Re: [*FSFFU*] Clay's Ark

From: luz guerra (lguerra@IBM.NET)
Date: Wed Nov 12 1997 - 17:06:13 PST


DAVID CHRISTENSON wrote:
>
> -- [ From: David Christenson * EMC.Ver #2.5.3 ] --
>
> Just finished reading Butler's Clay's Ark, the first Butler novel for me
> . I was quite surprised at how violent it was, and how badly she treated
> her protagonists. Am I being oversensitive? Is this characteristic of
> Butler?
>
> Anyway, I found the alien disease and its effects quite interesting, and
> I kept trying to fit it into some kind of feminist frame, but it
> wouldn't go. (Seemed like a sequel was possible - was there one?)
> --
> David Christenson - ldqt79a@prodigy.com
>
> "We live in Gothic times." - Angela Carter

lg: David, I don't understand what you mean by treating her protagonists
badly, could you explain?

I think of Butler's work as important to feminist sf because her female
characters are so truely portrayed in full human complexity. Alot of
her work, such as Clay's Ark, presents a not-so-impossible-to-imagine
near future where our society as we know it collapses. IMHO, the female
characters don't necessarily have a feminist agenda: they are fighting
to survive horrendous conditions and remain fully human.

I don't know that there was a specific sequel to Clay's Ark (anyone?)
although I remember I thought I saw some parallel themes with
Patternmaster (it's been a while).

luz



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