posted
Does anyone remember Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae book? I had a friend that used to be just crazy about her. Found the book at Bookman's this weekend (along with flying sorcerers) and have been thinking about creating an androgynous character who explores some of the themes she advances. Anybody got a 2-cents-worth on this topic? I have always thought that Heinlein, for example, had characters that were surprisingly androgynous considering the rigorously masculine backgrounds that heinlein built. As we explore new forms of life and new worlds, does this come up with anybody else?
Posts: 1304 | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well there's a difference between androgynous and "sexually amorphous" as Time Enough For Love phrases what we might generally call Bi-sexual today.
In Stranger Mike is androgynous only until for a brief time.
I wouldn't call manny from the moon is a harsh mistress androgynous but rather simply "satisfied" or content. Nor Juan from Starship troopers though there is no actual sex in that book (Curse the script writers for throwing in unnecessary sex)
More to the point androgynous characters only really work on a commerical level if its the sex part of sexuality that makes them so interesting, ie Lestat (Rice or Hamiliton's vampire).
In fact in a story I'm working on I'm explore the life of someone who was genetically modified/enhanced from before birth though not to be "sexless". An interesting sci-fi story would be the life of a purposefully made sexless being. I'm sure someone else has written something like this and Frank Herbert has a genetic eunuch as a semi important character.
However sex/gender is so vastly important to human existance that never having the opportunity to be either would be a revolutionary experience.
Hmm.....I may want save this for myself....its such a tantalizing option. Sexless people....boogles the mind
posted
The name John Varley came up in another thread. In his future history, the conquest of disease and of the immune reaction has made surgery easy enough for kids to perform, and people get sex change operations as casually as we change clothes. In what may be his best novel "Steel Beach" (he was primarily a short story writer) the first line is:
"In five years, the penis will be obsolete," said the salesman.
posted
Well, most of Heinlein's sexual overtones went over my head---some I'm only catching up with right now. As I recall, the characters in "Starship Troopers" wore quite a bit of jewelry (maybe makeup, too), despite being muy macho. I think Heinlein grasped what he was doing and enjoyed playing with the sexual conventions.
I've found John Varley a problematic writer. A lot of his stories were a lot of fun---he can dazzle a reader with a half-dozen new ideas in just one story---but I've also read several of his stories that went on to wide praise and awards, that I thought were absolutely awful. (Haven't liked any of his novels...haven't read the later ones.)
(I'm lucky if I can put a new spin on one old idea per story. If it works for me at the moment I write it.)
*****
quote:people get sex change operations as casually as we change clothes
I remember it being phrased in a review as "...as casually as they change underwear..." (Spider Robinson, as I recall) I liked the line. I thought it summed up Varley, his characters, and their gender perfectly.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
