From archive (archive) From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ Subject: EXTRA(ORDINARY) PEOPLE by Joanna Russ Date: 10 Feb 89 17:58:45 GMT EXTRA(ORDINARY) PEOPLE Women's Press, 1985 (c1984), ISBN 0-7043-3950-1, L1.95 ( $3.95) A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper This collection of five shorter pieces by Russ includes the novella "Souls" which won the Hugo for 1982 and was nominated for the Nebula and the novella "The Mystery of the Young Gentleman," also nominated for the Nebula for 1982. The premise is that these are stories told by a tutor to a "schoolkid" about how the world was (or wasn't saved). "Souls" tells of an abbey invaded by Vikings and of the abbess who protects it as best she can. "The Mystery of the Young Gentleman" is the story of a pair of travelers in Edwardian (?) times who aren't quite what they seem. "Bodies" is about a future utopia; "What Did You Do During the Revolution, Grandma?" is a story of parallel worlds where cause and effect are not always in force. (It seemed vaguely reminiscent of THE PRINCESS BRIDE, at least in the naming of the characters.) "Everyday Depressions" is on the surface the story of an Eighteenth (or is it Nineteenth?) Century female author and her problems, but seems to be more the telling of Russ's view of the plight of females and female authors in any age. All the stories are well-written and worth collecting. It is unfortunate that no American publisher seems to want to publish Russ--the only books by her most bookstores have are her earlier novels. That the only way to get these stories is from a British publisher is a pity. (I didn't notice until after I bought the book that it was published by "The Women's Press," which has printed, as Mark pointed out, a rather sexist charter printed in the front of the book. So it's not entirely clear whether Russ prefers that her works be published by The Women's Press rather than Ace or New American Library or whether the choice was made by the publishers.) Evelyn C. Leeper | +01 201-957-2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com Copyright 1989 Evelyn C. Leeper From rec.arts.sf.written Sun Oct 24 18:20:43 1993 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!olivea!decwrl!decwrl!csus.edu!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Subject: Myopic Reviews #1: The Female Man Message-ID: Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1993 04:56:59 GMT Lines: 46 Myopic Reviews #1: The Female Man "The Female Man", by Joanna Russ, is a cautionary science fiction novel about the importance of traditional American values. We are shown our own world and three alternative Earths -- products of alternative histories. One Earth has opted for simple totalitarianism. People speak Russian, work at whatever jobs they are set, and are killed if they refuse. Humanity has been genetically 'improved', and people too old for manual labor spend their days linked directly to computer systems. The second Earth is also a world in which people are treated like machines. The fortunate ones are cyborgs; the less fortunate ones go under the surgeons' knives. The third Earth is superficially closer to ours. It is a world in which America never entered WWII to fight against Facism. As a result, it has become a bureaucratic welfare state. This Earth's representative turns out to be the most receptive when a cyborg comes looking for other worlds to enmesh in its wars. "The Female Man" is a relatively immature work: The central message is diluted by digressions -- concerning the private lives of the various worlds' representatives -- that are completely irrelevant to the plot. Russ herself recognized the weaknesses of the book. To paraphrase her own words, the book is too "shrill and vituperative," with "some truth buried in a largely hysterical....polemic." In that critique, Russ's own non- traditional writing style is dismissed as a borrowing from "the tired tricks of the anti-novelists", but it may be that she is too hard on herself: Joanna Russ grew up in a time when some pundits were still (effectively, if not deliberately) suppressing women's writing, and she seems to have unconsciously internalized some of their attitudes. Despite the digressions, and the weakness of the plotting, "The Female Man" is of interest for its presentation of multiple dystopias -- and multiple roads to totalitarianism. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com DISCLAIMER 1: I studied at Carnegie Mellon for six years, so if I'm still getting something wrong after that much time, it's undoubtedly CMU's fault. DISCLAIMER 2: :-)