Autumn and SF

[eldritchhobbit]

Happy birthday to xanath, and happy early birthday to curtana. May both of you enjoy many happy returns of the day!

And to everyone, a bit belatedly, happy autumn!


A few quick notes:

* Thanks (I think) to Geekend and io9 for their shout-outs re: my recent interview about science fiction on the "State of Affairs" NPR program. (Note: My longer talk on this same topic will soon be airing on the StarShipSofa podcast.)

* My lecture for the Friends of the Rudisill Library at Lenoir-Rhyne University, originally scheduled for Sept. 25, has been postponed so I may recover from this ridiculously long-lived wheeze-fest of a sickness. I will post as soon as the new date is set.


Many thanks to everyone who gave me recommendations re: single-sex societies in science fiction. Here's my new, improved list. For now I'm leaving out third gender and/or genderless worlds (such as Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness) and works in which single-sex societies are mentioned but not the focus, but I'm keeping in gender-segregated socities.

Single-Gender Societies in SF
Novels
Mizora, Mary E. Bradley Lane (1880-1881)
Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915)
Swastika Night, Katharine Burdekin (1937)
The Disappearance, Philip Wylie (1951)
Alph (World Without Men), Charles Eric Maine (1958)
Virgin Planet, Poul Anderson (1959)
Spartan Planet, A. Bertram Chandler (1968)
Sex and the High Command, John Boyd (1970)
The Holdfast Chronicles, Suzy McKee Charnas (1974-1999)
Meanwhile, Max Handley (1977)
The Wanderground, Sally Miller Gearhart (1979)
The White Plague, Frank Herbert (1982)
Ethan of Athos, Lois McMaster Bujold (1986)
A Door into Ocean, Joan Slonczewski (1986)
The Shore of Women, Pamela Sargent (1986)
The Gate to Women's Country, Sheri S. Tepper (1988)
Ammonite, Nicola Griffith (1993)
Glory Season, David Brin (1993)
I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman (1997)
Califia's Daughters, Leigh Richards (2004)
The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness (2008)

Short Stories
"Sultana's Dream," Rokheya Shekhawat Hossein (1905)
"Consider Her Ways," John Wyndham (1956)
"The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal," Cordwainer Smith (1964)
"When It Changed," Joanna Russ (1972)
"Houston, Houston, Do You Read?," James Tiptree, Jr. (1976)


I stumbled across this while reading some Edgar Allan Poe, and it fascinated me, so here's your quote of the day:

Dactylic Couplet
Can it be fancied that Deity ever vindictively
Made in his image a manikin merely to madden it?
- Edgar Allan Poe, 1846

Comments

[xanath.livejournal.com]

::hugs:: Thank you, for this and for my virtual gift! And the picture of the leaves was just glorious.

Thank you also for the list. I've read several novels on it, but I'm going to look for the rest. :)

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

Ah, I meant to say "Glory Season" too, but I wasn't sure it counted...

[abbie (from livejournal.com)]

Please get better! Please? Please.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

We haven't heard from you for a while - are you okay?

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

*hugs* You're most welcome! I hope you had a great birthday, and you're enjoying a lovely fall.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I've just got my hands on a copy, so I'm anxious to read it and see if it does count! BTW, I've been stretching out The White Plague to make it last, but I'm almost through, and I'm thoroughly caught up in it. Thanks for the great recommendation!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm working on it, slooooowly but surely. ;) I greatly appreciate your good thoughts!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for being so kind to check up on me. I'm working and recovering, and gearing up for my daily post-fest for October. Sorry for being so quiet! I appreciate your thoughtfulness. *hugs*

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

But I didn't like it at all! Seriously, from an Irish perspective, there are so many mistakes in it that it just makes me angry -- e.g. Grafton Street at the time of publication was already pedestrianised. Therefore, no car bomb etc. etc....

However, that shouldn't bother you and, to be fair, the central premise was very intriguing. So, I hope you enjoy the rest of it...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I'm pleased to hear that you are recovering, and I'm looking forward to next month!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Oh noes! My bad. I think I was inclined to like it from the start, just because it's one of the few Herbert books I hadn't read, and I really, really like Herbert. That's strange, since he was usually so meticulous about his research. I wonder why he got sloppy here? How frustrating. I did wonder how it played from an Irish perspective, since I don't have much of a sense of context about that. I'm sorry to hear it didn't work well. You're right, though, the central premise is interesting. I am particularly taken with the political and personal jockeying of the scientists, who really are just tools in a larger game, to some extent.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

PS. If the situations were reversed and it was, for example, placed in a Native American setting, those mistakes would drive me insane. So I don't want to give him a pass on his errors in this, even though I love his work in general. He knew better!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *hugs*

[curtana.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for the birthday wishes! :)