The conclusion of the book is a little anti-climactic in my perspective. The lack of definitive resolution to Connie’s situation, and her uncertain effect on shaping the present and future is both frustrating and intriguing at the same time. Frustrating in that there isn’t concrete evidence to support that Connie’s actions had any bearing on the future. Intriguing in that the ambiguity allows the reader to image many different possible scenarios. I am aware that the end of chapter (Piercy, 376), Connie ends up back in Rockover. However that isn’t all there is to say on the subject.

That chapter 20 gives the perspective of various specialists, does not denote it as the ultimate truth. Rather, simply gives the reader the opposing viewpoint of this novel; how the doctors and specialists view Connie. When she is diagnosed as schizophrenic (374), that might just be the label they give Connie’s ability to time travel. It is my belief that this novel presents both Connie’s perspective and the perspective of the ‘specialist’ or the ‘status-quo’ to allow the reader to decide for themselves which to subscribe.

Thinking on perspective, I’m reminded of a famous story by the ancient Taoist Zhuangzi.

“Once upon a time, Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting about happily enjoying himself. He did not know that he was Zhou. Suddenly he awoke, and was palpably Zhou. He did not know whether he was Zhou, who had dreamed of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Zhou. Now, there must be a difference between Zhou and the butterfly. This is called the transformation of things.”

Disregarding the ideas of transformation (a lot to say on that by itself), the idea that reality is in one’s perception is key here. In regards to Connie, she was not insane, but a psychic time traveler. Which is proven somewhat in that Connie is able to learn skills she had no prior knowledge of, such as breath control(221) and foraging for food in the forest(235). To the doctors, Connie was a schizophrenic with a history of drug abuse and violence. I enjoyed how it isn’t really possible to say which is truth.

In regards to whether or not Mattapoisett actually exists, I believe it is important, depending on what aspect of the narrative you are focusing on. If you are a reader who focuses on Connie’s journey through her ordeal, then “Mattapoisett” could have taken the form of anything really. From aliens civilizations to robotic enclaves, Connie could have some how been involved with any kind of plot device so long as it fulfilled the role of “Mattapoisett”. However for me I enjoyed most when Connie was in Mattapoisett 2137, since I am fascinated with the society and way of life of that future. So for me it was very important that Mattapoisett exist, which is why I’ve tried to find empirical evidence that it does in the text. This is also the reason why the author’s presentation of the future was not boring for me, as it was for many others in the class. I actually wanted to know more details.

My main gripe of the narrative is that it is not explained why Connie lost her “ability” to travel into the future. The narrative only hints that it may be due to the implant in her brain (320). If we consider her “ability” as actually being a sickness, then her loss of that “ability” would be considered a good thing. It can’t be known however, who considers such a loss a “good thing”. More food for thought.

I have to say I enjoyed the book. The ride was enjoyable but the destination was akin to ‘that feeling you get when someone gives you a gift you really don’t want’. I was secretly hoping Connie might stay in the future, but knew that since this was a book with a “message” or “agenda”, so to speak, that such an outcome was pretty much non-existent.

Zhuang, Zhou, and Burton Watson. Chuang-tzu: Basic Writings. New York: Columbia university press, 1964. Print.

“Chuang-tzu“. In Nienhauser, William, ed. The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Volume 2. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 20–26.

So I began the story feeling sorry for Connie as her life was picked away by everyone around her including the doctors, her brother, and ward but now I think she really does need help. The scene where she pours the poison into the coffee in chapter nineteen pretty much  turned her into a villain in my eyes cause now she has the lives of 4 doctors on her hand. To begin with she started all of this by laying her hands on her daughter due to alcohol and anger and then even though justified attacked her nieces pimp. The doctors (although soulless and not very reassuring) were trying to do an operation that was meant to get her out of the mental institute within a month. Something about the way that the doctors talked to Connie pissed me off its as if they were disregarding what she said and rebutting “first we do what we want to you, then you can do what you want to do.” Although the act  of poisoning them was very out of order cause now there dead and someone is a witness to you touching the coffee machine.

Her final vision with Luciente i felt had almost to meaning to the ending beside them saying “Hey its something like Christmas time and our lives are going just swimmingly”. So somewhere along the line the message that she got by the end was that her daughter Angelina is fine and in a better place. I did enjoy how Connie’s hardening into a more unreceptive woman. “She had annealed her mind and she was not a receptive woman. She had hardened.” Although claiming the the poisoning of the doctors was an act of war for the (possibly imaginary) people of Mattapoisett does demonstrate insanity and violent tensions on her behalf.

