tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3304705769796697820.post2934367684154717404..comments2013-02-11T20:01:58.555-08:00Comments on comments on life: The Examined Life: Images of Women in Fiction, Part 2Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3304705769796697820.post-71212201435048094172011-11-15T14:08:45.327-08:002011-11-15T14:08:45.327-08:00"If the idea of a ringworld intrigues you, th..."If the idea of a ringworld intrigues you, there are others who have done a lot more with the concept. Halo takes place on one, so you could explore the storyline of the games."<br />No it doesn't. HALO (the first one, and good parts of 2 & 3) takes place on a ring-shaped planetoid. A ringworld is a (much larger) structure that encircles an entire star.<br /><br />-- Base Delta ZeroAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3304705769796697820.post-32349693599226760272011-02-16T21:59:03.893-08:002011-02-16T21:59:03.893-08:00Ringworld is a brilliant, groundbreaking work -- a...Ringworld is a brilliant, groundbreaking work -- and nearly unreadable these days. So much fail interspersed with nuggets of awesome... not a balanced meal.<br /><br />If the idea of a ringworld intrigues you, there are others who have done a lot more with the concept. Halo takes place on one, so you could explore the storyline of the games. Or there's the <a href="http://www.pendorwright.com/journals/" rel="nofollow">Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik</a> which, admittedly, is furry kinky pansexual SF erotica, BUT the SF is good SF that follows its own rules and creates a believable universe. (In which lots of sex happens.) The characters (male, female, neuter and hermaphrodite) are fully-rounded, and the author explores gender dynamics and the role of identity in a post-human world. (If trans/post-humanist SF annoys you, then don't bother, unless you're reading it for the sex and/or BDSM.)<br /><br />There are probably other writers who set their stories on Ringworlds. Maybe even some who have attempted to rehabilitate Niven's universe.Andrew Glasgowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16705188512515700656noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3304705769796697820.post-88743920549582400432011-02-16T20:28:23.825-08:002011-02-16T20:28:23.825-08:00Now I'm almost tempted to re-read it,
I tried...<i>Now I'm almost tempted to re-read it,</i><br /><br />I tried to reread it some years ago and found it, more than offensive - stupid and embarrassing. Reading it was peeking in on the daydream fantasy of sex-deprived teenager.mmyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16987853519962545747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3304705769796697820.post-50754575419760742162011-02-16T20:14:36.246-08:002011-02-16T20:14:36.246-08:00That was the one!
Now I'm almost tempted to r...That was the one!<br /><br />Now I'm almost tempted to re-read it, to see if it's as bad as I remember--after all, it won two major prizes, it must have had something going for it-- but life is short and the List is long.Amaryllisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3304705769796697820.post-35986381347649742652011-02-16T17:26:31.101-08:002011-02-16T17:26:31.101-08:00Do you think it's the difference between misog...<i>Do you think it's the difference between misogyny and sexism? that is, individual contempt vs. institutionalized discrimination?</i><br /><br />That is a good way of analyzing it. Benson still "buys into" gender essentialism but he doesn't see women as "lesser" just different. Indeed if you read his books it is clear that he thinks that in many ways women are often stronger and more moral than are men. In this book that fact (their strength and goodness) is positioned as their weakness. They are fettered, Benson tells us, because they want (a) man to love them and therefore they continue to rescue that man from the consequences of his own behaviour.<br /><br />Now, I have to ask you -- was the classic "Ringworld" by any chance?mmyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16987853519962545747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3304705769796697820.post-46413829853272628702011-02-16T16:50:14.056-08:002011-02-16T16:50:14.056-08:00Do you think it's the difference between misog...Do you think it's the difference between misogyny and sexism? that is, individual contempt vs. institutionalized discrimination?<br /><br />My "go-to" answer to "but everybody was like that!" is to point at Anthony Trollope. Victorian among the Victorians, a man of his time, took for granted that there were separate "spheres" for men and women, different rules of conduct, essential differences of nature. But women matter in his books. They are as individualized, if that's what I mean, as well characterized, as his men. What women say, what they do, what they think, what happens to them, is as important as anything to do with the men. He got it, that half the people (OK, humans, if you must!) in the world are women. Or, that women are people. Some writers, you have to wonder.<br /><br />That 70's SF novel happened to come up in conversation at work today. I'd read part of it, years ago, before I gave up in disgust. <br /><br />Me: "oh, yes, that's the one where the only woman in sight is a vapid sex object, and also it has the non-human race where the females are literally sub-sapient, like dogs or horses; I found it annoying."<br />Men: * blank looks *<br />Men: "But it's a classic!"<br />Oy.Amaryllisnoreply@blogger.com