tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post3399981796179629950..comments2024-03-28T08:26:40.519-04:00Comments on alien romances: Mistakes About the FutureRowena Cherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11839386556697211986noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-48683785377321841602010-04-01T15:20:31.091-04:002010-04-01T15:20:31.091-04:00Good thoughts, Kimber An!
"Women cannot purs...Good thoughts, Kimber An!<br /><br />"Women cannot pursue personal goals or great sex if they have children."<br /><br />One of Heinlein's unfortunate lapses occurs in PODKAYNE OF MARS, when Podkayne decides to abandon her ambition to become a spaceship captain because she comes to see it isn't realistic for a woman and decides instead to aim for some other position on a ship, such as working in the creche. Oddly, her own mother is a dedicated career woman -- so dedicated that Podkayne's uncle delivers a diatribe at the end of the book against people who produce children and don't stick around to rear them. The groan-inducing anti-feminist implications are slightly softened by the fact that he seems to be condemning both of Poddy's parents, not just her mother.<br /><br />I meant to mention a 1950s story by C. S. Lewis inspired by a published suggestion that women should be provided to serve the sexual needs of future astronauts on long voyages. In Lewis's story, that recommendation is carried out by having two women sent to a research station on Mars (I believe it's Mars). One is a humorless intellectual spinster who has taken the job on principle, and the other is an over-the-hill streetwalker with a Cockney accent. Quite funny, but neither Lewis nor the people whose plan he was satirizing apparently ever stopped to think that women would take part in space travel as working crew members!Margaret Carterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08293021955480708191noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-49764930574519459102010-04-01T12:00:57.124-04:002010-04-01T12:00:57.124-04:00P.S. My favorite older Science Fiction novel is EN...P.S. My favorite older Science Fiction novel is ENDLESS UNIVERSE by Marion Zimmer Bradley. <br /><br />I could tell she took what she knew about human nature and extrapulated on that to build her story. It was not a future I'd want for humanity, but I appreciated that she did not base the novel on her own political or social beliefs. She just wrote a doggone good story based upon and for humanity.Kimber Lihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03982239712083114488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-60946105154941339222010-04-01T11:56:38.630-04:002010-04-01T11:56:38.630-04:00That was fascinating--thanks for the food for thou...That was fascinating--thanks for the food for thought!José Iriartehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03653811568201804995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-20154829517213031402010-04-01T10:40:30.513-04:002010-04-01T10:40:30.513-04:00My personal pet peeve has to do with children, of ...My personal pet peeve has to do with children, of course. (former childcare professional here) There seemed to be two assumptions way back then.<br /><br />1) Children are a burden to be endured and, given the choice, no one would want to have them and, if they did, they would not want to raise them.<br /><br />2) Women cannot pursue personal goals or great sex if they have children.<br /><br />Well, guess what? It's 2010. The choice of contraception has made these two things possible. Yet, women are *choosing* to have children because, hey, they love 'em! Whoa, men are *choosing* to have them and stick around to raise them too. <br /><br />Why?<br /><br />Love. <br /><br />Mothers are governing states, flying combat helicopters, and traveling into space. And they're having great sex after having babies too.<br /><br />Ah, love, it's a beautiful thing.<br /><br />Thank goodness certain predictions never came true.<br /><br />I think Science Fiction authors would do well to examine history and human nature before they write they're novels.<br /><br />Some people say Science Fiction readership is dwindling because today's technology makes the stories not that unusual. I say it's because too much of the time, SF authors are behind their own times to say nothing of believably predicting the future.<br /><br />Furthermore, they're not welcoming enough to the younger generation.<br /><br />No Babies, No Future.<br /><br />It's a simple scientific fact.<br /><br />Politics be hanged.Kimber Lihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03982239712083114488noreply@blogger.com