My life in books

Brit Mandelo's momgraph, We Wuz Pushed: On Joanna Russ and Radical Truth-Telling, is yet another of the wonderful volumes of feminist sf criticism and history published by one of my favourite small publishing houses, Aqueduct Press.

In this study, Mandelo examines what she sees as one of Russ' primary foci in both fiction and non-fiction - the telling of the truths that lie beneath, and are obscured by, the mystifications of sexism (and heterosexism), and by doing so, bringing those truths into everyday life.

It's hardly a secret to anyone who's followed this blog that Russ is one of my favourite wrtiers, both for her groundbreaking fiction and for her fierce and uncompromising feminist criticism (How To Suppress Women's Writing should be on the reading list of everyone who chooses to engage with the printed word/world). Mandelo's exploration of Russ's development as a radical truth teller deepened my appreciation and understandingof her work - and what more can one ask for in a work of criticism?

Demand My Writing: Joanna Russ, Feminism, Science Fiction, Jeanne Cortiel

A fascinating study of Joanna Russ’ fictional works (which also pays some attention to her critical and feminist non-fiction writing, but primarily as the themes she addresses inform a feminist and science fictional understanding of her creative oeuvre). Cortiel constructs her analysis around two distinct but interwoven frameworks: first, three major concerns - women's agency, female sexuality, and the indeterminacy of both these categories – that she sees as running throughout Russ’s work, and second, three generations in 20th century feminism (as described by Julia Kristeva) - the radical, materialist feminism of the late 60s and early 70s, the separatist, essentialist feminism of the late 70s and early 80s, and the post-structuralist feminism of the late 80s and 90s.

Reading this study has given me a much deeper appreciation of Russ, both as a writer and as a pioneer of modern feminism.

I recently acquired a copy of Jeanne Cortiel’s critical analysis of Joanna’ Russ’ fiction, Demand My Writing and in preparation for reading it, I decided to go back and reread some of Russ’ books that I hadn’t read for a long time, and to read some newer works that I had never read. My partner, who believes, and not without cause, that Russ is one of the most important writers of our time and certainly one of his greatest favourites of all time, has everything she’s ever written, so this was not a difficult task to arrange.

What follows is not a series of reviews so much as some casual notes about what I though on reading/rereading these books.

On Strike Against God

This was new to me. It is not SF (any more than , say, The Women’s Room is, although the argument could certainly be made that such books are a particular form of the alien contact novel), but rather a contemporary novel, in Russ’s unmistakable style, about a woman who has begun to rebel against the stifling masculine privilege and oppressive hetero-normativity she finds around her. It contains many of the same themes as The Female Man, and that’s a good thing.

The Hidden Side of the Moon

A collection of short stories- any of them dealing with issues of personal identity and family relationships from women’s perspectives, including such masterpieces as “The Little Dirty Girl,” “Sword Blades and Poppy Seed,” “The View from this Window,” and others. Many of these stories are more properly classed as speculative or experimental fiction that science fiction, but who cares?

Extra (Ordinary) People

Five linked stories (sometimes rather loosely linked, at that), beginning with the absolutely astonishing story “Souls.” Worth reading for that alone.

The Female Man

One of the classic feminist SF texts, I’m just going to assume you have all read it, and if you haven’t, then what on earth are you doing reading this when you could be reading it instead? It loses none of its force upon re-reading. And if anyone thinks that things are so much better now than they were when Russ wrote this… no, they’re just differently framed and packaged, that’s all. You still don’t have to walk very far to find a man who can look at a room full of women and ask where all the people are.

The Adventures of Alyx

Alyx’ career was really rather interesting, when you come to think about it. Starting out as a woman adventurer in a historical/fantasy world not dissimilar to, say, the world that Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser or other heroes of that sort lived in, she ends up being kidnapped into a science fictional future to save the asses of a bunch of future humans with minimal survival skills and becomes an agent of the temporal police. I’ve got quite a soft spot in my heart for Alyx. This collection has all the Alyx stories, including the short novel/novella Picnic on Paradise.

The Zanzibar Cat

More great goodness in small packages, including the one that really did change everything, at least for women in SF communities, “When It Changed.”

In closing, may I suggest that if you haven’t done so lately, go out and read some Joanna Russ. It will do you good. Really.