SFBRP Listeners discussion
Little Fuzzy
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That occurs in Ursula Leguin's novel "The Word for World is Forest"
Yes! Now that I see the name I recognize it.
I get the feeling that Luke hasn't read many sf books from the 1950s and 1960s if he's that surprised at the sexism of that era (ie before women's lib). I recently reread Man in the High Castle, from that same year, and hadn't remembered the casual racism in that book.
I enjoyed the review Luke. I read Little Fuzzy in March right after I read Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi. In some ways Little Fuzzy was more fun; Scalzi had more court room machinations in Fuzzy Nation and that's not an area that interests me.I found the amount of smoking and drinking that went on more jarring than the sexism (which was awful). It seemed that Piper used describing what a person was doing ie drinking or smoking as the way to introduce a character or scene. It just dates the book anytime anyone lights up.
Scalzi's reboot is a reboot in the truest sense of the word. I think the biggest, obvious change is to the main character. Papa Jack transforms from a crusty grandfatherly type fellow into a 30ish, rebellious guy with a mysterious past a much more modern hero archetype.
The funny thing about Fuzzy Nation is that Scalzi said he wrote it because the original was so dated, yet he filled his version with Internet slang that's already dated ("die in a fire," etc.) and has the characters watch Return of the Jedi.
I liked Little Fuzzy a lot more than Fuzzy Nation. It seemed more realistic to me than the reboot, even with the sexism and outdated tech. Frankly, the sexism didn't even blip on my radar because it was so much like old movies, I just put it in the context of the period in which it was written. If anything, I found the female characters to be pretty liberated for the era. I thought it was way less sexist that Star Trek with its soft focus, mini skirts, sexy aliens, and women throwing themselves at Captain Kirk.
Mod
I've read loads and loads of books from the 50's and 60's. When I was a teenager, the vast majority of my science fiction reading was of this sort. However, I don't read much of it now, so while sexism isn't a surprise, it does stand out so much now that I feel I have to comment on it.
In Little Fuzzy, I wouldn't have minded the lack of women, due to it being set on a frontier world. It was the "women should always have four boyfriends" line which made me do a doubletake.
For some reason I don't notice the sexism in a book like War of the Worlds or other pre-20th century science fiction.
Are there any women in H.G. Wells's books?
Sandi wrote: "Are there any women in H.G. Wells's books?"The Eloi in The Time Machine come to mind.
The difference to me is how much it jars me out of my absorption in the book. I'm aware that there is social anachronism but there are different levels of effort I go through to continue staying inside the secondary world of the author and enjoy it.
I agree. If a book doesn't have any femaile characters I will often not notice, but if a book's only women conform to 50s and 60s stereotypes I notice it right away. Rogue Moon epitimized this problem for me - horrible female stereotypes, but the men also suffered from ridiculious macho man stereotypes to.
When I read Little Fuzzy I came under the impression that it is meant for children or young adults.
Recently I've had a similar experience with
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold. There too almost every adult is in favor of the clear underdogs.
The funny thing is that when I heard of Little Fuzzy I thought it might be a book I read when I was a young teen and who's title I've forgotten.
In that book there were furry forest creatures on a planet that was being exploited for its resources, and the question of those creatures sentience was the issue at hand.
If I remember correctly, in that book in the end, the bad guy has to admit that he considers the creatures to be human, because he raped one and would have to admit to fucking an animal if he didn't consider them to be sentient.
I kept waiting for that scene to arrive but Little Fuzzy turned out to be a very different kind of book.