So we finally see the true purpose of why Luciente and the gang of misfits are pulling connie from the past. Neat idea, actually has me interested to be honest. But thats assuming I can get though tons of exposition. I think that’s what ultimately makes this book hard. Having to analyze a story that gives you everything in your face, emotions, thoughts, settings. It forces us to dig deeper into it, and makes us pull out things that we dislike instead. Connie put it perfectly, “Dolly, takeoff the shades. I can’t see your expression. It’s like talking to a wall” (210).

Anyways I digress. What I”m going to talk about is probably pulling stuff from thin air but Piercy was directly showing the difference between the past and the present. Probably its something she has been showing all along, but let me explain. Between both timelines the sense of control and where it lies was expressed. With the central conflict with what Barbarosa believes is the problem is the technology. “Per” believes its all in the hands of the very few. (189) Something that completely does not bother me. Its a valid argument where we begin to learn why Connie is being pulled from the past. But Connie seems to interject and add that she does like like him because hes a man. This is probably the most direct the author has been with us in stating that Connie outright dislikes men in power.

Ger dislike in men actually gains validity when Dr. Redding and his gang of doctors come into the picture. I’m not sure if its the way Peircy worded it but they are depicted as a stern men where the female nurses are semi-afraid of him. “They looked at Valente blankly” (194). They just stared at her as if she was nothing.

Sadly we go into the future we again learn how the men and all their maliciousness have been proven to be invalid and non existent anymore.

Yes I know this late. Got distracted on my way home.

I kinda cheated and read though everyone’s posts before I started writing this and it seems the common consensus is still this is somewhat dull story. Flash backs that are all over the place. Dull characters that you really cant get behind. Even a future that completely perfect without a fault. But I think the problem is not with these, it lies more since this future is so perfect most major conflicts have been solved or nullified. So us as readers cant really get behind. Let me explain.

Most major conflicts are addressed in chapter 6. Each of them were fixed with this all powerful Deus ex machina. For those that don’t know a Deus ex machina is an all powerful item or person that is introduced abruptly to fix an impossible and unsolvable problem. In a matter of a few pages this incubator of some sorts, in one fell swoop, solved all of the worlds (all some of them) issues. Problems between races, no problem, lets just diversify them. Its print out black Asians like money.  Want to create gen equality, lets make everyone mothers. By the way i think its important to mention that with this process the need of carrying a baby in your womb for 9 months was eliminated, yet they still decided to refer the “parents” as mothers. But I digress.

You see a pattern here? With this one machine (get it machine/machina) they seem to fix most if not all social issues. I really hope this does not become a trope for this book. The only real conflict (if you want to call it that) stems from Connie unable to accept this is future. But even then those issues can be summed with “I like my past how it is, I don’t like change.” Its mostly just inner conflict with herself. Which brings me to my issue with this story.

Connie is probably just crazy, or the plot twist is the time travel was real. Both which are too predicable. The people she meets in the future somehow resemble people from her past. At first I was willing to for give it (But that took a bit with the pointless flashbacks and all). But the straw that broke the camels back was when she saw a child that looked like her “own” daughter. At this point the only thing that explains this is she created this perfect future where everything is perfect, all problems are solved and she is able to live with her daughter. All so she can escape from this depressing world. That or people from the future all came from the future just to mess with this one girl.

Either way I really hope the second half of this book starts to get interesting because I’m LITERATELY beginning to fall asleep reading this.

Well this title for this post is probably misleading. While it was not the best it was cringe worthy. Why not begin a story with domestic violence, prostitution and back ally doctors. In a weird way my interest was peaked. Not because of the events that transpired but mostly was curious where the author was planning on taking this.

Let me preface this by saying i only read the first 2 chapters. Mostly because its spring break and this is not the best book to be reading. The author goes into great detail in explaining the scenes. She does so to the point where she quickly jumps to something else I cant seem to follow what is happening. I’ms forced to flip back and forth between pages to check is I missed something and come to realized that with the over detailed events my mind just grew bored and skimmed certain scenes. One scene in particular is when the back ally doctor comes in with the great pimp Gerardo.

Oh man do I have a lot to say about this bunch. My same feelings about the movie blade runner are coming into play here. Sometimes I grow tired of seeing the same cliche of people. The overzealous pimp that wants to control his “product” (that’s probably the most pg-13 way i could have put that) with flashy rings and the god awful fur coat. Not wanting to have a child with who began as his girl forced to become his prostitute. That being said this actually made me think. This book was written in the late 70’s while now its a cliche that is tad overplayed but back then. Would this have been something revolutionary and new. While someone can write an entire essay on depictions of certain story elements throughout history, its still something to think about.

The doctor on the other hand is just meh. Its your typical back ally doctor just trying to make a quick buck. That being said it does not dis value his nastiness in trying to do this. Its still a valid representation of both of them but its still bothersome to see this. Mostly because its mostly used to demonize men every single time.

The biggest shocker came on page 44 where Luciente was reveled to be a time traveler from the future. When reading the back cover i was expecting Connie to be able to pear into the future like tomorrow land where the pin transports you to that world (a movie I’m super excited to watch). Reading chapter 2 I was beginning to have my doubts to what extent this book was going to go into the science fiction genre. While I aim to completely caught up come the next blog post, I’m hoping the story begins to get more interesting that just a fucked up person living in a fucked up world (Excuse my french).