Joanna Russ The Female Man (1975)
Feminist science-fiction, so I am reliably informed, and one for which I was on the lookout on the grounds of Joanna Russ giving good account of herself in Charles Platt's Dream Makers, and The Female Man being listed amongst the ten greatest science-fiction novels of all time by someone or other, and because it sounded interesting; and yet I'm underwhelmed, doubtless - as some might suggest - because I have a penis and should have stuck to Robert Heinlein writing about mighty men piloting phallic rocket ships.
The Female Man seems to feature four versions of the author meeting up and comparing notes. One of them is from Whileaway, a supposedly far future Feminist utopia. I think my problem stems in part from certain themes having a didactic cadence, where Russ herself has stated that this was not her intention. As a general non-linear and arguably subjective fist shaken at useless arseholes and persons who make life unpleasant, it mostly works, or is artistically valid and at least as much so as the occasional descent into misogyny by Burroughs or Bukowski - here assuming that Whileaway represents a critique of Feminist utopia rather than something to which we might necessarily aspire. Most men are indeed useless sacks of shit, so I don't have a problem with this being pointed out, particularly as Russ seems to take a dim view of nearly everyone. The problem is that whilst certain passages suggest there might be a lot more humour here than is obvious from first glance, it's mostly lost amongst all the grousing and whining, and this muddying of the waters is further exacerbated by the random modernist structure of the narrative - another author doing the Burroughs thing but never quite striking the right balance. The problem, to really break it down, is that The Female Man is a little boring - the rigged matches against sad, saggy, priapic men get a bit obvious and repetitive, and the cubist progression of one scene to the next becomes a chore. I can't disagree with anything she says, but the telling gets in the way. I have no idea how it could have made the top ten anything.
Feminist science-fiction, so I am reliably informed, and one for which I was on the lookout on the grounds of Joanna Russ giving good account of herself in Charles Platt's Dream Makers, and The Female Man being listed amongst the ten greatest science-fiction novels of all time by someone or other, and because it sounded interesting; and yet I'm underwhelmed, doubtless - as some might suggest - because I have a penis and should have stuck to Robert Heinlein writing about mighty men piloting phallic rocket ships.
The Female Man seems to feature four versions of the author meeting up and comparing notes. One of them is from Whileaway, a supposedly far future Feminist utopia. I think my problem stems in part from certain themes having a didactic cadence, where Russ herself has stated that this was not her intention. As a general non-linear and arguably subjective fist shaken at useless arseholes and persons who make life unpleasant, it mostly works, or is artistically valid and at least as much so as the occasional descent into misogyny by Burroughs or Bukowski - here assuming that Whileaway represents a critique of Feminist utopia rather than something to which we might necessarily aspire. Most men are indeed useless sacks of shit, so I don't have a problem with this being pointed out, particularly as Russ seems to take a dim view of nearly everyone. The problem is that whilst certain passages suggest there might be a lot more humour here than is obvious from first glance, it's mostly lost amongst all the grousing and whining, and this muddying of the waters is further exacerbated by the random modernist structure of the narrative - another author doing the Burroughs thing but never quite striking the right balance. The problem, to really break it down, is that The Female Man is a little boring - the rigged matches against sad, saggy, priapic men get a bit obvious and repetitive, and the cubist progression of one scene to the next becomes a chore. I can't disagree with anything she says, but the telling gets in the way. I have no idea how it could have made the top ten anything.
No comments:
Post a Comment