le Guin, Brantenberg,
Carter, etc, but with a little background all the way back to Margaret
Cavendish). I am still interested in Feminist SF and read what I can,
although I don't have as much time to read the fun stuff as I used to. I
have started compiling a list of "must reads" from the listserv, and will
soon need to drop out of graduate school to keep up with it!
Beth Widmaier
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