Because I was using NATIVE TONGUE in my recent grad course, I went ahead
over the past week and reread the two sequels: this was only the second
time I'd read the third in the series. I shared some list members'
disappiontment with _Earthsong_ the first time I'd read it: part of this
was due to circumstances. It had been over a decade since NT was published
(1984 to, what, 1996 or something), and the third novel is somewhat
different than the first or even the second. But a friend at Pop Culture
who was presenting on the third book that year told me to check it out
again: that it was more interesting than I was thinking. I hadn't had time
to read it until just now, and I now share her belief that there's
something very interesting going on here, and I just have to be a bit
patient. The shifts are interesting: the focus isn't only on women
surviving the oppression of men, but the entire human race surviving the
Alien Consortium's decision to withdraw (along with all their technology).
The narrative point of view is different: basically Nazareth (who has died)
is telling us stories of what happened after her death, BUT she's working
through "trancers" -- and there's a lot of shifting around. In some ways
the third novel reminds me of the ending to the first: it's not quite what
I expected. But how can a writer describe a reality that is completely
different in the "old" language? And unlike the seventies utopias writers
who all postulated an all female society (the males having conveniently died
out due to a sex-linked plague), Elgin seems interested in asking how to
change the violence/aggression which (in the theory behind her novels) seems
so basic to human nature. A lot is different--but there is a lot that's the
same. The 'plot' to spread the new way of sustaining life, the manipulation
by women of men in power. Interesting that the third novel has the women of
the Lines allying themselves with Native Americans!
Robin.
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