goldenberg%istari.DEC@decwrl.DEC.COM (10/23/85)
From: goldenberg%istari.DEC@decwrl.DEC.COM (Ruth Goldenberg) Previous replies have mentioned most of the feminist (or non-sexist) authors I'd recommend: Ursula LeGuin, Panshin's Rite of Passage, Joanna Russ, James Tiptree, and John Varley. Another author is Kate Wilhelm. In case it hasn't been mentioned, add "Dreamsnake" by Vonda MacIntyre (spelling?) to your list. I recommend all of Tiptree, but I was especially taken with a story called (approx.) "The Women Men Never See", about a woman and her daughter who run off with aliens secretly visiting the earth. When the woman is asked how could she and her daughter stand the thought of spending the rest of her life with alien and strange creatures, she replies to the man who asked, "That's nothing. We're used to it." As 10 other people will have undoubtedly pointed out by now, Tiptree is a pen name for a woman author. (And Andre Norton is also a woman.) I strongly second/third/whatever the recommendations for Joanna Russ. I think you should start with a (very) short story she wrote called "When It Changed." It's the most powerful short story I ever read. Even on the nth (n>10) reading, it packs an enormous emotional punch. For me, that short story is a better comment on the gender differences issue then anything else I've read. It hits me a lot harder than LeGuin's "Left Hand of Darkness". If you like "When It Changed", try "The Female Man", a novel partly related to the society described in the short story. Another work by Russ I especially like is "Picnic on Paradise." have fun, reg