The Female Man in The Alternative Worlds

Jul 11, 2012 Nicky rated it it was ok

Shelves: speculative-fiction, classics

I think people are wrong when they say this book is out of date. Many of the feminist issues Russ engaged with are still with us today, the double-standards women are held to and the things men expect of them. That part of the book seemed perfectly reasonable to me: a little out-dated, perhaps, as all of this sort of thing will become in just a few decades, but not irrelevant.

The story, however... I found it incomprehensible, buried under the weight of the feminist concerns and issues raised. I ...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Daniel Roy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, sf-masterworks, wwe-wogf, alternate-history

If I taught SF literature in high school, I'd make this book mandatory reading, knowing my students would hate me for it. it's not an easy book by any means; its structure is complex and obfuscated on purpose, and its subject matter is uncomfortable and necessary. But really, this is why SF exists in the first place.

The book has been heralded as the quintessential feminist SF, and it saddens me to know that this automatically reduces its reach. It's true that the book is singularly concerned wit If I taught SF literature in high school, I'd make this book mandatory reading, knowing my students would hate me for it. it's not an easy book by any means; its structure is complex and obfuscated on purpose, and its subject matter is uncomfortable and necessary. But really, this is why SF exists in the first place.

The book has been heralded as the quintessential feminist SF, and it saddens me to know that this automatically reduces its reach. It's true that the book is singularly concerned with subjects articulated by feminism, but I think it should be required reading for everyone of either gender. I wish I could go back in time and force fifteen year-old me to read this. And boy, is there a lot of piss and vinegar in this book. Sometimes the anger just radiates off the page. It's a visceral book of raw nerves and flayed skin. It's amazing.

The SF elements are more than merely allegorical. Ms. Russ spent a lot of energy building her woman-only utopia of Whileaway. The result is fascinating in its own right, and not entirely as one-sided as a feminist polemic would imply. Likewise, Alice's dystopia is fascinating SF in its own right, even as it serves as allegory for our world.

The novel, albeit short, is a difficult read, but I don't mean this in a bad way. The author obviously meant to confuse the reader with her narrators, and I quickly learned not to worry too much about figuring out what was going on. The book often swerves into pure polemical flights of fancy, and these packed quite a rhetorical and philosophical punch. It's gut-wrenching stuff for me as a man: a woman speaking directly to me, with no filter on her anger, her hopes, her hatred.

Some reviewers accuse this book of no longer being relevant, to which I can only laugh. We live in an era where female pornstars are conceived by the mainstream as feminist icons, where CNN eulogizes the career of teenage star athletes condemned for rape, and where male lawmakers still try their best to legislate vaginas. There is one aspect where I feel the book is dated, and it has to do with the scope of its feminism; there is no room here for a larger discussion on privilege that encompasses race, for instance. Also, the aspects of the novel dealing with transgenders are downright offensive. But even these elements do not ultimately take away from a powerful, socially relevant book. ...more

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Feb 14, 2014 Simon rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, sf-mistressworks, sf-masterworks

This is my first and, most likely, last experience of the writing of Joanna Russ.

This is not so much science fiction that explores themes of gender but rather a feminist tract with occasional use of SF tropes. Large parts of the narrative form an undisguised polemic railing against the condition of women in society and the way that this condition is maintained by men.

The plot, such as it is, involves four different versions of the same woman but from different parellel planes of existence comin ...more

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Mar 03, 2009 This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, 2013-wwe-challenge-women-in-sf

I had a really hard time with this novel. Some books are primarily about story, while others are primarily about message, while others fall in between. I tend to prefer books that lean more toward the story end of the scale. This book is almost entirely about message. It is virtually plotless, using SF constructs and an at times almost incoherent writing structure to relentlessly drum a message into the reader. An important message, absolutely. A dated message...not precisely. The message feels ...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Sarah added it

Shelves: speculative-fiction, wwe-women-of-genre-fiction, queer

In Thomas Disch's maddening essay "Can Girls Play Too? Feminizing SF," he describes a compliment Heinlein paid to Russ by omitting her from a list of 29 female SF writers. He likes her strategy of "hypothesizing women who can cope in a man's world rather than, as Le Guin would have it, remodeling human nature on a maternal template." That description makes me think either I'm missing something here or he is.

I need to process this book before I write about it. ...more

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