And so it ends, with Connie returning to Rockover State Psychiatric Hospital, probably for life. It’s not clear whether she managed to poison the doctors after all, although her report states that she did not have the final operation, the amygdalotomy, because of “the incident”…

At the end of the story it is never made clear whether Luciente and the future society was real or all just in her head, and I’m glad of that because to me the story makes a lot more sense if it was real. The characters in the future that remind her of her loved ones are just a coincidence, after all, when a person really misses someone it is not difficult to find objects, situations or people that remind you of those you miss.

Picking up from where we left off in the story, Connie manages to end up “in enemy camp”. We get a glimpse of what life is like in the parts of the world where instead of becoming one with nature, people continued to depend on technology more and more, where women such as Gilinda are heavily operated, always on drugs, and are basically just kept alive for pleasure. There is a sort of caste-system in place, where only “richies” live past 40’s (284), have access to medical care, and live above the level of the polluted atmosphere. We also learn that some individuals here, such as the security corps, have mind control implants that allow them to manipulate their mental states (292). The security officer is unable to sense fear in Connie, sensing instead that there is something blocking it, which could be the implant doctors had put inside of her at the time. We’ll come back to this in a second.

Back in her own time, at the hospital, we get a whole bunch of pointless gossip about the doctors’ lives and right after we get a whole chapter dedicated to Jackrabbit’s funeral. After all the time she spent on the “other side”, being unconscious in the present, the doctors think it’s best to remove the implant from her. Shortly after she goes back to the future, where she finds herself in the middle of battle with Luciente, Bee and Hawk. She seems to be going back and froth between future and present; she is literally on the edge of time (!). In the climax of battle she sees the doctors’ faces in the enemy ships, and it is then that she realizes that she is also fighting her own war in her time. This is a turning point for her, as her resolution to not be used becomes strengthened. She manages to get hold of a powerful toxic insecticide while staying with her brother “Lewis” and his family over Thanksgiving, and eventually slips it into the doctors’ coffee, presumably killing them and freeing herself as a guinea pig.

It is worth mentioning the connection between Connie’s implant and the implant the guard in the enemy territory claims to possess. From the way I understand the story, this is the future that would take place if the doctors’ experiment had been successful. People would start getting implants in order to be controlled as time went on. At first it would be mental patients, then prisoners, them maybe workers, employees, and at last the population in general. Connie, through her actions, manages to stop the progress of the mind controlling implants in its initial stages, therefore altering the future and presumably avoiding the technological civilization from developing, leaving only Luciente’s society as inheritors of the Earth.

One last point worth mentioning is how Luciente claims that she feels naked without her kenner while on the battlefield. According to her, “For some it’s only a convenience. For others part of their psyche” (321). Even in Luciente’s society there are individuals who feel so attached to their technology, their kenner, that losing it is equivalent to losing part of their memories, to the point that some individuals commit suicide from the loss.

Although a tedious read at many points due to the excessive amount of back-story and unnecessary detail, towards the end I was somewhat drawn in to the novel, I actually wanted to know what Connie’s fate would be. This happened mainly during her escape sequence, and during her plotting for her “war” on the doctors at the hospital and at her brother’s house. It certainly isn’t the kind of book I would read on my own volition, but I can’t say it wasn’t somewhat interesting.

Title has nothing to do with what I’m writing about, I just liked that line.

So the book goes on and we learn more about Luciente’s utopian society, and it’s interesting to contrast it to Connie’s time and our own. During Connie’s conversation with the character Parra, we learn that rape is seen in this society as cannibalism (201). Today cannibalism is seen as barbaric, repulsive, something only the vilest of individuals, possibly with a mental disorder, could commit. Even though nowadays rape is obviously a serious crime, it seems so pervasive in our society, with issues such as date-rape and slut-shaming used as excuses to justify it.

While on a walk with Luciente, we get a lot of exposition regarding the way they manage waste in the future. Everything is reused and recycled, evidenced as when Connie asks Luciente if they throw anything away, she just replies “Thrown away where? The world is round” (234). We also learn that in the future everyone works equally, no one profession is more important than another (261). That way there isn’t any one “class” or profession that can consider themselves superior. This is in contrast to Connie’s time, where scientists such as Dr. Redding look down on Connie and the other patients as just guinea pigs for his experiments.

The enemy that have only been briefly mentioned before are now described as being androids, robots, cybernauts and partially automated humans (261). This leads me to believe that while Luciente’s society exists in the future, they are actually in combat with what could be thought of as the descendants our actual present civilization. The reason behind this thought is that there is a part of humanity that decided to change their ways, embrace the Earth and one another and became Luciente’s people, and then there is the part that kept on depending on technology and machines (us), that are on their way to destroying the planet with pollution. Evidence for this can be seen when Luciente tells Connie:

Once they ran this whole world, they had power as no one… and riches drained from everywhere. Now they have the power to exterminate us, and we to exterminate them.

As far as Connie developing as a character, we learn that for some reason catchers from the past are usually females in hospitals or prison (188). After Connie has a dream where she fantasizes about her becoming a mother in the future, Luciente points out that romance, sex, birth and children are all Connie thinks about, however those things are not women’s business anymore in her society, but everybody’s (245). It’s interesting to see that these are the feelings and the things that Connie holds on to the most, that make her feel complete; however, Luciente tells her that in her time “dignity comes from work”.

