henry%clemson.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa (07/19/85)
From: Henry Vogel <henry%clemson.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa> I just recently read "Press Enter" by John Varley. I thought it was a quite good story, but it reminded me of something I had noticed about Varley's stories a few years ago when I read The Persistance of Vision (the entire short story collection, not just the story). Since this is the only Varley I've read, please forgive me if his other fiction doesn't share this trait. I'm speaking of the age of the male characters compared to that of the female characters. Varley's men are almost always twice (or more) the age of the women they end up with. In "Press Enter" the main character was 50 and the girl was 25. In Persistance of Vision I believe the main character was about 25 and the girl was around 13 (it's been about 5 or 6 years). All through TPoV collection I noticed this. It's not something I mind, it's just something I found curious... Has anyone else noticed this or am I just imaging it? Henry Vogel henry%clemson.csnet@csnet-relay
nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan) (07/20/85)
> From: Henry Vogel <henry%clemson.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa> > Varley's men are almost always twice (or more) the age of the women > they end up with...It's not something I mind, it's just something I > found curious... Has anyone else noticed this or am I just imaging it? In "Beatnik Bayou" the guy ends up with a much older woman. But in any case, sexual relationships in Varley stories are usually pretty strange. Sometimes a character ends up with a clone of him/herself (with or with and without common memories), sometimes with a robot, sometimes with his best friend who has had a sex change, sometimes with a parent, etc., so age differences are the least of the weirdness. Oh, by the way, "Persistence of Vision" is the best book ever written. -Doug Alan nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (or ARPA) "An honest citizen would settle for a standard processor and a few thousand megabytes of fast storage."
psc@lzwi.UUCP (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (07/31/85)
< I can use my magic to change the color to red -- but I don't do windows. >
*sigh* You're not just imaging it (or even imagining it). Varley's
women typically are half as old and twice as strong, and the bad
guys are *always* male. Well, just about. And telling me that Gaea
is female is not weakening my point.
Despite that, Varley is one of SF's best word smiths and story tellers,
including (in my opinion) the Gaea Trilogy but not MILLENIUM.
--
-Paul S. R. Chisholm The above opinions are my own,
{pegasus,vax135}!lzwi!psc not necessarily those of any
{mtgzz,ihnp4}!lznv!psc telecommunications company.
(*sigh* ihnp4!lzwi!psc does *NOT* work!!! Use above paths.)
"It must be fast, and it must be red, and it must have windows."