The Sword and Laser discussion

http://www.npr.org/2013/08/11/1934768...

I absolutely love her as a writer - The Girl Who Was Plugged In/Screwtop is so beautiful...

No review of that Lit Bug?

Read it a long time ago, so I cannot write a proper review - only a faint recollection of some aspects I liked - but I'll be re-reading it soon as part of my ongoing Ph.D. on feminist cyberpunk... So expect a review soon!

Will you read The Female Man and explain it to me? I guess that's not cyberpunk. Oh you did!

Tamahome wrote: "Will you read The Female Man and explain it to me? I guess that's not cyberpunk. Oh you did!"

Well, I did not like it much, though I was impressed with how the plot was put together - it was heavily feminist, and science fiction was only a setting. Ideologically, it was spot-on, but in terms of story-telling, it was drab in many places...

There's a fine autobiography: James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon. Worth a read.

Steve wrote: "There's a fine autobiography: James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon. Worth a read."

Wow... TBRed...

Couldn't help re-reading "The Girl who was plugged in"...

Posting review with a link to the story online:

6/5

It's a pity I cannot rate it higher than the maximum allowed - it is astonishing that Tiptree, in this little story achieves so much. I liken her to Vonnegut, who could pull your guts out in a matter of minutes with stories that take barely half-an-hour to read.

The present story is rich in terms of ideas - it anticipates cyberpunk, rather feminist cyberpunk - the process of jacking in, and taking up the issues of representing women's bodies in a genre that was indifferent to anyone apart from white loner males. The undertones of the story are overwhelmingly dark and sharpened further by satire.

The thinly veiled attack on consumerist culture, driven by profits with little concern for humans, the ugly side of successful businesses and the ethical conflict presented by P. Burke and Delphi - what begins as emancipation for Burke ends in tragedy for Delphi, Burke and Paul - is so well-portrayed.

The narrative in present continuous is so hard-hitting, the author-as-narrator works so well at stabbing the reader at appropriate times, for instance, the references to Cinderella and the ugly duckling. It intensifies the grim, mocking, sharp tone of the story.

It is absolutely befuddling to believe this story was written so many years ago, yet it refuses to become outdated. And it is infinitely better written than most of the so-called SF today is churned out.

This is not only SF - it is classic literature, and it is a serious loss to English literature that Tiptree is remembered only as an indispensable SF writer.

Read the story online here - http://hell.pl/agnus/anglistyka/2211/...

Anybody read NO WOMAN BORN by C.L. Moore?

http://www.thepit.org/books/Science%2...

I find her so similar to Tiptree in certain respects...

will check out the Moore love her vintage season. tip tree is on my list to read more of.

James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon--I second the recommendation.

What other Tiptree works would you suggest that touch on gender issues?

I always liked Houston, Houston, Do You Read?, a novella, for the gender issues.
Thirding the biography.

Thanks :)

kvon wrote: "I always liked Houston, Houston, Do You Read?, a novella, for the gender issues.
Thirding the biography."

That is such a classic story. Too few people read it.

http://bookos.org/g/Tiptree%20James%20Jr - found a link to her stories.

Lit Bug wrote: "http://bookos.org/g/Tiptree%20James%20Jr - found a link to her stories."

Great find. I didn't understand "The Women Men Don't See" until about the tenth time I read it.

:D I'm just devouring her work right now...

Lit Bug wrote: ":D I'm just devouring her work right now..."

I met her work when I was too young. I was probably ten or so. It took a while for it to make sense.

Thanks for the link to The Girl Who Was Plugged In up above...I hadn't read that story before, it is still quite relevant to today.

I met her work only now, and I'm stumped she's a stranger to those familiar only to conventional classic literature, i.e. someone not into SFF. I never heard her name until I took up reading serious SF.

Firstname wrote:"Great find. I didn't understand "The Women Men Don't See" until about the tenth time I read it."

Got to read it then...

I read 'Houston, Houston, Do You Read' too and enjoyed it immensely. But nowhere as much as 'The Girl...'

But I admit, I don't understand the story 'Her Smoke Rose Forever' at all. Am reading the collection by the same name, as of now.

I read her Brightness Falls from the Air in elementary school, so long ago, and was obsessed with it. I think it was my first touch with science fiction, so it always had a special place in my heart. Too bad I haven't read anything by her since. Thanks for the link Lit Bug, I really should get to know her again.

I haven't read that one, but will get it soon. She's one of those rare writers that write well, both in terms of language and ideas. Like C.L. Moore. No wonder she has an award in her honor.