About a week ago I finished reading the science-fiction novel Trouble On Triton by Samuel Delany. I hadn't heard of it before, and only read it because I had the idea that it was about a man who turns into a woman.
Well. I wouldn't characterize the book *that* way. It doesn happen, but in the very last pages of the book.
Has anyone else read it?
I found that it was very difficult to get into at first, and I had to back up a couple of times, but at last I fell into it and couldn't stop reading. It paints a picture of a future in which sexual questions are looked at more freely, and in fact, when the main character goes to get SRS, he has simply to ask for it, and it's given.
So... I *think* that what the book is about is this man who is free to choose to live pretty much any way he likes. HOWEVER, he has no idea how he wants to live. People are always telling him he's a "type" which helps not at all, and in the end he becomes a woman because (I think) he believes that it will solve all his problems. Instead, he ends up (though apparently doesn't realize) that he has exchanged one set of problems for another, quite different, set of problems.
I had to read the book's last paragraph seven times before I was able to understand it, and at first I was disappointed, but since then I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.
And, I can't help but contrast it with I Will Fear No Evil, which I was unable to finish reading. It was just too long, and I don't think it really had anything to say. It was pretty glib, even smartass... fun at times, but in the final analysis just too damn long...
Comments
Delany
I never was able to get into Delany. I was very much into Heinlein and read I Will Fear No Evil and enjoyed it.
Have you read Steel Beach by John Varley? In that society, the technology exists to allow a person to change their gender and appearance and the protagonist starts a male, changes to female and then changes to sexless.
Just finished "Steel Beach"
At ras' recommendation, I read Steel Beach by John Varley, and I was amazed. The guy is a great writer, and I can't believe that I've never heard of him before. The book is about 560 pages, but it never lags. Anywhere.
I recommend it to anyone, even if you don't like sci-fi.
One thing that I liked about it was that the TG element fit into the story and into the future society so naturally.
I've got to see what else he's written.
Kaleigh
I will Fear No Evil
I liked that book. I thought of it as the main character's descent into madness after the shock of the transplant and who the donor body was....
I've actually been think about reading that again, as I read the original over 10 years ago. On the other hand I have about 20 books to read 1st....
Hugs
Alexis
Delany wrote...
... many thought provoking (and some not so thought provoking) books. I recall reading that one, and several others waaaaaay back...
Maybe I should read that one again... I could add it to the short stack waiting, and if I stop writing, I'll get to it pretty soon. Well, I will if I ignore work too... :-)
Annette
Read both
All three, actually, if you included "Steel Beach". Delaney can be a tough read, but I've read "Triton" several times. I agree with your assessment of the character. Pitiable, yet pityable, kind of a sci-fi "Born Loser".
I have read Heinlein's story more than a few times, but then I always read it while harbouring my own secret fantasy of waking up myself in a hospital finding I was suddenly a girl. The last part, on the yacht, was a bit contrived for me though.
Varley's story, "Steel Beach", has it's setting in a universe where mankind has been kicked off the Earth by aliens and is left to exist on the Moon and various other bodies in the Solar System. If you go back and read the short stories he has written, you can follow the evolution of society both pre and post-exodus, including body modification up to and including gender alteration. I say alteration because one story is set in a fringe colony on the Moon that is called the Barbie Colony. It's a cult-type group that has their bodies modified to look much like a Barbie Doll, identical and female in appearance but sexless. A murder is committed in the transit station that connects this colony with the more mainstream ones, so it falls under the local police jurisdiction. The heroine has to figure out how to identify one individual (the murderer) out of a large group of identical cult members. A thought-provoking story on conformity and individualism in a society where you can literally become anyone or anything you want.
Great stuff!
Karen J.
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"
Janis Joplin
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
I just requested "Steel Beach"
The Boston Public Library lets you reserve books online.
I haven't heard of this one.
And maybe I was reading "I Will Fear No Evil" at the wrong time. I should give it another go, or pick up where I left off. It did have a lot in it that I liked.
It is odd, I think, that there isn't more gender changing in science fiction.
Maybe not what you where looking for
I remember reading "Far Future Fembot" some years ago. It's a story that clearly belongs in the science fiction category, but it's not written by someone famous. In fact, it's simply published on the web (URL = http://storiesonline.net/story/42163).
I'd like to mention it because I find it so well written and it does have a (minor) gender change element in it. One of the few things disappointing me in the story was the fact that this element wasn't explored more.
Hugs,
Kimby
Hugs,
Kimby
Thanks -- I'll take a look at it
I have been reading Steel Beach, which was recommended above, and haven't gotten too far, but I do like the writing.
What you said, Kimby, about the element of gender-change being so minor -- that was what I felt about Trouble On Triton. It was something that was always possible in the story, and it's even key to the story, but it takes up so little space.
I suppose the thing is that another writer, like one of us, could take these undeveloped elements and make a different story around them.