Carmen Dog

by Carol Emshwiller

Everything is changing: women are turning into animals, and animals are turning into women. Pooch, a golden setter, is turning into a beautiful woman—although she still has some of her canine traits: she just can't shuck that loyalty thing—and her former owner has turned into a snapping turtle. When the turtle tries to take a bite of her own baby, Pooch snatches the baby and runs. Meanwhile, there's a dangerous wolverine on the loose, men are desperately trying to figure out what's going on, and Pooch discovers what she really wants: to sing Carmen.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Feminism, Science Fiction, Animals, Speculative Fiction, Ebooks

148 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1988

About the author

Carol Emshwiller is an American writer of avant garde short stories and science fiction who has won prizes including the Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards. Ursula K. Le Guin has called her "a major fabulist, a marvelous magical realist, one of the strongest, most complex, most consistently feminist voices in fiction." In 2005, she was awarded the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. Her most recent novel, The Secret City, was published in April 2007.

She is the widow of the artist and experimental filmmaker Ed Emshwiller . Their son is the actor, artist, screenwriter, and novelist Peter Emshwiller .

Reviews

[Nate D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find the blurring of human and animal worlds to be a pretty fascinating emergent sub-theme in experimental feminist lit, and this one, recommended to me by Marie-Therese following my review of Rachel Ingalls' Mrs. Caliban, was spot on. In the first sentences, it's revealed that women are becoming animals and animals are becoming women. Just like that, no explanation needed, the premise is set. Our protagonist is a newly human Irish Setter -- what better innocent to be cast out into the city of New York in a broad satiric odyssey, expressing its fury and brutality with the lightness of a fairytale adventure? But this works, most of all, because for all the total absurdity, Emshwiller's characters and situations feel very grounded. The premise is unbelievable, but the execution is not. At least until the final acts when it seems that perhaps Emshwiller had no idea how to tie everything elegantly together. Or perhaps a spurious laundry list of happy resolutions is just another barb. Regardless, the path the story takes to get there is well worth it. Oh yes, and the James Tiptree Jr. Award was begun expressly to honor this book, which speaks volumes.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those hyper-feminist early sci fi books, where most of the men were either reprehensible, or rather womany. Very sexual, disturbingly so, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award was created specifically to honor this book. (Those of you who know who Tiptree was are now saying, Ah!) I enjoyed it, and the writing was excellent, yet it was almost a vignette. The reason for the women turning into animals and vice versa is never given nor even fully explored by the characters, merely accepted or denied, and the lasting consequences are not explored either. I know, it's an allegory, but we could still throw in something concrete to pin it all on, couldn't we?

[Shel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful, playful, artful exploration of what it means to be human and how we treat animals, women, and mothers — fantasy with philosophical underpinnings.

The story begins in a world in which women are turning into a variety of animals (wolverine, swan, snapping turtle, pig) and animals (including many pets: dogs, cats, guinea pigs) are turning into women. It follows the journey of a Setter named Pooch who is becoming a nubile young women and desires to be a opera star. She loves Carmen. It starts with Pooch and her family as they cope with the changes and, then, as Pooch enters the world at large it shows how society is faring. The tight, compact set up of the story blossoms.

At the beginning of Chapter 19, Emswhiller quotes Nietzsche, "And I say unto you: one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star." As the story progresses, there is chaos within Carmen Dog — antagonists switch sides and allegiances become more ambiguous. It ends with dramatic scenes and circus acts.

Of note: I can't think of another story I have read that has a baby as a central character and in which the infant's development plays a key role and mirrors the story's theme. It's a positive portrayal of motherhood in a science fiction.

Pairs well with: Emshwiller's The Mount and Olaf Stapleton's Sirius qtd. at the beginning of Chapter 20 of Carmen Dog "Everything worth while in him had come from mankind...His love of the arts, of wisdom, of the 'humanities'! God! Would that wisdom lay rather in 'caninities'!

