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CXIII-IV: Suzy McKee Charnas, Walk to the End of the World
CXIV: Suzy McKee Charnas, Motherlines
Two halves of an incomplete whole, and I shall forget the existence of two sequels for now. Walk is a dystopia, an all male world where women (fems) have been blamed for all the ills, every other minority being eliminated. At the same time, an attempt to wipe out the patriarchal has been made - these are peers not fathers and sons, until the climactic power struggle. Women are there as beasts of burden and baby-making machines at best, and men do not come out of it at all well; a degree of homophobia seems unavoidable as a result. After four male focal characters, a female emerges, Alldera, smarter than she lets on, and she lets on a lot. Fortunately she is able to escape.
Motherlines is the more comfortable read, as Alldera enters utopia (and by that I suspect we take the word ambiguous as read?). To say this is an all-female environment is a bit misleading; men are discussed in stories, and their influence is still felt. Alldera does not feel comfortable with the Horsewomen she joins, nor is she happy with the free Fems. It's a better world, but not the best of all possible worlds. Having now read The Dialectic of Sex, I think I feel that influence.
Thinking aloud: Is it because I am a man that I never quite find representations of separatism comfortable? I wonder if I feel it's a cop out? I don't think it's a fear of a loss of my power, but then I cannot see entirely beyond white male privilege. I can see why women-only spaces are desirable, which is big of me, I know, although the intricacies of sex and gender may undercut these. Turn about is fair play.
I've been rereading Larry Townsend's 2069 (1969) in preparation for the rest of the trilogy which is from the 1970s, and the anti-woman stuff is appalling, as he describes a more homophile universe. I suspect representations of separatism replicate patriarchy's essentialism, albeit with a shift of agency. Motherlines does it better than The Wanderground, but is more of a traditional novel.
CXIV: Suzy McKee Charnas, Motherlines
Two halves of an incomplete whole, and I shall forget the existence of two sequels for now. Walk is a dystopia, an all male world where women (fems) have been blamed for all the ills, every other minority being eliminated. At the same time, an attempt to wipe out the patriarchal has been made - these are peers not fathers and sons, until the climactic power struggle. Women are there as beasts of burden and baby-making machines at best, and men do not come out of it at all well; a degree of homophobia seems unavoidable as a result. After four male focal characters, a female emerges, Alldera, smarter than she lets on, and she lets on a lot. Fortunately she is able to escape.
Motherlines is the more comfortable read, as Alldera enters utopia (and by that I suspect we take the word ambiguous as read?). To say this is an all-female environment is a bit misleading; men are discussed in stories, and their influence is still felt. Alldera does not feel comfortable with the Horsewomen she joins, nor is she happy with the free Fems. It's a better world, but not the best of all possible worlds. Having now read The Dialectic of Sex, I think I feel that influence.
Thinking aloud: Is it because I am a man that I never quite find representations of separatism comfortable? I wonder if I feel it's a cop out? I don't think it's a fear of a loss of my power, but then I cannot see entirely beyond white male privilege. I can see why women-only spaces are desirable, which is big of me, I know, although the intricacies of sex and gender may undercut these. Turn about is fair play.
I've been rereading Larry Townsend's 2069 (1969) in preparation for the rest of the trilogy which is from the 1970s, and the anti-woman stuff is appalling, as he describes a more homophile universe. I suspect representations of separatism replicate patriarchy's essentialism, albeit with a shift of agency. Motherlines does it better than The Wanderground, but is more of a traditional novel.
