The Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter has her own TV Tropes page and now she has her own novel. Cassandra Rose Clarke, author of the YA adventure fantasy The Assassin's Curse has written a book where familiar science fiction stories are viewed through one woman's life. The Mad Scientist's Daughter is not for everyone — I suspect some fans might actually hate it. But it raises such good questions about the future, and the nature of science fiction storytelling itself, that it cannot be ignored....Possibility? More like certainty. Women's equality won't survive another 50 years. It may not even survive another 20. No ideology as fundamentally in conflict with biology, science, sexuality, and reality itself as feminism can hope to survive even the amount of societal influence it has achieved. It is a parasitic ideology, and as such, is not capable of providing a basis for a sustainable society.
For all that the book seems deep in conversation with many earlier science fiction books, it also seems to be trying to get to something in a certain brand of feminist retellings. Cat is a weaver and tapestry maker, an art form that has been disregarded as women's work. Artists and museums have recently begun to re-position weaving and tapestry as an early form of pixilated representation, noting the link between Jaquard looms' punch cards and early computer programming. Cat may be surrounded by cyberneticists, but she has taken up the simplified and distaff form of mechanical programming. There is also something of Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique in Cat's unfulfilling life as a housewife. The suggestion is that feminist thought and advances may be fleeting.There is a host of books, particularly fantasy, where female characters grasp at a certain type of modern feminism from decidedly non-modern settings. What most of us don't want to consider is that societal pressures, the liberal use of force and threats from within families and institutions, could turn feminism into just a phase that dies out. We'd like to believe that our current system of liberal values is so obvious and natural that once introduced, it would come out on top. The Mad Scientist's Daughter presents the possibility that women's equality might not even survive a few hundred years.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
A belated realization dawns
The grand visionaries of science fiction are gradually becoming aware, one by one, that their shiny sexy equalitarian scientopia isn't necessarily in the cards.
29 comments:
Almost every Wiccan/neo-pagan/new agey woman I've known who was into writing used the name "Cat" for a heroine - and often reused it endlessly. In the days before LiveJournal it was usually in heavily decorated spiral notebooks. I've even known a couple of women who tried to get their friends to begin calling them Cat. One was in her 40's. It's a form of snow flaking that's really too common to achieve its purpose.
It wouldn't have even survived this long without the government backing it up.
The debt is manageable in a 20 year window. I don't see the fall of feminism while there is no consequences for printing money/stealing other people's money.
And given what is going on in the EU and how willing the men there are willing to take it from the political class I wonder if 50 years is optimistic. Then again in 50 years over 2/3rds of living males will have been oppressed by feminism
"Women's equality?"
Don't you mean "Women's self-designated superiority, enforced by the state?"
TRUE equality for women is coming, and soon, or so I hope.
Not sure what world your living in WB, but the debt isn't going to remain "manageable" ten years let alone twenty. And the "men" of Europe? If they don't break the current systems the Muslims will. Either way feminism won't last much longer over there.
feminism and "equality" wont last 20 years and neither will amerika
i recall these SFWA people from the Eighties, went to one of their "conferences" once at a luxury hotel/estate, where they preened mightily and were clever, um that was my last conference and SFWA experience ptooey
boomers were completely conditioned to believe that sci-tech and politics would solve all world/human problems, bc people (ie ME) are Ever So Clever and Intelligent and Self-Sufficient, hasnt satan been telling everyone that since babylon uno?
let's see, who did he approach in the Garden?
all their fantasy Foundations and future dystopias rely on Christ not kicking this planet's ass, tossing the accusers/persecutors of the brethren into (very non-speculative) hell, and putting a stop to runaway human hubris and evil
but, he IS gonna do those things, starting with Der Homeland
the Grand Fantasists of the Mind will be revealed as what they are, mostly vain fakes (tho occasionally entertaining fakes!) whose works were superceded thousands of years ago by authentic futurists, Jeshua's prophets
You've got three feminisms.
1) Broads are broad-minded- they see things from a female point of view. This has been true forever and will last forever.
2) Suffragette or hard-working chick feminism. The advances of technical skill have made housework a matter of an hour or so a week. Meanwhile, a woman who works hard and takes careful care of her forktruck is a more productive employee than Joe Studly driving like it's an Indy car he stole. And Jane Average clerk does as good a job keeping accounts and not getting fights with customers as Joe. This won't go away.
3) Woman's magazines and media fantasies are more realistic and therefore more corrupting than Men's magazines and media fantasies. Guys who play Call of Duty and Halo don't generally throw blaster bursts and Bouncing Betty's at coworkers. Women generally do treat guys at work like we are soap opera guys and guys interviewed on women's media. This won't magically go away either.