Quotes:
"She makes a silent vow to be a vegetarian from now on even if she has to starve to do it. Better that than even the remote possibility of eating one's friends and fellow sufferers." — Pooch, in Carmen Dog

"Well, she thinks, I shall love my kind of love anyway, doggedly, for I must certainly do the best I can with my own nature and if my nature is to love too well or from afar or to be grateful for crumbs — well, so be it." — Pooch, in Carmen Dog

"May we all soon go about as our real selves and take joy in it, saying, yes, yes, to whatever we are." — Rosemary, in Carmen Dog

"The world looks so beautiful! She wonders how one can not do for it anything that needs to be done, or at least all one can do." — Pooch, in Carmen Dog

"Ah, but is it not the mind that is the real grace of Homo Sapiens? Al the things to think about! All the things to read and appreciate! All the arts! All the things of the spirit!" — Pooch, in Carmen Dog

"Whatever life brings, we'll share," she says, and "I can do no more than the best I can." — Pooch to Baby in Carmen Dog

[Alex Sarll]

There's a thin, porous boundary between litfic with non-realistic elements, and genre fiction proper. Sometimes, when I'm feeling very uncharitable, I would define that line as 'if the author has made any faint gesture towards having their changed world make sense, it's probably not litfic' - though this won plenty of genre awards back in the day, so at least for the time there were plenty who'd have disagreed. Yes, there's obviously a satirical angle in the idea of a world where for unexplained reasons, women are turning into animals and vice versa, and at first plenty of men don't particularly notice, and the ones who do take it mainly as either a personal affront or an opportunity for fresh perversity. But one might equally ask why the women or animals so rarely seem to respond perversely – it's exactly the sort of premise where Angela Carter or Cat Valente might have had a field day, but here the women-animals, whether going up or down, seem mostly determined on noble aspirations like sisterhood and (as per the title) opera. Equally, making a more solid world of it might have given the satire more bite too, whereas here, bar the odd telling line, it has the foundational problem which can sometimes intrude when satire is set in a changed world: in a world where women and animals really did have more in common than they do with men, would it be any wonder if the men fall into attitudes which, in our world, are misogynist crap? Compare Chelsea Cain et al's Maneaters, where the faintest veneer of science enables a much toothier take on a similar premise, and where also we see the male characters as warped and damaged by patriarchy too, rather than the cardboard villains here. By the finale a little of the tone of carnival which the set-up suggests has at last crept in, but it still felt a bit bloodless and sketched. Fundamentally, though, I don't think this is a bad book so much as one with which I fundamentally didn't click and from which I should have moved on. Except I now realise I haven't abandoned a book since the Event, perhaps because in the 2020s trudging wearily on, without joy or purpose, is simply what we do. Hey, at least books have the grace to provide a fixed endpoint.

[Mareike · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

This is a somewhat weird and sometimes delightful postmodern fable that takes well-aimed digs at hierarchies and power structures and especially at the binary gender system and what separates human and animal.

The writing style wasn't quite for me, but I'm glad I've finally read this.

[Brown Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I delayed reading this too long. I would have loved it at 20, but I put it off and by the time I got around to it, it felt...old. I don't know. It's not as fine as Mrs Caliban, which is the book it most reminds me of, so maybe it suffers by unfair comparison.

It's too long, I think, which is always a harsh criticism of a novel written by a predominantly short story writer, at least it feels harsh to me. But it is apt here. As a novelet, this is a barn-burner, I suspect. At this length the cutesiness cloys, and the premise cannot sustain it.

Emshwiller is one of the greats, but this is not her finest work. I'd recommend a collection of her short works, especially of her stories published after 1990 or so. She got better with age.

[Kobe Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice, a lot of cool imagery

[Petra · Rating 3 out of 5]

What the hell did I just read?

Women are turning into animals, and female animals are turning into women. Pooch, a golden setter, is now a beautiful young woman and her former owner - a snapping turtle. When the turtle tries to take a bite of her own baby, Pooch snatches the baby and runs. Men are trying to figure out what to do with women. While on the run, Pooch discovers what she really wants: to sing Carmen.

I expected this satire to be light and funny. And it is. But the content is at times very disturbing and at odds with the light tone. There's some really nasty stuff in this little book.

Considering that it's about female emancipation and animal/human relationships, the unsettling content is a bit more understandable, but I'm stil baffled at that 'happy' ending. It didn't make any sense to me.

I'm not sure what to think of this book.

