This might be one of the first, if not the first, examination of the posthuman woman, as it were, and this precedes Donna Haraway by at least 40 years. How about that!
This is an important novella because it treats the question of woman/machine hybrid with a sober headed delicacy not usually found in cyberpunk. Indeed, one of the reasons why much of cyberpunk fails to live up to its potential is a refusal on the part of the authors to look beyond the surface, (ironically something considered to be one of its defining features, if postmodern theory is to be believed). But that might just be a difference in ethos than anything else really: the stance of the cyberpunks towards technology was not simply neutral, but one that considered it to be a seamless part of who we are as human beings. Therefore, it didn't, for the most part, bother with why need technology at all, and went straight ahead with the 'how does it change the way we see the world'. Which is okay, really, but the lens of Golden Age SF does wonders for a sub-genre that hadn't even seen the light of day when this was written.
Some of the things this does not address, however, is how the experience of being a woman changes when your body becomes mechanical. How much of gender is predicated on our bodies, as opposed to our minds? Or is the story suggesting that the experience does not change at all, only heightens human curiosity? A curiosity that is usually attributed in such texts to the male counterparts. Curious. For at the very end, it is strongly suggested that she would go on to test her new body, and see where it can take her.
The last sentence is, however, chilling, and emphasizes the machine over woman all over again.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Read in: The Best of C. L. Moore
This is an important novella because it treats the question of woman/machine hybrid with a sober headed delicacy not usually found in cyberpunk. Indeed, one of the reasons why much of cyberpunk fails to live up to its potential is a refusal on the part of the authors to look beyond the surface, (ironically something considered to be one of its defining features, if postmodern theory is to be believed). But that might just be a difference in ethos than anything else really: the stance of the cyberpunks towards technology was not simply neutral, but one that considered it to be a seamless part of who we are as human beings. Therefore, it didn't, for the most part, bother with why need technology at all, and went straight ahead with the 'how does it change the way we see the world'. Which is okay, really, but the lens of Golden Age SF does wonders for a sub-genre that hadn't even seen the light of day when this was written.
Some of the things this does not address, however, is how the experience of being a woman changes when your body becomes mechanical. How much of gender is predicated on our bodies, as opposed to our minds? Or is the story suggesting that the experience does not change at all, only heightens human curiosity? A curiosity that is usually attributed in such texts to the male counterparts. Curious. For at the very end, it is strongly suggested that she would go on to test her new body, and see where it can take her.
The last sentence is, however, chilling, and emphasizes the machine over woman all over again.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Read in: The Best of C. L. Moore
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