Ahira's Hangar

HTML Comments are not allowed taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
Chicago area
W/T forever, always
Plan C - http://planc.bravepages.com/main.html<i>Edited by: taraswizard at: 7/31/05 8:54 am
</i>

There's nothing there by Heinlein ???

He almost single-handedly created the strong, (sexy,) clever woman in SciFi. ( Was there a SciFi book by a recognised author prior to Podkayne of Mars that had a female as the main character? ) What about Glory Road ?

The bad news is that he also treated women very badly.
If they weren't the main character, then they probably had an IQ about equal to their shoe size.
And the way he had them talk was painfull.

But...his good female characters...were VERY good.

Adios
Rockin' & in The Land of Oz


<i></i>

EZBOARD just ATE MY list. This SUCKSSSSS! taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
Chicago area
W/T forever, always
Plan C - http://planc.bravepages.com/main.html<i>Edited by: taraswizard at: 7/31/05 9:01 am
</i>

However, I have some additional notes regarding WisCon as follows: One panel, BTW I did not attend this panel, The canon that dare not speak its name - a discussion of a feminist SF&F literary canon. Some of the panel's discussion concerned the appropriateness of establishing a feminist canon, canon presumes hierarchy and exclusion, in the minds of many feminist ideals are non-hierachcal and inclusionary. Regardless, the panel still came up with a list of feminist SF&F titles that are recommended and important:
Ilicit passage by Alice Nun,
Her smoke rose up forever by James Tiptree Jr.,
Houston, Houston do you read by James Tiptree Jr.,
The female man by Joanna Russ,
The left hand of darkness by Ursula LeGuin,
Mortherline series by Suzy McKee Charnas,
On the shore of women by Pamel Sargent,
The gate to women's country by Sheri Tepper,
The invisible man by Ralph Ellison,
Stories for men by John Kessell,
Dust tracks on the road - an autobiography by Zora Neale Hurson,
Childhood's End by Arthur Clarke,
The Iron Dragon's daughter by Michaael Swanwick,
Life during wartime by Lucius Shepard,
Camp Concentration by Thomas Disch,
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers,
A women of the Iron people by Eleanor Arnason,
Ammonite by Nicola Griffith,
Slow river by Nicola Griffith,
Mission child by Maureen McHugh,
A door into ocean by Joan Slonczewski,
Tehanu by Ursula LeGuin,
Paradigm of earth by Candas Jane Dorsey,
Black wine by Candas Jane Dorsey,
Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler,
What I didn't see by Karen Joy Fowler,
Little faces by Joan Vinge,
Carmen dog by Carol Emshwiller,
The mount by Carol Emshwiller,
Maul by Tricia Sullivan,
The Girl Detective by Kelly Wake,
Travels with the snow queen by Kelly Link,
Ring of Swords by Eleanor Arnason,
Everything written by Octavia Butler,
Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre,
Solitaire by Kelly Eskridge.

Other titles were suggested by the audience of this panel session, including: Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen by Garth Nix, Sunshine by Robin McKinley, Tithe by Holly Black, Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton, Trash, Sex, Magic by Jennifer Stevenson, Alanya to Alanya by Timmel DuChamp.
taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
Chicago area
W/T forever, always
Plan C - http://planc.bravepages.com/main.html<i>Edited by: taraswizard at: 7/31/05 9:11 am
</i>

Two points and a side note to answer Dragon. The note, I did not attend this panel, so I have no knowledge how the panel and or the audience made any of the decisions about what was excluded.

First point has two parts, the list is heavily weighted with texts written after 1970. Last part, Dragon's comment goes directly to the panel's discussion, a canon implies excluding something, and something's that are as deserving and worthy as any of the included texts, and including others that maybe less worthy.

Last point. To perhaps give some rationale for exclusion of Heinlein (BTW, RAH is a favorite author of mine), and others. The criteria for inclusion was not only for strong women characters, but empowered women characters. This may explain somewhat why Tehanu is the sole volume of Earthsea that is on the list. This last bit is just my speculations. taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
Chicago area
W/T forever, always
Plan C - http://planc.bravepages.com/main.html<i></i>

Thank you TW for the explanation...problem is I just don't understand it. Not your explanation...their criterion.

Empower : Make more confident or assertive: to give somebody a greater sense of confidence or self-esteem.

If that doesn't describe some of RAH's ladies, particularly Podkane...I'm lost.

Adios

<i></i>

I would want to add the fantasy series Mordant's Need by Stephen R. Donaldson to that list. One of the main points of that series is the empowerment of women in a male dominated Middle Ages sort of society. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i></i>

Dragonnemisis wrote Quote:He almost single-handedly created the strong, (sexy,) clever woman in SciFi. ( Was there a SciFi book by a recognised author prior to Podkayne of Mars that had a female as the main character? ) What about Glory Road ? IIRC, Podkayne is a book from the early 1960s. In the mid 1950s C.L. Moore writing in collaboration with Henry Kuttner, and sometimes not in collaboration, and using a variety of pennames, created a character known as 'Jirel J[/b]', a woman warrior of the Conan type. FWIW, a collection of these short stories featuring Jirel were collected into a novel Jirel of Joiry aka Kiss of Black Shadow.

FYI, in their day Kuttner and Moore were as well known SF and F writers as anyone. Their collections of short fantasy stories in the early to mid 1950s (of which the Jirel Joiry stories are part of) are credited with almost singly creating the term 'Sword and Sorcery' fantasy. taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
Chicago area
W/T forever, always
Plan C - http://planc.bravepages.com/main.html
Buff_fans_Chicago http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/buffy_fans_chicago/
live journal http://taras-wizard.livejournal.com<i></i>