Type up a summary of the reading and lecture notes and post them as a comment to this blog entry. Remember to keep up with this important writing component of the class! We are nearly at the end of the semester!
16 thoughts on “After Class Writing: James Tiptree, Jr., “The Women Men Don’t See””
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
In the story âThe Women Men Donât Seeâ by James Tiptree Jr. starts off with a woman, Ruth Parsons, and her daughter, Althea hiring Esteban and a private plane to take a trip. The captain asks Ruth if they donât mind taking another passenger, Don Fenton, she agreed. Once in the plane and in the air, the plane crashes and the passengers and pilot is stranded. Don and Ruth goes off to find some water and theyâre away from the crash site for a few days. Ruth tells Don about her background, that she was never married, her mother was not married, and hoping that her daughter will not marry either. She still wants Althea to have a child, so she thinks leaving her alone with Esteban can accomplish that. Ruth has an overwhelming hatred on how itâs a male dominated society. They encounter some aliens and Ruth begs them to take her and her daughter, Althea, away with them, away from this world. The aliens agree to take them. After returning to land, Don starts drinking and contemplating on what just happened and why Ruth did not want to stay on Earth.
In this class lecture, we mainly focused on James Tiptree Jr. James Tiptree Jr. is a pen name for Alice B. Sheldon. Ursula K. LeGuin was born in 1929 and is still alive today. Alice B. Sheldon lived from 1915 to 1987. LeGuin had an interesting life, she served in the U.S. Army, joined the intelligence, and then join the CIA. She has been married twice and she states that her sexuality is more complicated than heterosexual. Her themes are sex, identity, feminist depictions of male/female relationship, ecology, and death. In 1987, she and her husband killed each other when they have both agreed to it prior to that incident.
âThe Women Men Donât Seeâ by James Tiptree Jr. is a short story that has a woman name Ruth Parsons, who hires private plane piloted Captain EstĂ©ban, to go on a trip to South America with daughter Althea. As they are getting ready to take off they are ask if they will allow hitchhiker, Don Fenton can come with them, and they say yes though long the way up in the air thereâs a problem and the plane crash, being stranded the captain, Ruth, Althea, and Don with little water. Ruth and Don decide to go look for fresh water, the conversations the two have together Don gets a bit bothered by the way Ruth acts differs from other women but as readers we see its due to the fact she âs a isolated woman and its this reason why doesnât catch on to this; he clueless to understand her views until they end up spending a couple of nights away from crash site. It is here we learned of Ruthâs past. Ruth was never married, nor did her mother, and she hoped that even her daughter wouldnât marry either; she feels a great anger towards a male led society, where women arenât consider equal just nothing but to take care of the men of the house. Itâs the reason why as Ruth and Don are looking for water near where they are camp find a river and notices a weird looking artifact that must be alien and sheâs right the aliens come back looking for the artifact but in order to get it back Ruth bargains the artifact for she and her daughter Althea to be taken with them on their space ship from earth because they cant stand living on the planet any longer and the Aliens agree. The feel of being equal among men and women was a main focus of the time of James Tiptree Jr. a pen name for Alice B. Sheldon was a female S.F. writer that was all about feminism in her works. Sheldon. Alice B. Sheldon lived from 1915 to 1987. As women she had an exciting life, serving in the U.S. Army in WW2, being the 1st photo-intelligence officer, and then being CIA agent. Alice B. Sheldon wasnât a ordinary women her life was like a exciting male experience. Itâs why her themes are sex, identity, feminist depictions of male & female relationship, ecology, and death but really itâs about stating that a women can do whatever a man can do they shouldnât be limited to just a Housewife; itâs not right at all.
âThe Women Men Donât Seeâ by James Tiptree Jr, is much of an adventure story. A woman by the name of Ruth Parsons takes a trip and she has hired a private plane piloted by Captain Esteban, to fly to a place somewhere in South America with her daughter Althea, also with her is a hitchhiker by the name of, Don Fenton, who is the narrator of the story. On there way theyâre the plane crashes and the four are stranded in a small wet place with no freshwater and no hope of early rescue.
Stranded with no rescue Ruth and Don go out looking for fresh water and end up spending a couple of nights away from crash site. During does night we learn about Ruthâs background She has never married, nor did her mother and hopefully her daughter too will not marry – though the daughter hopefully have bear the child of Captain EstĂ©ban, now that she’s alone with him. We learn that Ruth is carrying major rage inside her against a male dominated society.
One day in the river by her camping site, Ruth finds a alien artifact, which the Alien come looking for. Ruth bargains with it, the bargain to be taken to their world, away from this male dominated world, along with her daughter.
In this class , we talked about James Tiptree Jr, which is a pen name Alice B. Sheldon. Alice B. Sheldon, a Female SF ,who lived from 1915 to 1987. Her themes are sex, identity, feminist depictions of male & female relationship, ecology, and death. In 1987, she and her husband killed each other. We also talked about Ursula K. LeGuin who was born in 1929 and is still alive today.
Mike Paar
After Class Summery
5/4/16
âWomen Men Don’t Seeâ is a story that was written by Alice B Sheldon under the pseudonym of James Tiptree Jr. The story takes place from the perspective of Don Fenton, a man who is taking a fishing trip down in Mexico. En route to his destination, he took notice of two women but didn’t pay them much attention. He made his way onto a shuttle plane along with the women and while they were in flight, the plane had engine problems and crashed onto a beach in the Yucatan peninsula. All survived, but knowing the isolation of the region that they were in, the group knew they might be stuck there for some time. After a day of waiting, the group decided that it would be necessary to find fresh water if they were to survive there for any extended period of time.
