Look more closely at the cover: the cover of my (US, Paperback) edition
of "walk" has a kneeling woman in the foreground... who
is holding a knife hidden against her thigh.
It *is* a dark book, but I find it to be one of my favorite
feminist SF books, in part because the antifeminist, dystopian society
it presents
is so interesting and plausible. Much of the book is written from the
viewpoint of young men growing up in that society, and it almost reads
as a traditional SF Post-Holocaust Bildungsroman... gone bad. The
Stronghold is a nasty place, but there are reasons why it is so nasty,
and the male characters are aware of some of those defects and want to
fix them...
This is unlike some feminist SF novels where the dystopian society
seems pointlessly brutal and bloody-minded. (and why do so many feminist
utopian novels contain an antifeminist, dystopian society that is the
enemy of the utopian one? There is a kind of Manichean
quality to this. I wonder what other people think of this.)
Anyway, this quality in "Walk" reminded me a little of Spinrad's
_The Iron Dream_ (a novel purporting to be the classic SF novel, _Lords
of the Swastika_ by 40's emigre SF writer Adolf Hitler. The novell
brilliantly satirizes the fascist tendencies of some SF, and contains
some feminist themes as well), in that I experienced a certain tension
while reading it -- on the one hand, I was repulsed by Stronghold
society, whille on the other, my habits of reading from 20 years of SF
fandom made me want to read about the male protagonists reforming the
Stronghold, and going on to colonize the blasted wastelands all around.
I don't know if this was the author's intended effect (the market
share for feminist SF novels targeted at male Army officers is pretty
small I guess) but it made for a very interesting reading experience.
I would love to hear what other listmembers think about these
issues, including Ms. Charnas (if she is still on the list).
With respect, Dan Krashin
P.S. I am sorry to see Ms. Arnason go. I too would prefer to have a
list that emphasizes written SF rather than media SF, but I will
continue
to receive the list and make copious use of my PgDwn key. It's a free
net, after all...
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