<\/p>\n
\u201cI am the author and I know,\u201d Russ says on page 165. If, as Karin and Jael propose, all four women are the same woman, made different by their external circumstances, it seems to contradict the idea that women only appear to be the same because their circumstances repress them to the level of household objects. Maybe the four women are not the same person representing one-dimensional sides of a conflicted self, but they are just different possibilities of the same person, upon which each woman\u2019s bizarre circumstances have shaped her so that other possibilities of herself are strange and horrifying to her (the murderous one, the lesbian, the repressed wannabe-housewife).<\/span><\/p>\n By claiming she is the author, Joanna Russ asserts her control over the text, but also shows the complications and uncertainties underlying that control. The alter egos filter through in interchanging blurbs. Jeannine says, on page 122, \u201cWho am I, what am I, what do I want, where do I go, what world is this?\u201d I think the multiple realities and personalities the J\u2019s find themselves faced with represent the feeling of dissociation present in real life. This disjointedness and confusion is represented by the jumbled, fragmented structure, which Alana commented on earlier.<\/span><\/p>\n Also, as Anthony brought up, there seems to be an idea of self-criticism and self-deprecation, as well as multiple layers of authorship. There is the recurring question: \u201cI know what I am, but what\u2019s my brand name?\u201d (174), and an unending search for self-identification in the midst of multiple dehumanized worlds. The book as a whole, which acknowledges its author and offers its own harsh criticism, is as self-aware, self-effacing, and confused as its characters are.<\/span><\/p>\n Examples of dehumanization are both literal and symbolic.\u00a0 <\/span>Almost every conversation between a man and woman is infuriating and results in the complete ignorance or mishearing of the woman\u2019s words. This happens, too, between women, as in the conversation on page 113-114, where Jeannine\u2019s words are misheard but unnoticed anyway. Russ seems to grapple with how one can possibly be his\/her own person, or even a person at all, in the face of oppression. And of course, the cyborgs are literally dehumanized.<\/span><\/p>\n Speaking of cyborgs, what do people think about the half-changed people in Manworld? And does anyone quite know what to make of Davy, the robot\/sex toy Jael has? He\u2019s this ultimately dehumanized man in the middle of a book where women are the ones who are constantly objectified. Thinking about it more, I realized that while women are the main characters, men are also dehumanized stereotypes. She kind of takes the humanness out of everyone, and gets away with it because she\u2019s created all these alternate worlds. But men are so oddly one-dimensional, except maybe Cal, who is strangely complicated and conflicted, both generically repressive and oversensitive. And then here comes this beautiful objectified robot-man? What are we supposed to get from all of this?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Also, on the topic of women and technology in the news, here\u2019s an article from the Washington Post yesterday, called \u201cLimbaugh, the Vatican and a Woman\u2019s Place\u201d: http:\/\/newsweek.washingtonpost.com\/onfaith\/georgetown\/2009\/03\/limbaugh_the_vatican_and_a_womans_place.html.<\/span><\/p>\n The article is very short, but touches on a lot of nerves (women\u2019s rights, Catholicism, political affiliation). Some passionate user comments follow.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI am the author and I know,\u201d Russ says on page 165. If, as Karin and Jael propose, all four women are the same woman, made different by their external circumstances, it seems to contradict the idea that women only appear to be the same because their circumstances repress them to the level of household … Continue reading Authorship, Cyborgs<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[47,52,49,13],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-9-female-man","tag-authorship","tag-joanna-russ","tag-sex","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400"}],"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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}