It is said Cats are difficult to herd. I think it is more like there is no reason for their confused and meaningless mewing to be heard.
The debt would be manageable in a 20 year window except the population is still crashing (everywhere!) and the demands are increasing, even assuming health care hyperinflation (see Karl Denninger) stops today.
There are already too many misan-tropes.
Amynda Marcotte is already rewriting lesbian/amazon version of "The Handmaid's Tale".
The failure of the liberals is that something needs to first be made for it to be redistributed. If you burn the crops, there will be no food no matter how much money you print. If you make every doctor prefer to do anything but being a doctor, there will be no healthcare. They promised to make things fairer by regulating the big corporations and we just got crony capitalism where the corporations regulate the people.
"Almost every Wiccan/neo-pagan/new agey woman I've known who was into writing used the name "Cat" for a heroine."
Almost every bitter, alone spinster without home, husband and children, who blames her problems on men and who has a cat instead of a child, uses the name "Cat" for a heroine.
There, fixed.
I'm not sure the fault line will be between men and women. A Payer/Deadweight division is far more likely. In the United States, 20% of the people are paying 80%+ of the taxes...while 47% pay nothing at all.
If we're lucky, we get away with electoral reforms limiting the vote to Payers (perhaps $10,000 in Federal income tax paid in the two years prior to the election). If not, the Nanny State is going to take a very, very nasty turn. Being a welfare recipient won't be so convenient when you're legally a serf under the supervision of a Liege Lord.
If we're lucky, we get away with electoral reforms limiting the vote to Payers
This reform is self-defeating. The Deadweight aren't going to vote themselves out of the right to vote.
Being a welfare recipient won't be so convenient when you're legally a serf under the supervision of a Liege Lord.
If the Elite wanted these dregs to work, the dregs would already be required to work. The last thing the Elite wants to do is supervise a gang of stupid, lazy, violent serfs.
There is also something of Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique in Cat's unfulfilling life as a housewife.
To paraphrase "The Breakfast Club", "Everyone's home life is unsatisfying. If it wasn't, no one would leave home." In otherwords, boo Effing hoo. All choices mean you abandon one thing in favor of another. Choose one life or another and learn to live with it. If you try to have it all you just end up choking to death while you hold up the line at the buffet.
ray's got something there, and it's not a mental disorder this time. *wink*
The advances of technical skill have made housework a matter of an hour or so a week.
You know, I keep hearing this, and I'm starting to think I'm doing something wrong, since I spend more time than that per day just folding laundry.
You might be doing something wrong, Sigyn. How many clothes are you people wearing?
When you add in children that serve as underpaid housekeepers, there can really be a lot of time on one's hands. Except when gardening season rolls around. But shhh, I enjoy that.
Ray: let's see, who did he approach in the Garden?
Yes, Satan approached Eve, but then Adam makes the scene and doesn't hesitate to eat the fruit either, even though he'd received the prohibition directly from God. When confronted by God, Adam stated accurately what had happened, then reminded God He had put the woman there.
We know women are weak, gullible, want to believe lies, and want wisdom/moral knowledge/be like god, but what's up with Adam? He had the warning about the tree straight from God's mouth. Further, I get a kick out of Adam reminding God He put the woman there. "Oy vey. Talk about unintended consequences, Yahweh!"
You might be doing something wrong, Sigyn. How many clothes are you people wearing?
Okay, guilty of hyperbole. I don't spend an hour EVERY day. But I have no idea how people manage to cook twenty-one meals, wash the dishes from them, keep up on laundry complete with ironing, dust, sweep, mop, vacuum, clean bathrooms, do filing and paperwork, pay bills, and run errands in less than an hour a week!
Except when gardening season rolls around. But shhh, I enjoy that.
I'm looking forward to that myself!
But now we're really veering offtopic. *looks guilty*
When women realize how good a home life really is, and how much more men make when not competing with women in the job market, while married men earn even more? You won't be able to get women to work in an office. It will take some advertising and adjustments, but either it will happen voluntarily or by force, in a new political paradigm. Oh, I suppose some men will still prefer to pimp their women, but overall, it will be a rarity.
The only reason women are still in casual employ is because of a glut of fake economy. Essentially, when women gained the vote, the Fed came into ascendency, creating a false economy and a lot more fiat dollars. That bubble is about to burst. Thankfully. The pain of it will be much less than all these fucking parasitic fleas, including working (even voting) women.
Tz
Spot on.
The demographic situation is way more perilous than people think.
Sigyn, you do realize that comment came from someone who thinks a woman driving a "forktruck" is as productive at is as a man would be. In other words, someone who's not terribly observant.