Finally, we have Connie dealing with the anxiety stemming from her being recaptured and brought back to the hospital and the impending experimental surgery that awaits her. Even though Luciente tries to encourage her with words, Connie points out that Luciente doesn’t understand what it is for others to have control over her life (257). Since she was born, Luciente has been free from any kind of control from someone “superior” to her, since in her society everyone is treated as equals, whereas in Connie’s world people she disliked held power over her, power to run her life or wipe it out.

I don’t know where the story is heading from this point. With the brain surgery performed on her, will she lose her ability as a “catcher”? Dun, dun, DUN…

Yes, I’m referring to Connie’s sex scenes *cringe*.

So as I predicted the book seems to be more about the human drama. That is not to say that technology isn’t mentioned or acknowledged. It just seems to not be much of a focal point of the story. The protagonists are definitely human, not machine, not artificial, not “other”.

Just to mention a few things that stand out in this bizarre future:

• People can communicate with animals using gestures, even domestic animals meant to be food (89). There is definitely a connection with nature that seems to lack in the “present” setting.
• The language used leaves out gender. His/her has become “Per”, He/She is just referred to as “Person”, Himself/Herself is now “P’self”.
• Following with this train of thought, children are not taught the present sex roles, toys are gender-neutral, men can become “mothers”, etc.
• Materials are not wasted, personal items used for pleasure are disposable and biodegradable, or otherwise meant to last and “rented” as one would borrow a book at a library. Personal possessions don’t seem to be a “thing” in the future.
• Kids are put out in the wilderness to fend for themselves Hunger Games-style as an initiation into adulthood.
• They seem to be fighting some kind of enemy (Aliens? Robots?). On page 93 Luciente mentions that they are fighting a battle against “robots or cybernauts”.
• Multicultural test tube babies!

Connie’s conflicts with this future:

• Women gave up the only remaining power they had, birth (97) and breastfeeding (126) to achieve equality.
• Connie believes the future society can’t truly love their test tube offspring like a real mother who gave birth would, she sees in them the family that adopted Angelina and resents them for that. However on page 125 Luciente assures her “You think because we do not bear live, we cannot love our children… but we do, with whole hearts”.
• Connie’s idea of what makes a “good” man is made clear on page 112, where she enumerates a series of qualities that fit the stereotypical “manly” attributes.

Connie finds a similarity with the people of the future having different names throughout their lives, since she herself has different names for her own different personas: Consuelo, the submissive Mexican woman; Connie, the hard-working woman who went to college and got decent jobs; and Conchita, the drunk, mean part of her that gets her through jail and the bughouse, and the one who hurt Angelina (114).

Regarding the future society, their notion of evil is explained by Magdalena as being based on greed and power, taking away from others their food, liberty, health, land, customs and pride (131).

The children are everyone’s future, so it becomes everyone’s social responsibility to nurture and take care of them. All children, even strangers (175).

I just hope things get more interesting and we have an actual plot twist or something, other than Barbarossa having bewbs.

Judging by the title of the book, I was expecting a lighthearted story of a time travelling woman. Boy was I in for a surprise. In just the first two or three pages we get references to drug use, prostitution, rape, domestic violence and abortion.

Woman on the Edge of Time (WOTEOT from now on) is very different from other works we have explored in class so far in many ways. Consuelo/Connie differs a lot from the usual science fiction protagonist. She is a poor, old (in her own eyes), fat, short, dark Mexican woman. What we know about her so far is that she has suffered a lot at the hands of the men in her life: her father, ex-husbands, lovers, to the point where she sees in her niece’s pimp, Geraldo, all those abusive men (34). Her mother’s attitude while she was growing up didn’t help, preferring her sons over her daughter (38). Luciente tells her she is a “catcher” and an exceptionally good one at that, while Connie herself admits to being strongly “receptive” and able to discern information from just looking at people, such as knowing her ex Eddie was cheating on her and that Dolly was preggo after her vacation. This leads me to think that she will end up being a “THE ONE” figure at some point.

The future presented in WOTEOT is also very different from what you would usually expect in a science fiction narrative. Little importance is given to technology; it’s more about every member of the society doing their part, working together in order to advance. In some ways it seems more realistic than the other versions of the future we have explored in class, it actually resembles some of the proposals seen in the Urban Landscapes exhibit at MOMA. Also worth noting is that gender roles are not clearly defined in this future, Luciente speaks about comothers, although it’s not clear if people are raised by two or more females, or if the biological father is considered a “mother” also, making both parents comothers. We’ll have to keep on reading for that one.

Something I found interesting about the story so far was the discontinuous narrative style, especially the first two chapters. After reading them both I realized the order of chapters 1 and 2 could be inverted and not alter the story in any way. Also worth noting is the use of Spanish words and phrases interspersed throughout the text. Being bilingual, I find that extra layer of information relevant, although I’m not sure if I would find it rather distracting and pointless if it were in another language I didn’t understand.

One thing that I dislike about the book is that it goes into too much unnecessary exposition. Every single detail in Connie’s background, past and present, is relayed to the reader. Also, the author uses a whole paragraph to say something that could have been expressed in a sentence, making the overall experience a somewhat tedious read in some parts.

From what I’ve read so far, I can tell that this story is more about human drama rather than man vs. machine and authentic vs. artificial we’ve been dealing with so far.