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those books that will divide readers because it verges on absurd. Personally I found the author's muddling of society's views on animals and women both deft and giggle-inducing. My main criticism would be her near total omission of diverse genders, but it's a book of its time. This is that rare feminist classic sci-fi book that doesn't seem to want to exterminate men, which I appreciate.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who doesn’t think this is a perfect book deserves to be shoved in a locker by me

[Jani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carmen Dog is like a fable for the modern age: the setup where animals turn into human females and vice versa is Aesopian in the sense that there is playfulness that hides a discussion on gender and the concept of human. For those looking for just a slight romp, the book is occasionally quite funny, there is plenty of disturbing matters narrated in a seemingly lighthearted making them all the more harrowing.

Pooch has always been a loyal dog. So when she starts transforming into a human and the lady of the house starts turning into a turtle, she first tries to continue her life as the human master's best friend. However, when he becomes disturbingly unfriendly or overtly friendly in his approach and the infant of the family seems need more of her loyalty, she elopes to the larger world. There while looking for safety and career in the opera world she so yearns for, she runs into more human depravity, but also a chance for love.

Emshwiller writes a serious look into women and animals role in the society, weaving them together like a fable of the old. There is an innocent quality to Pooch that lets the story move from hurdle to hurdle, some quite gruesome, with at least a lighthearted tone. The interesting politics and the humour did not, however, quite carry my interest all the way to the end. It is an interesting story that perhaps has not aged as well as could be hoped.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three downsides to an otherwise lovely book.
a) digitization errors - I am sure in the print the start of each chapter was very elegantly typeset. It was garbled in many cases in the digitized text.
b) French. I find I don't hate untranslated passages as much as I used to. Perhaps my French has improved in three decades?
c) Circuses. Circuses come off really well in this book. A place of refuge for animals and people with disabilities / disfigurement. I do have vague memories of animal rights protests about elephants and big cats in circuses, but have read much / been to several exhibitions which explore the concept of 'freak'. Yes, some positives, but also negatives. I suppose that 'the circus' in Carmen Dog is more an idealised circus than an actual institution. Compare and contrast "Sweet Like Fate" (Sarah Puls) which I read in the collected volume from The Future Fire (TFF-X) a few days before.

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

All over the world women are turning into animals and animals into women. The narrative focuses on the adventures of Pooch, a dog turned woman, who has a yearning for opera and a pure singing voice. (She briefly thinks of calling herself Pucci.) Her particular interest is Carmen, hence the book’s title.

The men in this scenario are non-plussed by the changes, seeking either to deny or exploit it. (And their carnal desires are never very far away.) Chapter headings are quotes from the likes of Nietzsche, Apuleius and Marcus Aurelius and the text has embedded references such as, “stare at each other with wild surmises.”

It’s all gloriously over-the-top but at the same time an oblique look at gender relations in the 1980s. In particular, one gent has come to the belief “that motherhood should be dealt out, even to infants, in small insignificant doses so that it can be held within reasonable bounds.”

[Kitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, startling, heartbreakingly feminist book. So full of female love, suffering & resilience.

This made the ending in which all the characters marry the men who have functioned as their captors /torturers and happily have children even more shocking and disturbing. To read such a brilliant exploration of women treated as pets/animals, to watch her deconstruct misogyny in such a playful but sad way, and then have the epilogue be an echo of the life-ruining misogynistic sentiment that keeps women entrenched in abusive relationships: he was just acting badly out of misguided love.

So, so sad. But the rest of the book is really incredible.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd, little book where animals become women, and women become animals. It is a light-hearted indictment of how women are treated and scientific research. Through the humor of ridiculous situations, it pokes holes in what is considered appropriate behavior between men and women and what goes on behind the closed doors of laboratories. Men receive the bulk of its cricisms, but the novel also asks women to question their values and assert themselves. A bit too awkwardly bizarre for my tastes, but a famous, historic piece of sci-fi.

[Matthew Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of a coincidence that I watched the animated Animal Farm movie while I was in the middle of reading this strange little book, which a friend recently mailed to me without much explanation. It's very, very hard to visualize what anything or anybody looks like in this fable, which was actually a plus for me. I'd like someone to turn it into an opera one day, though I guess that would lessen the effect of the protagonist discovering opera as a creative outlet.

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

What to say about a book in which an opera loving dog, rapidly becoming human, rescues a baby from being bitten by its mother, who is rapidly becoming a snapping turtle? And later changes identities with a wealthy woman almost, now, entirely wolverine. It’s simply one of the best SF/fantasy novels I’ve read in many years. Brilliant. A definite keeper and, I believe, my first five star rating.

