Early Science Fiction and women

[miriam_e]

I'm often surprised how much early science fiction was written by women. It seems to have been made-over into a male domain until fairly recently when a number of women have reclaimed some of the genre. (Some of my favorites are James [Alice Sheldon] Tiptree Jr, Kate Wilhelm, Ursula Le Guin, Melissa Scott.)

What is arguably the most famous science fiction story of all time was written by Mary Shelley: Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (most people today would know it as Frankenstein's Monster, though of course the 'monster' was a victim of prejudice and was, like Mary Shelley herself, a vegetarian -- in the story the 'normal' people were the actual monsters). You can download it (for free) from Project Gutenberg at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/84

She also wrote another science fiction novel, The Last Man Likewise available from Project Gutenberg at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/18247

There is also a strange little short story by her called The Invisible Girl at Project Gutenberg Australia http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0603151h.html

And another short story The Mortal Immortal http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0602391h.html

Louisa May Alcott, best known for Little Women, also wrote a short story Lost in a Pyramid, or the Mummy's Curse, which is at Project Gutenberg Australia http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0603041h.html
Another short story by her, Perilous Play http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0603031h.html is about a drug-induced fantastic voyage.

Comments

[sharpblonde.livejournal.com]

Anne McCaffrey's been writing for ages... she's written copious amounts of stuff... I've read most of the stuff she's written that I'm interested in though and I'm not as into her as I used to be anyway... especially the recent stuff. She's just getting too old to write as consistently.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... weird. I thought I'd replied to this, but my post seems to have vaporised.

I have a lot of friends who love Anne McCaffrey's work. I've read a lot of her short stories, but none of her novels, though I have quite a few of them. I must rememdy that. Thanks for the suggestion.

It seems Anne McCaffrey was the first woman to win the Hugo Award for fiction, and this year she was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Interesting.

[prime-radiance.livejournal.com]

Louisa May Alcott sounds like she was a very interesting woman. I remember reading an interview involving her. She mentioned that she married off Jo in Little Women due to pressure from her publisher or something like that. In her own mind, she thought Jo was just fine the way she was. Somebody decided that she needed to have romance and a husband.

I'm not putting down marriage or romance. I just found it interesting that Alcott was quite ahead of her time.

I hope you don't mind that I added you to my friends list.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I'm flattered that you want to add me to your friends list. Thank you. :)
I've added you to mine too. (Unfortunately I rarely have time at the moment to look at my friends LJ :( Hopefully I will again soon.)

Yes, Louisa May Alcott would have been a very cool person to meet. I had no idea she had such an unconventional upbringing until I read her page on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisa_May_Alcott

I can imagine her being pressured by the publisher to marry off Jo on Little Women. :)

We often forget how much the world has changed in such a short period of time. She wouldn't have seen women get the vote. New Zealand, the first country in the world to do so made the change in 1893. South Australia followed the next year, and Australia nationally 8 years after that, in 1902. In USA women couldn't vote till 1920. One human lifetime brought quite a change. My Mum, as recently as in the 1960s couldn't buy land without a letter of consent from a male (her father or husband). Now many women have far reaching effects upon the world. Equality of opportunity is almost here, equality of pay seems ever out of reach. Some things have even flipped over -- I seem to remember hearing that more women than men go on to higher education now. Certainly women seem to do better at literacy than men. I have a feeling that this was always so, but disguised by unequal opportunity.

Disclaimer: Bear in mind that when I speak of the sexes generally it is in broad strokes. There will always be men and women who are more literate than most people, just as there are men and women who are less so. Generalisations are of little use when applied to individuals. That is always the problem with excluding anybody based on sex, race, height, hair color, clothing, etc. It makes no sense at all.

Catherine Spence

[(Anonymous)]

as well, as far as early female SF goes - also at http://www.gutenberg.net.au

Re: Catherine Spence

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Wow! Thank you. It wasn't long ago I was musing on a $5 note and wondering who she was. I should have looked on the net. Silly me!

I've now downloaded and will read A Week in the Future text (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0603381.txt) or html (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0603381h.html) on my Palm.

The Wikipedia entry was interesting too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Helen_Spence