I feel that this whole ending was on the fault of both parties. In a place where her voices had no meaning and the doctors treated her like a claptrap of course it could drive a person to doing things that that they shouldn’t. On Connie’s part although the people around her were inhuman with their approach to help her she too some degree should have realized that to some degree she brought this all on herself and her decisions all have a consequence. If one can not deal with the consequence the they should not commit the crime and especially if they are hearing voices in there head… a very “fictional’ aspect for this book.

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.

Final blog post, what what. and the conclusion to this little mind bender of a novel. It ended the way i didnt want it to. Sooooo all the talk about her being a hero of the future kinda fell apart when it was clear that everything that was happening in the future was based on things that happened to connie in her present, The Doctor and the future “redding” (328) and then she declares war on the docotors (p330), she seems to be out of it while she sees the future, so that right there supports the “theres no real future” theory. another thing that i thought was weird (well not really just because it contradicts with what i want to happen, and what is really happening) is that she declared war on the doctors (p 330) (there was alot that happened in chapter 17), now thats all fine and dandy, i mean i would to if i was being subject to horrifying experiments and my friends that were subjected to the same experiments were dying as a result, thats cool, what isnt cool is that as a result of these experiments Connie is now officially labeled (by the book) as a crazy person (sigh) and more importantly a murderer cause she did poison a dude, and waited for the law to come find her, thats something the joker would do, she just didnt care at that point. the reason i dont like this is that now shes never gonna get out, her life will stay what it is, and shell probably die in the system, which is bullshit. she started off as a beacon of hope during a time that was covered in darkness (and the the firenation attacked) she made it seem that she was the hero that the future needed, and she would defy all the obstacles in her path (being in asylum)and get on top and rise up. but nope, she kind rolled over and said meh. so im kinda pissed/disappointed/taken back. maybe im just still reading into the whole future deal too hard, but i really wanted her to connect with Luciente and go back with him and have a life in the future, but no, she stays in the 70s. i dont know, i would have done it differently i guess. dont get me wrong it was a great read though, with a strong female lead, it was an interesting ride, just ended wrong for me, maybe i should reread this badboy and see if i missed anything. i just hope everyone else took it for what its worth, a good read, and didnt hold onto the fact that its a feminist take on the world,cause thats what i feel gives it weight. the struggle of a woman both ohysically and internally make for a good story, but throw time travel, schizophrenia and some messed up doctors and you got yourself a pretty badass book with a crazy heroine.

Well to start off this book has taken me a long time to get into and i fell behind a couple post because this book does take a chunk out my schedule filled with other classes. First semester trying a writing intensive course and i suck at it. I feel that if this was the only class i was taking this semester maybe i would be more alive.  I chose science fiction to wake up a younger side of me that was interested in it guess i should’ve left that side alone. Well before i slam this book 100 times against my head lets get into some things that sort of grabbed me along the way.

pg 238 (piercy) ” I was born in 1938. You want to see my welfare ID?” Actually, of course, she didnt have it; it was back at the hospital What eye-dee? What you show-a card so they know who you are but eveybodys’s implanted” Reading that made me feel like that as of now we are not far from that happening where there’s a new source of control happening from the government.  On the same page until the next page theres  a sex contract mentioned which made me think about how marriage now will soon loose its affect on society today. To go on symbolism of class is brought up when discussing the “Richies” who live longer. On page 290 it makes me reflect on the prices that inflate on goods in the market. Soon all the fruits and vegatables that we were so easy to purchase will be come a myth.. Like whole foods the market on steroids.

Looking further  into the chapters you start to see the future illustrated with a touch of the past. There are a couple of Points that make you think about the power of control. I looked at chapter 20 which was basically the whole story line aka the background info on a connie and to realize like it was predicted that it was all in her head. Overall i am confused about this book in many ways but get certain points/ symbols that were made.

rate it 3.2/5  At one point i was into the book then i just wanted to throw the book some where. Hearing that this is the “last post” of the semester. Well I have mixed emotions about this book.

Thought of this song reading this book

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNN9MnbhqKY