Download And Enjoy Star Songs Of An Old Primate Planned By James Tiptree Jr. Supplied As Print
Le Guin's introduction for this collection shows the depth of friendship and admiration that existed between these two people, both before Tiptree's identity was revealed and after.
And Le Guin was right: the stories collected here are very good and very intense,
I'd read all but two of these stories already in another collection: "Your Haploid Heart" and "The Psychologist Who Wouldn't Do Awful Things to Rats.
" Of the two, "Psychologist" was the most affecting because ABS writing as Raccoona Sheldon showed how lab animals are seriously mistreated for the sake of science.
The story felt very autobiographical since ABS worked with rats in a lab on her doctorate and her department didn't really think her study was worth it.
And of course that makes it worse because I can only assume that all the tests that are described in "Psychologist" actually happened.
Basically, if you didn't already think that animals shouldn't be used for lab testing, you will after reading this story, Read for the sitelinkLGBTQ Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge, the sitelinkWomen of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge, and the sitelinkCollections! Reading Challenge at Worlds Without End.
Two of the novellas in this collection were also counted towards similar, but not the same, reading challenges,
James Tiptree Jr, was the pseudonym of Alice Sheldon, who traveled extensively in her childhood, joined the CIA in her adulthood during the McCarthy era, and resigned in the mids to
study experimental psychology.
This gave her what I'm sure was a unique perspective on life, and it shines through in her stories, I think I'm in love with her, partially because there's an apocryphal story that she was nominated for a Hugo that she turned down, in part because, as sitelinkUrsula K.
Le Guin points out in her introduction, one of the "keenest, subtlest minds in science fiction" wrote: "It has been suggested that Tiptree is female, a theory that I find absurd, for there is to me something ineluctably masculine about Tiptree's writing.
I don't think the novels of Jane Austen could have been written by a man more the stories of Ernest Hemingway by a woman.
" And many, if not most, of the stories in this collection certainly challenge the nature and role of gender, along with the nature and role of what it is to be human.
Men are likely to find it particularly challenging, but women will be challenged too,
This collection contains a few her most highlyacclaimed works, including Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, sitelinkA Momentary Taste of Being, and sitelinkHouston, Houston, Do You Read Links are provided to two of these, which are novellas that I wrote independent reviews for.
I discovered this obscure little paperback in the wonderful bookstore that I work at, Expressions in Time, which is a great place to discover unusual and hardtofind books.
But I snatched it up right away because by this time I had heard so much about Tiptree that I fully realized what a treasure I had discovered.
I was intrigued by the unique cover image also, and had pretty much accepted it was one of those weird, whimsical sorts of covers they slapped onto scifi books published in the lates, when it was finally revealed that no, the cover did indeed relate to the stories in the book and was quite relevant.
I described Tiptree's writing on one of the Worlds Without End message boards as "lightning prose of the highest order, " I loved this collection so much that I found myself resenting one of my favourite authors, sitelinkDavid Weber, for writing such a ridiculously long book sitelinkThe Shadow of Saganami because I'd borrowed it from the library and therefore, had to finish it first! Many, if not most of the stories, are mindblowing.
Most of them are also which is something other reviewers don't seem to mention with Tiptree disturbingly creepy, I cannot emphasize enough how creepy, As a matter of fact, I am certain that Tiptree is one of the many classic scifi authors who influenced the writing of sitelinkStephen King.
One of these stories, The Psychologist Who Wouldn't Do Awful Things to Rats, has direct parallels in one of the stories that appears in sitelinkNight Shift go ahead and read them both and see if you can spot which one.
That story, by the way, was the only one in the whole book that I didn't like first of all, because of the horrific images of animal experimentation of the part of psychology students which, I have no doubt, was informed by Tiptree's experience as an experimental psychology student shudder! and secondly, because I don't think I really got it.
I'm not sure what exactly has happened at the end of the story, nor why the viewpoint character is doing what he does.
I have a couple of guesses but I don't know which one it is, and I suppose that was probably Tiptree's goal, but I find it frustrating.
Do I recommend this collection Actually, I would call it an essential read for anyone who has any interest at all in the roots and development of science fiction, and one you'll enjoy thoroughly if you love the genre like I do.
Please do yourself a favour and read it! sitelink livejournal. com/. htmlreturnreturnThis pulls together just eight stories inpages, including two which I had already read "Your Haploid Heart" and the Hugo and Nebula winner "Houston, Houston, Do You Read".
With the exception of the shortest story, a five page streamofconsciousness vignette, I found them all not only enjoyable but also thoughtprovoking, Tiptree was really good at not so much subverting the genre's conventions but more putting subversive material into the framework while none the less respecting it.
