Daughters
of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in
the Twentieth Century
by Justine Larbalestier, Editor
Wesleyan University Press, Middletown,
CT, 2006
424 pp., 6 illus. b/w. Trade, $65.00;
paper, $24.95
ISBN: 0-8195-6675-6; ISBN: 0-8195-6676-4.
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Belgium
stefaan.vanryssen@hogent.be
Casual readers of science fiction may
have the impression that women dont
make a significant contribution to the
genre. The first authors that spring to
mind are indeed male, and the readership
itself is also predominantly male. Sociologists
of literature and womens studies
scholars have developed theories to explain
why SF doesnt seem to have an equal
appeal for both audiences, but that doesnt
mean that women are absent form the field,
neither as authors nor as fans. Quite
on the contrary, anyone who is anywhere
acquainted with the recent new wave of
highly successful British Sci-Fi, will
know that it has been and is led by female
and male authors alike. Justina Robson
and Tricia Sullivan, to name only two
of them, are certainly no minor names
and they have infused SF with a new sound
even if I wouldnt presume
to have the right to call it female
or feminist.
As long as SF exists and has been perceived
as a proper genre roughly from
the beginning of last century female
authors have contributed short stories,
novels and film scenarios. To circumvent
the prejudice of male editors, they sometimes
chose to use ambiguous first names like
e.g. Leslie, or to use just their initials;
at other times they adopted an outright
male-sounding name. James Tiptree Jr.,
whose 1972 story And I Awoke and
Found Me there on the Cold Hill Side
is included in this collection, was the
pseudonym of Alice Hastings Sheldon née
Bradley, strategically adopted to get
her mark more easily published. In fact,
the case of Tiptree/Sheldon is one of
the most fascinating stories in the history
of women writers of SF. Under his male
alias, he published a widely acclaimed
and prize-winning Hemingwayesque story
with an appropriate macho hero, only to
find it negatively criticised and its
qualities downplayed when (male) readers
found out the author was a woman. Wendy
Pearson wrote an intelligent and illuminating
essay on the Tiptree/Sheldon case and
analyses the story from the two obvious
angles: is it science fiction, and why
is it feminist? Similarly, Daughters of
Earth presents ten more stories with an
accompanying essay. Practically one for
each decade, from "The Fate of the
Poseidonia" by Clare Winger Harris
(1927) to "What I Didnt See"
by Karen Joy Fowler (2002), with essays
by Jane Donawerth and L. Timmel Duchamp
respectively. The choice is open to debate,
as Justine Larbalestier gracefully admits,
and some of the stories are of a lesser
quality indeed, but her point was not
to offer a top ten of female SF writing
but rather to illustrate the very scope
of what could sail under the flag of feminist
SF and to advance our understanding of
what makes SF stories written by women
sometimes feminist. Most of the essays
indeed clarify the issue, and some of
them will quite certainly become classics
in their own right, like the one by Timmel
Duchamp I mentioned before because of
its clarity at discussing the point of
being SF. Some of them, but
fortunately only a few, have been infected
by a lethal strain of deconstructivitis
that blocks logical argument and reconnects
neural pathways randomly. But of course,
that doesnt lessen the quality and
the necessity of the whole collection
in the least. Certainly not, because most
authors excellently frame their subject
story in the context of the historical
development of (American) feminism. Lt.
Uhura couldnt have done it better.
For a scholarly book, this is a real page-turner
and for the fans of SF who havent
looked at the feminist side of the field,
it is a refreshing and accessible introduction.
I am looking forward to an analysis of
Tricia Sullivans Maul
by Larbalestier or Joan Haran. Maybe an
idea for a future book?