Monday, March 26, 2007

I cried

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! the story sucked me in and yes it made me cry. The creation and destruction of Joseph and Yod, both characters were SO "humanly" written in the book. The purpose of both; weapon, protection, and then watching their transformation into something more; understanding, devotion, need for acceptance, love (?). I felt so much more emotion and attachment to all the characters in this book. The interwoven story of Joseph and the Maharal was just as fasinating to me as the primary story of Malkah, Shira and Yod. Perhaps as Malkah was telling the story, she knew what sort of fateful end would come to Yod.

The picture Piercy paints of the future seems to still include discrimination, racism and classism..the technology created does nothing to help those -isms. There are still "haves" and "have-nots", but the free towns seem to make up the middle class..still struggling to survive between "losing it all" and being incorporated and losing their own "identity".

The strong women in the book were fantastic! Each having to give up something to come into their own.

3 comments:

Kirk Plankey said...

Yes, Anne, I agree, the story sucked me in too. And yes I actually cried also for both Yod and Joseph. Piercy as you pointed out wrote a very "human" story about two non-human characters, i.e. Yod and Joseph.

And also as you point out society does not seemed to evolved or devolved. It has simply changed, with all the same problems that we have now. Which is why I think sci-fi such as this is a very good mirror in which to examine ourselves since we get to examine and judge the society and characters that we are given, in this case by Piercy. We then can use our experiences both emotional and intellectual to reflect upon our own views and agendas.

I really do like it when autors embed stories within stories, like layers and layers of multiple realities, each somehow a part or reflection of the other.

I am not a big fan or feminist writing, but if that is what Piercy had in mind here, it does not bother me a bit. She does indeed create powerful, resourceful, and positive (while complex) female characters. And I very much enjoyed all the female characters, albeit Malkah the most and Riva the least.

One of the aspects that shows up strongly in Piercy's work here is the element of society and belonging. Both on the micro level of the family and significant other as well as the larger community/ies in general.

The struggle for Shira no less than Yod and Joseph is to find out were she belongs. Where is home? Where is love? Where is family? Where is happiness?

I was very much hoping that either Yod or Joseph would live, if not both. And it was very dissapointing and sad that not one of them "made it."

I will read other works of Piercys. I do not know if this is her best work, or something somewhere in the middle, but I am looking forward to seeing what other worlds and beings she creates.

Dani said...

I KNOW I second that with Yod and Joseph!!!!! I like happy endings and it wasn't all that happy. Yod was like the perfect man.....

Yes I agree too that society changed and technology just amplified the problems that exist today. It reminded me of society almost resembling that of older times (like in the story about Joseph). The haves and have nots and the giant gap between them.

Sean said...

I agree I loved the idea of the non-human characters gaining empathy and moving toward humanity, but the message that seems to be put forth is that the more caring you become the more you suffer, even up to Yods ultimate fate of distruction.