Paradises Lost

[altariel]

Not to turn this journal into a constant Le Guin lovefest, but I finished up her anthology The Birthday of the World yesterday. Even when she's at her weakest (the title story, for example) she's pretty damn good.

But I wanted mostly to blog impressions of the last, long story (novella) in the book, 'Paradises Lost'. Because it is so outstanding, and because it's not a story of hers that I hear talked about much. It is a story about a ship from Earth travelling to a new planet, and the 'middle generations' - the generations that have never seen Earth, and may not see the new world. (I suppose spoilers follow, if it matters to you.)

Some of the voyagers have, by the time this story starts, with the fourth and fifth generation, invented a new religion which makes the continuation of the voyage the purpose of existence ("bliss"). And some still want to reach their new destination, exchange their state of innocence for experience. A war in heaven ensues (quite a gentle and moderately conducted war, this being a Le Guin story, but terrifying nonetheless).

I can't say enough good things about this story, but I'll pick out one moment: when the main female character, carrying her baby, steps out on the new planet (leaving the ship is called "doing eva" - DOING EVA, FOLKS!), the sense of banishment is overwhelming. How gutsy is Le Guin as a writer? It's like, "OK, I've done Milton. What next? Oh, yes, Vergil."

I'm now reading Octavia E Butler's Kindred, a time travel story in which a black woman and her white husband fall through time from 1970s America to antebellum Maryland. I have been dying to read this book for ages, and then it came through via BookMooch just after Christmas. I've been so excited about receiving it that I've not been able to start reading it until now. This copy has come to me from Iceland, via Finland. BookMooch is a wonderful thing.

Comments

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the list! (I could have gone and checked the book for myself!) And thank you for the post, because I've enjoyed reading the comments.

Any one of the chapters would be the basis of an entire career's worth of books for any other writer.

Also something that was said in my reading group!

I've only read the first Parable book - since it ended on a slightly hopeful note, I couldn't bear to see that ripped away. I think I need to be in a very strong place to read Octavia Butler, and I just haven't been there for a while, because she is such a powerful writer.
I have read the Xenogenesis trilogy, but not re-read it. There was lots in that about re-building society, attempts to manage the re-building, and rebellion and so on. (My copy of the first book in the trilogy has the classic illustration of Lilith as a blue-eyed, willowy blonde.)

I ended up picking up an Anne McCaffrey or two this week, and have been noting how much and how often she infantilizes her female characters, with a side note as to wondering whether it's worth counting the ratio of male to female children produced by her major characters in her excessively patriarchal Pern, contrasted with Bujold, who does something similar, but explains it explicitly, and also creates the Koudelka family as a response. I think that Le Guin and/or Butler could be a good antidote.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed typing up the list and giving you my one-line review :-)

I think I need to be in a very strong place to read Octavia Butler

Yes, I know exactly what you mean: the first Parable book was a tough, tough read. I ended up gulping down Kindred, and had very conflicted feelings about the end, but will save this for when you have read.

(My copy of the first book in the trilogy has the classic illustration of Lilith as a blue-eyed, willowy blonde.)

Grrr aargh...

I really like that insight about McCaffrey and Bujold. I've still not read any McCaffrey, and I have a feeling that my time for reading them may be long past, that I would need to have read them at a more innocent age to be able to forgive aspects them (as I did with Tolkien).

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

I'll try and read Kindred. Having said that, I had better check that it definitely is one of the ones on my bookshelf!

I think you're probably right about the McCaffrey. I sent a lot of mine off to the charity shops this summer, but I have kept some. If you're going to read any, then maybe Dragonsong and Dragonsinger: Harper of Pern, the two that feature Menolly, might be your best bet. The former is about a girl misunderstood by her family, who runs away, and the latter is about her first two weeks at boarding schoolthe Harper Hall. At least in those two, she's fighting back.

I was trying to think of an equivalent SF society and how it was done differently, and Barrayar and the Koudelkas came to mind. Sometimes my brain does work!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Let me know if Kindred isn't on your shelf and I'll pop it in my bag for Redemption.

I'll keep an eye out for those McCaffreys in the shops round here, she's bound to turn up. I love runaway girl stories!

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Let me know if Kindred isn't on your shelf and I'll pop it in my bag for Redemption.

Thank you for the offer! I did check the shelf and it is there, so I shall get on with it, soonish.

I should think they would turn up secondhand and I hope you enjoy them enough to make it worth it when they do.