I haven't read Fifth Sacred Thing. But there does sometimes seem to me to
be a generic problem with feminist spirtuality novels. They can be just a
little too goddamned nice!
An exception is a novel I just read called "The Jigsaw Woman" by Kim
Antineau (?). Its definitely post-modern in style, fragmented and
non-linear. It contains a neat utopian past, before "Daddy" controlled all
and spoiled all, but neatly avoids sentimentality because its protagonist
is a smart assed, wise cracking and very witty woman. The book is about
"a" woman who has been stitched together from various other (dead) women,
and contains their memories and other memories of woman (usually
suffering) through hsitory:
dying in war, burning when accused of witchcraft, and suffering though
sexual abuse.
This novel deals only indirectly with technology: the Victor Frankenstein
who stitches the woman together is trying to create a Barby Doll of other
women's perfect parts (although moral absolutism and and stable grounds
for judging others steadily retreats through the novel). The Female Man
does deal with technology, but ambivilently (I think this may well be a
charactistic of women's sf as another correspondant on this list neatly
pointed out): its clear that it can be used
for war in Jael's dystopia and in the pastoral post-industral world of
Janet.Someone asked for a utopia where people are rude and fail- I can
think of no better example than Delany's _Triton_, where the
protagonist, Bron, definitely does not fit in, and the technical
sophisication of this society (he can change sex at will) does not help at
all.S/he is really a total prick: and what can any utopian society do
about that?
Tanya.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:33 PDT