At the time Lovelace lived, pregnant women were told to avoid exercise, as
well as just about everything, including going out and about in public.
Huey
>On Thu, 11 Sep 1997, Michael Marc Levy wrote:
>
>>
>> Perhaps a survey is in order. How many people on this list...
>>
>> Mike
>
>NH: LOL! Yeah, how many prehensile-toed people out there? Now, *that's*
>science fiction! (Oh, hell; let me explain that last sentence; I went to
>the Clarion sf writers' workshop in '95, where the question "Why is this
>science fiction?" seemed to come up a lot in critiques. After a while,
>we started to invent really silly responses to it.)
>
>BTW, last evening I saw the indie sf film "Conceiving Ada" by Lynn
>Hershman Leeson. It's about a woman scientist who tries to recreate Ada
>Lovelace, daughter of poet Lord Byron, and the person who seems to have
>invented the first computer program in 1843 (this is from the program
>notes--from the film, I understood her to have invented the first
>computer programming language, inspired by Charles Babbage's 'calculating
>engine). Honourably intentioned film, but I found it to be really clunky
>science fiction. Seemed to have been written by someone who neither
>knows the genre, nor felt any responsibility to check her science. For
>instance, at one point a doctor forbids a perfectly healthy, active woman
>with a normal pregnancy from exercising until her pregnancy is over. I
>don't want this to turn into a spoiler so I'll stop here, but if anyone
>else sees it, I'd love to hear what you think. Ada Lovelace sounds like
>a great topic for a feminist sf treatment. There's also a cameo
>appearance by Timothy Leary, who was obviously in the latter stages of
>cancer when they filmed--he was absolutely gaunt. That was difficult to
>watch; reminded me of my dad's death from cancer.
>
>-nalo
>
>
>>
>
>"There are two kinds of dates; the kind that you go out with, and the
>small fruit that you eat."
> -my aunt
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