[Miguel Vian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully witty, tender, harsh and funny (harshly funny, funnily harsh), both ironic and compassionate, the topics it arises are grounded in feminism but go well beyond. It is difficult to accomplish so much as she does in such a short book.

[Cat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tedious. Perhaps I don't have the right sense of humour, but I didn't find it at all amusing. Just tedious. I give up

[Ellen Sandberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

4th Row, 4 Down: Science Fiction or Fantasy, 148 pages

[Sue Chant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tiptree shortlist retrospective

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the writing in this; it's got a kind of patient clarity that I kept thinking of as "placid" and then self-correcting to "pellucid". Like a blend of Animal Farm and Kurt Vonnegut.

[Just This · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird as fuck postmodern fantasy set in a world where women turn into animals, and animals into women

[Emma Dollar · Rating 3 out of 5]

more like a 3.5, such a weird book with a lot of disjointed plot points but i do like the characters and the concept a lot

[Andrez]

recommended by Le Guin

[Mila · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a crazy little story. From the plot to its structure, Carmen Dog is tricky to wrap ones head around. It makes the simple seem outrageous and the outrageous overtly simple. I had fun with its quirks and the overall plot is clever and poignant. But in the end the weirdness of it all made me rather disappointed with the simplicity of its culmination.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

An absurdist quasi-allegory in which all women are slowly transmogrifying into animals while pet animals are morphing in the opposite direction to become women. Pooch, who started as a setter and is now most of the way to becoming a young woman, runs away with the family baby after its mother, now nearly 100% snapping turtle, bites it. Out in the big bad city she has adventures as she pursues her dream of one day singing the lead in Carmen, eventually throwing in her lot with a revolutionary organization of vague aims. Finally she's reunited with her master, but all he wants to do is screw her . . . so she flees from him to the arms of a nice young opera singer.

The cover quotes stress the feminist aspects of the tale but -- although those are certainly present -- they struck me as less interesting than the more deftly handled critique of Christianity (or, for that matter, any religion anticipating the return of a "master").

Although I did enjoy this novel I may not have enjoyed it as much as I should because the whole time I was reading it I was fighting with the minuscule type of the Small Beer Press/Peapod reissue. Should I ever come across a copy of the original edition, which is presumably a bit more legible, I'll likely pick it up -- and I'll certainly keep my eyes open for other Emshwiller books.

[J.I. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a strange little book that begins in a strange, amusing fashion (women begin turning into animals and animals begin turning into women) and then gets weirder and weirder. Be prepared for explorations of art, questions about the nature of humanity, liberal doses of Freudian psychology (for and against it), government conspiracies, mad scientists, uprising and an abominable snowman.

What makes this book really extraordinary, however, is how it plays in a world that is silly, over the top and weird, but manages to keep itself grounded. This is especially difficult as the plot is in a constant state of amping itself up. What's even more interesting is how the book, written in the 90s, manages to encompass and then transcend the feminist movements of the 70s (well, those most typically associated with the 70s) to create a humanistic view of the world that strives to improve the lives of those around, while aware of the inherent limitations and challenges of such struggles.

Be prepared for the weird, the strange and the unique, all coming together into a tidy little, wonderfully set up package.

[Ery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly an allegorical tale of women's roles in patriarchal society, told through an uplifted dog ("Pooch") who is on her way to becoming a woman. Works as a thought-piece better than it does as fiction; while you get the reasonings for most of what Pooch does and what she experiences, most of the other characters are very thinly sketched.

For all that is happening to her, Pooch remains cheerful, or thinking of a reason for why it occurred. A tell made less horrific by the narrator, for all that is occurring remains a challenging read. From time to time something occurred which made you step back from Pooch's unending rose-coloured glasses to see the difficulties experienced by all the females underneath. Thought-provoking.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

In which women turn into female animals, and female pets turn into women (revealing a few previously-thought-to-be-male pets as female, such as Philip). Please do not expect a straightforward plot arc, but please do expect to love Pooch. I would enjoy a long discussion with some of my favorite Toasties about this one.

I do have to say that this felt very much of a certain time and style of SF. Not only because of the particular stage of society that it was skewering, slightly different than now but still very recognizable, but also because of the structure and prose. It isn't bad; I quite liked it, but it may put some off.