Classic SF from thes, I enjoyed "Houston Do You Read Me" and the first story, Some of this bordered on horror which I don't enjoy, "Your Haploid Heart" First published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, September,
"And So On, And So On"
"Her Smoke Rose Up Forever" First published in Final Stage edited by Edward L, Ferman and Barry N. Malzberg.
"A Momentary Taste of Being" First published in The New Atlantis edited by Robert Silverberg,
"Houston, Houston, Do You Read" First published in Aurora: Beyond Equality edited by Susan Janice Anderson and Vonda N, McIntyre.
"The Psychologist Who Wouldn't Do Awful Things to Rats" First published in New Dimensionsedited by Robert Silverberg,
"She Waits for All Men Born" First published in Future Power edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, A collection of short stories, that while feature some interesting writing they don't offer much in the way of charactersization, In fact most of the stories are more about getting some sort of theme or point across, Gender/Sex debates that probalby seemed out of date even in thes,
Not the mind expanding, thought proviking writnig I was expecting when this author was suggested, Cuentos deescritos por la señora Alice Sheldon y publicados a nombre del señor James Tiptree, muy atenta la autora a los asuntos genéticos, la evolución, los géneros, todo ello llevado a escenarios propios de la ciencia ficción.
El que por mucho me gustó más fue Houston, Houston, me recibe no obstante poner en escena unos astronautas absurdamente misóginos, clericales, y timoratos.
Pero el suspenso lo sabe generar, y la resolución es de lo más satisfactoria, Lo de siempre, como es una antología no quiero dar nota de estrellas,
Procedo a decir que me ha parecido cada relato:
Vuestro corazón haploide: Es un empiece que creo que condensa muy bien lo que caracteriza a la narración de Tiptree en esta antología: movidas genéticas, nada es lo que parece y el ser humano como un ser ínfimo en la galaxia.
Es un relato que va a ser más listo que tú quieras o no, Recomendado.
Y así sucesivamente: Es un cuento muy corto y si digo la verdad ya no me acuerdo de nada de él.
Se puede pasar perfectamente sin él,
Su humo se elevó para siempre: Es asombrosamente confusa la narración de este relato porque juega mucho con lo que es real y lo que no.
No lo recomiendo,
Un momentáneo sabor de existencia: Es el relato más largo del libro ya que ocupa unde todo el conjunto, por suerte está dividido en capítulos que hace la lectura más fácil.
Tengo un problema con este relato y es que es muy largo para lo que cuenta, Habla del primer contacto de la civilización con un planeta alienígena y como actuaría la tripulación de la nave para cerciorarse que nada es biológicamente peligroso, por esa parte está guay pero podría perfectamente durar/de lo que dura.
Lo recomiendo así así porque está guay pero te puedes leer el primer capítulo y el último y te funcionaría igual la narración.
Houston, Houston me recibe: Es indudable que este relato es muy bueno, ganó el Hugo y el Nébula a mejor novella y destila calidad por los cuatro costados.
Juega con el choque temporal, las diferencias generacionales y culturales, los sistemas sociales e incluso con la propia biología, Si te vas a leer algo de esta antología que sea este relato,
El psicólogo que no quería maltratar a las ratas: Tiene un punto interesante al principio en el que se hace una crítica a la experimentación animal pero después tira por derroteros muy raros y termina mezclando existencialismo con cadáveres mal y el flautista de Hamelin.
No lo recomiendo,
Ella espera a todos los nacidos: Es muy cortito y además esta muy bellamente escrito, Tiende más a la espectacularidad sin ceñirse a las normas establecidas para hablar del concepto de mortalidad, Muy recomendado.
Si vais a leer algo que sea Houston, Houston me recibe, después Ella espera a todos los nacidos y por último Vuestro corazón haploide.
Del resto yo pasaría a no ser que tengáis mucha curiosidad con la autora,
Una pequeñas consideraciones, en el prólogo escrito por sitelinkUrsula K, Le Guin se hace referencia a que antes de descubrir que bajo el sinónimo de Tiptree se encontraba una mujer se especulaba mucho que eso no podía ser porque tenía una mirada muy masculina todas sus obras y eso es verdad.
Lo lees y salta a la vista porque siempre se describe a las mujeres como voluptuosas, con grandes curvas, se describen varias veces sus senos, etc.
y es hasta cierto punto muy incómodo, El único relato en el que está justificado esto es el de Houston, Houston me recibe y me parece que está muy bien llevado, si lo leéis sabréis porqué.
El relato de
Ella espera a todos los nacidos no tiene la mirada masculina por lo que si no queréis lidiar con ello yo recomiendo leer eso de la autora y, aunque no encapsula el estilo de la misma, os puede servir como primer acercamiento a ella a ver si os mola su prosa.
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