Study Guide Questions
on Tiptree
-
What do these three stories
have in common in terms of theme and structure?
-
oppressiveness of partriarchy
-
switching gender roles
-
the sense of power by force
or dominance can always be reversed when something bigger comes along
-
our biology constantly threatens
and underminds our rationality
-
If you had read these stories
when they were published under the pseudonymn James Tiptree, would
you have thought they were written by a man? Why or why not?
-
Are these stories feminist
in any traditional sense?
-
How do these stories fit into,
play upon, and twist conventions and cliches of traditional SF?
-
“Mama Come Home” was published
first, in 1968; “Houston” and “Screwfly” published in 1976 and 1977.
Can you see any evolution in her ideas and concerns?
"Mama
Come Home"
-
What is the main point of this
story? --> Bigger is not necessarily better. Those in power tend
to exploit it. The problem isn't MEN, it's bullies.
-
How does she play with gender
and genre expectations? -->story is a reversal of the cliched, aliens
want to steal our women story. Here the aliens want to steal our
men. Men who squirm at the image of a vacuum cleaner in musth should
think of how disturbing the many images of women being raped by aliens
are.
-
•Mama” was published the same
year as Left hand of Darkness, just as the feminist movement was
beginning. Do you see any similarities between these stories?
-
How does the reversal of gender
roles in this story demonstrate the working of power in our own society?
How does the story show
social construction of gender?
"The
Screwfly Solution"
-
What is the main point – the
association between sex and violence is the weak link in our repproductive
cycle; if we don't work to get rid of it, it may destroy our species.
What are the ecological
implications of this story?
"Houston,
Houston, Do You Read?"
-
How does this story mirror
and revise Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman?
-
Can you make any comparisons
between Lorimer, Bud, and Captain Dave in Tiptree's story and Jeff the
romantic, Terry the macho man, and Van the sociologist in Gilman's?
-
Does Tiptree share some of
Gilman's essentialist ideas about the differences between men and women?
What do both authors see as common female and male traits?
-
How is Tiptree's story different
from Gilman's. What issues have changed on the gender horizon?
How do the dichotomies
that Tiptree sets up relate to Left Hand? Especially to the
differences between Karhide and Orgoreyn?

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Created 3/31/97
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