Plus I suspect he might be on a first name basis with all the pizza delivery guys in the neighborhood.
Hell, my wife does the vast majority of the housework, but I still do more than an hour a week.
What makes you so sure of a collapse of official feminism, VD? It seems pretty robust to me.
What makes you so sure of a collapse of official feminism, VD? It seems pretty robust to me.
The parasite can't live once the host dies.
Western civilization ain't lookin' too robust these days.
But I have no idea how people manage to cook twenty-one meals, wash the dishes from them, keep up on laundry complete with ironing, dust, sweep, mop, vacuum, clean bathrooms, do filing and paperwork, pay bills, and run errands in less than an hour a week!
Probably auto bill pay. And they are dirty.
Could Ray please post his household hints? Housework takes more than an hour a week at MY house and there are only 2 of us. (Two people, that is. No cat.)
By the way, what do you guys have against cats? Haven't any of you ever lived in an apartment?
(MY pet pet peeve, in the unlikely event anyone's interested, is Chihuahuas. I hate those vicious little critters. Every time I encounter one I have an unworthy urge to drop-kick the little &@$$&!! into the next county.)
The demographic problem is the most logical and visible consequence, but the one most denied.
Even among tradcons - complain about immigration, however if your "family" has at most 2 children, you aren't at replacement level. You want Christendom to continue without any Christians in the next generation? You don't want to be a minority, but won't accept the blessing/burden of doing what is necessary to generate a majority? This is another hamster, with another Red Pill (I would say John Paul II's "Theology of the Body" clarifies things). Consequences for Sex?
We are talking about men and women, who cannot successfully transition to a permanent husband-and-wife, but worse, even here, Athol's and Dalrock's blog and most of the other, Mother and Father aren't part of the discussion except on rare occasions. They aren't really honored. Usually mentioned in the context of divorce.
Submissive wife? Yea! That's important! Fulfilling! That is what she was made for! Mother? Oh. Well. Optional. When we're ready, if ever. That would mean I would become a Father. Responsible. I would have to both lead and provide! Sex would be risky. Its too hard, besides, I can't afford college for more than two, and I have my 401k when I retire so I don't need offspring. The feminized biblical interpretation on barrenness as not being a curse, and children not being a real blessing is right because it is convenient though the rest is wrong.
Better to be fruitless and divided.
But there is more than one red-pill in the bottle.
Submissive wife? Yea! That's important! Fulfilling! That is what she was made for! Mother? Oh. Well. Optional. When we're ready, if ever. That would mean I would become a Father. Responsible. I would have to both lead and provide! Sex would be risky. Its too hard, besides, I can't afford college for more than two, and I have my 401k when I retire so I don't need offspring. The feminized biblical interpretation on barrenness as not being a curse, and children not being a real blessing is right because it is convenient though the rest is wrong.
I thought I was nuts; glad to see someone else spotted that!
Every time I see someone talking about "no kids for me, kthx", it makes me sad--sad because their thinking begins and ends with themselves. There was this one thing I saw that proposed that childless singles were the backbone of society because they have nothing to lose if they agitate for change. But isn't it the other way around--that they have nothing to gain and everything to lose? I mean, as long as the party will go on until you die, what's the point of interrupting it? And if there's nobody you care about who will outlive you, why not fire all of your guns at once and explode into space?
Just some late-night thoughts.
You raise some good points, Sigyn. There is no future if you don't show up...or at least your descendants.
I think this is going to really hit home both MGTOW and the female equivalent. It's one thing to talk about how wonderful single life is when you're in your 20s. Get to your 40s, and you frequently start singing a very different tune.
I'm not optimistic that Western Civilization or women's equality (as exists today) is at all coming to an end. If anything, federal government in the United States is consolidating it's power and reach into our lives. This is starting with Health Care, and will proceed with issues like gay marriage. I'm not sure what to do, that won't amount to shouting into the wilderness.
federal government in the United States is consolidating it's power and reach into our lives. This is starting with Health Care, and will proceed with issues like gay marriage.
That you mention the prominence of gay marriage as something that you fear will perpetuate the current social structure is an indication you're not thinking clearly.
There is nothing sustainable about Western Civ at the moment. Birth rates are below replacement, productivity is below consumption (we're not adequately maintaining the physical infrastructure we inherited, nor are we training sufficient numbers of new engineers and technicians to replace those who are aging away), and the people running things have promised way, way more than they can ever deliver.
It's on its final legs. That doesn't mean something nice is going to replace it, just that something else is going to replace it.
Cats are good for pest control, that's about it.
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