quote: Isaac Asimov's Mother's Day These remarkable stories, first published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, celebrate the transcendent power of a mother's love . . . Connie Willis ventures into a world where the advent of a revolutionary new technology has forever changed the nature of the mother-daughter relationship . . . Tanith Lee unveils a strange and magical vision of motherhood . . . Mike Resnick and Susan Shwartz travel to the heart of Africa, where an otherworldly mother cures the terminally ill . . . Kristine Kathryn Rusch steps into the future to explore the problems that arise when the mother-child roles are suddenly reversed . . .
quote: Isaac Asimov's Father's Day From the pages of Asimov's Science Fiction- today's most creative minds explore the fierce, fragile bond between fathers and their children...
Harry Turtledove's " In the Presence of Mine Enemies" brings readers to an alternate future where a father's laegacy could be a fatal secret... A daughter confronts her dead father- and her own life choices in Pamela Sargent's "Amphibians" ... In James Patrick Kelly's "Itsy Bitsy Spider," a woman visits her estranged father and rediscovers her childhood- in a chillingly altered form...
Why are stories about mother-child relationships almost always positive? Why are stories about father-child relationships negative?
Why is a mother's bond to her child 'transcendent' and a father's 'fragile?'
[ December 18, 2003, 08:10 AM: Message edited by: Scott R ]
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
"Why is a mother's bond to her child 'transcendent' and a father's 'fragile?'"
Marketing.
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
For me, it's because I trust my mother but not my father.
I have no idea how horribly I'm generalizing here, but I think fathers are more likely to abandon their families than mothers.
Posted by Javert Hugo (Member # 3980) on :
Tom: That's a circular tautology. Marketing that works plays on deeper memes.
Tradition? Because the close, understanding dads are traditionally the exception, no matter what actually should be?
Or... because much science fiction is still written by men, and men usually have a better relationship with the mother who adores them than the father they must live up to.
Annie: It sure seems like it, doesn't it?
If you look in other genres, there are plenty of caustic mother stories written by women.
[ December 18, 2003, 10:47 AM: Message edited by: Javert Hugo ]
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Seriously, I think it's because sci-fi caters to people who idolize their mothers and identify "manhood" with "struggle."
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
I think Tom's right, mostly-- but why is this attitude so . . . marketable?
Posted by plaid (Member # 2393) on :
There's a tradition though in SF stories of the male hero having a son he never knew he had, and then the son showing up 20 years later to become his pal and fellow adventurer... example comes to mind = "Star Trek -- The Wrath of Khan"... so the Mom does all the work raising the kid, but then the kid goes off to enjoy doing heroic stuff with his dad...
Posted by jRc (Member # 1335) on :
Seems so different from fantasy, where father figures are often very strong and mothers have died early in the hero's childhood--but it also gives the feeling that the mother's influence abides eternally although the hero needs to be cut from the proverbial apron strings to really become a hero.
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
C'mon, do I have to be the first to say it?
Freud. Duh.
-Bok
Posted by Javert Hugo (Member # 3980) on :
*grin* That's what I was trying to say without invoking the name of that fetishist.
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
Subtlety is overrated.
*Channels his inner odouls*
-Bok
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
I've always hated the contrast between the views of fathers and mothers in our society. I hate the assumption that men can't be good parents. I hate the assumption that having a womb gives you some sort of magic insight into how to raise children, or at least how to do it better than those who don't have wombs. I hate it that bad relationships with fathers is somewhere between "too bad" to "it figures," but bad relationships with mothers is "tragic." I hate the way it makes me feel. I have always hated it. I don't think I'm ever really going to get over it.
Posted by Javert Hugo (Member # 3980) on :
The parts of society who say those things are wrong. Flat out.
Both parents are important, and gender stereotypes so seldom hold true I wonder what keeps them going.
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
You don't even need to leave Hatrack to find men who are good parents, so obviously the people who say they can't be are wrong. But a whole lot of people still say it, and I hate it that they do.
[ December 18, 2003, 04:30 PM: Message edited by: saxon75 ]
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
Saxon- what if men in general really DO suck at being husbands and fathers?
quote:I think it's because sci-fi caters to people who idolize their mothers and identify "manhood" with "struggle."
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