Robin Reid wrote:
>
> I just finished reading this book, and did something I haven't done in quite
> some time: stayed up all night because I could not bear to put it down.
Same thing happened to me. <g>
> The novel obviously a feminist view of "his"-story, and sf.
I've heard this mentioned a few times. It's funny, because it doesn't
strike me as "feminist" per se, but simply a story told from a female
point of view. The reason I hesitate at the word feminist here is not
because the book doesn't illustrate the inequities women faced in the
era; it does a good job of that, showing without telling. What bothers
me is that the label suggests that the feminine point of view is
"different."
I don't know if I'm phrasing this well. Let me try an example. I would
call Joan Slonczewski's "Door Into Ocean" feminist because it proposes a
world that deals with questions being debated among feminists and
explores the consequences of those questions in an experimental
society. THE MOON AND THE SUN tells the story of someone on our own
planet living in our own culture, dealing with the day to day problems a
person of that time and position encounters. The only difference is
that it is a young woman. So her concerns include those of a woman, eg,
what happens when she has her period?
In other words, if I read a story that follows the life of a young man,
I don't consider it necessarily "masculinist" (whatever that might
mean!). It's just a story.
I suspect the answer to my own question is that it is feminist because
the majority of our stories aren't told from a feminine point of view
(except in the romance genre, though that is only one aspect of it).
Perhaps we will know that equality is close when stories told from the
female VP are no longer seen as feminist per se (or that all standby
"fluff"), but just as good stories.
> I am amazed at the amount of historical research necessary to have written this--
> and impressed at the deftness of the "speculation" ("what if sea people
> existed?"), and the richess and depth of characterization throughout.
Yes! My impression also.
Best regards
Catherine Asaro
http://www.sff.net/people/asaro/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:45 PDT