{"id":394,"date":"2009-03-16T23:20:30","date_gmt":"2009-03-17T04:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/?p=394"},"modified":"2009-03-24T07:13:14","modified_gmt":"2009-03-24T12:13:14","slug":"transitioning-from-danielewski-to-russ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/?p=394","title":{"rendered":"Transitioning from Danielewski to Russ"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, I’m relaxing over spring break, recovering from the marathon that was Danielewski’s House of Leaves <\/em>(thoroughly enjoyed nonetheless), and I start in on Joanna Russ’ The Female Man<\/em>.\u00a0 After having finished the novel (shall we call it a novel?) a week later, I reflect.\u00a0 At times I thought the book was brilliant; the subversion of the science fiction, manipulating the genre to fit what she was trying to address on the feminist ‘front’, was outstanding.\u00a0 The Faulknerian use of stream of consciousness and first-person narration is also commendable.\u00a0 But then there were parts of the novel that became burdensome for me; in other words, at a certain point, I felt like the book’s entire discussion (the question of a woman’s role\/freedom\/right [I hesitate to provide a label for fear of a Jael-like counterattack] in the world) became repetitive; and I would guess if you go searching for criticism against The Female Man<\/em> you might find a similar complaint somewhere…<\/p>\n

…but really you don’t have to look any further than the book itself:<\/p>\n

Shrill . . . vituperative . . . no concern for the future of society . . . maunderings of antiquated feminism . . . selfish femlib . . . need a good lay . . . this shapeless book . . . of course a calm and objective discussion is beyond . . . twisted, neurotic . . . some truth buried in a largely hysterical . . . [and so on and so forth]. (140-41)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Within<\/em> <\/em>the book, Joanna Russ has provided the reader with criticism for <\/em>the book: The Female Man <\/em>is its own worst critic.\u00a0 What does this tell us about Joanna Russ and her intentions?\u00a0 Is she mocking these critical voices; drawing attention to the very biases that they reinforce?\u00a0 Is this critical inclusion a form of self-deprecation of her novel?\u00a0 Is it a little bit of both?<\/p>\n

Whatever answers we might conclude to these questions, this section of the book got me thinking about Danielewski.\u00a0 Of course, after three weeks of House of Leaves<\/em>, we are all familiar with Danielewski’s tactics, his self-proclaimed preemptive strike against any form of literary criticism, or any attempt to disassemble the book.\u00a0 I’m not necessarily suggesting that Joanna Russ was trying to actively prevent criticism like Danielewski is, but she is certainly anticipating responses towards the book.<\/p>\n

With House of Leaves<\/em> already in the discussion, I also thought of another interesting comparison between the two authors.\u00a0 With the construction of numerous levels of ‘authorship’ (i.e. Zampano and Johnny Truant), Danielewski effectively ‘distances’ himself from the text.\u00a0 Conversely, Joanna Russ eliminates any separation between her and The Female Man <\/em>by identifying herself in the book as both character and author, crossing the conventional line between author and text.\u00a0 I wonder what this accomplishes for the book.\u00a0 As the ‘1970s feminist trying to succeed in a man’s world’, what can we say about The Female Man <\/em>Joanna and the author Joanna?\u00a0 I’m thinking it’s important to remember that\u00a0 she is only one of the four female ‘representations’ in the book.<\/p>\n

…As you can tell, this book has left me with more questions than it has provided answers.<\/p>\n

Side-note:<\/p>\n

With all the references to the moon,\u00a0 it will be hard not to think of The Female Man<\/em> whenever I listen to Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’.\u00a0 Now, I keep thinking of ‘Us and Them’<\/a> in terms of Jael’s version of Earth with warring male and female societies.\u00a0 Try it; it just about fits…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, I’m relaxing over spring break, recovering from the marathon that was Danielewski’s House of Leaves (thoroughly enjoyed nonetheless), and I start in on Joanna Russ’ The Female Man.\u00a0 After having finished the novel (shall we call it a novel?) a week later, I reflect.\u00a0 At times I thought the book was brilliant; the subversion … Continue reading Transitioning from Danielewski to Russ<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[47,39,53,32,52,35,21,51],"class_list":["post-394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-9-female-man","tag-authorship","tag-danielewski","tag-feminism","tag-house-of-leaves","tag-joanna-russ","tag-reality","tag-science-fiction","tag-the-female-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=394"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions\/470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}