Don and the older woman, Ruth Parson, travel down the shore in order to see what sort of supplies they might be able to find. They didn’t travel too far in the day as the plane was still in view from where they decided to camp for the evening. But throughout this experience so far, Don took notice as to how standoffish Ruth had been. They make camp and catch some fish for food, Ruth turns out to be very capable despite Don’s attempts to take charge of the situation. Night comes and they are awoken by commotion and a light out in the water. Don tries to investigate, but injures himself to a degree in which he is unable to walk. When morning comes Ruth investigates the scene where they heard the commotion and appears worried throughout the rest of the day, Don presumes about her daughter back at the plane and the return of whoever might be out in the water. They have a discussion on Womens Lib and their place in society. Although Don tries to make light of it, Ruth is somber in her explanation that women must hide in society, like Possums.
Night comes again and this time they see who it was that had caused the commotion earlier, aliens, who had dropped a device previously and had returned for it. Ruth, who had recovered it, negotiated with them to take her and Don back to the plane, despite Don’s protests, fearing the creatures. The aliens take them back, only now Ruth demands that the aliens take her and her daughter with her, that Earth was no good for her anymore and that any alternative by an advance race must surely be better. Don vocally fights this, but the aliens relent and allow the women aboard their ship. They vanish into the night leaving Don and the pilot behind by the plane.
For class we discussed the career of Alice B Sheldon, a women who spent her life in a mans world. She worked in the Airforce, at the Pentagon and eventually for the CIA. She spent much of her literary career writing under the name James Tiptree Jr. And throughout almost that entire time, the literary world cited her work as the ability of a man to see the world from the womens perspective. Her stories often dealt with the subjects of sex, identity, ecology and death. They also portrayed feminist depictions of male and female relationships.
ENG 2420
Kevin A. Gaul
05/05/16
âThe Women Men Donât Seeâ, is a story written by Alice Bradley Sheldon under the pen name James Tiptree, Jr. and was published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1973. It is told through the perspective of Don Felton as he recalls the experience he had with a woman, Ruth Parsons and her young adult daughter Althea, during a plane wreck. Throughout the story, Don has trouble figuring out Ruth almost uncanny reactions to the ordeal they are both in, as both Ruth and her daughter donât complain during the first few hours on the beach. He also talks to himself about his attractiveness towards Ruth every now and then in the story, reminding himself that heâs not attracted to her while complimenting her physique as they search for fresh water. He also makes assumptions, like the possibility of the pilot, Esteban, Althea engaging in sexual activity while he and Ruth were away and that, due to Ruth being a single mother, the women of the Parsonsâ lineage have a habit of sleeping and being impregnated by men around the world and then leaving them to care for their child on their own without the menâs involvement. After talking to each other, Ruth eventually reveals her opinion of men, that they allow women to have rights and would take them away whenever they feel threatened, reverting women back to the role of property, as well as personally wishing to travel away from the male-dominated world. She eventually gets her wish as aliens land at their location and take Ruth and her daughter away at her request, as Don remains puzzled as to why she would want to leave her planet, as if he didnât listen to her talk about the negative aspects of the male-driven world and the womenâs role in it.
In todayâs lecture, we continued our discussion of Feminist SF by talking about other female writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin and her story, âThe Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Joanna Ross and her story âThe Female Manâ (1970), Marge Piercy and her story âWoman on the Edge of Timeâ (1976), and the author of âThe Women Men donât Seeâ, Alice B. Sheldon, also known as James Tiptree, Jr.
John Darius
ENG2420
Chapter Summary: “The Women Men Don’t See”
“The Women Men Don’t See” is a short science fiction story written by James Tiptree Jr. The “The Women Men Don’t See” was published in december 1973 and was in a magazine called “Fantasy and Science Fiction.” The story “The Women Men Don’t See” is about an american government agent named Don Fenton who goes away on a holiday to Mexico. Don Fenton’s plane ends up crashing leaving him and his pilot Esteban, a woman named Mrs. Ruth Parsons, and her daughter Althea. Mrs. Ruth Parsons and Don Fenton end up traveling together to find clean water they ca use. Later on during the story aliens end up investigating Don’s camp. Don Fenton in the story is a man who is not fair to women. Don Fenton believes that women should feel helpless and depend on a man to come save them. We learn later on in the story that even when Don Fenton is trying to act as the man in charge, the women are the ones who are saving him countless times, and have no interest in him. Later on in the story the women no longer want to be on earth due to how women are treated unfairly.
James Tiptree Jr. is a science fiction writer. James Tiptree Jr. is a pseudonym for Alice B. Sheldon. Alice B. Sheldon lived from 1915 to 1987. Alice B. Sheldon joined the U.S. Army served Air Force Intelligence, did work for the pentagon and also worked for the CIA. She was a reader of Science Fiction. The themes Alice B. Sheldon used in her work was identity, feminist depictions of male and female relationships, death and ecology.
This story, written by Alice B Sheldon as James Tiptree Jr. is told in the perspective on a man named Don Fenton who’s ego is far too large for his existence. He takes note of two women traveling with him but doesn’t mind them much until their plane crashes. Once it crashes Don goes with one woman to look for fresh water. He’s got all these fantasies and visions of grandeur of protecting the woman, Ruth, from any and all dangers. He screws up several times and hurts himself badly enough to stop him from walking. Every time he messes up Ruth simply picks up the pieces and goes on with what needs to be done. Don decides in his head that she isn’t paying him enough mind since in the middle of conversation she looks off into the distance and gets up and leaves him. She returns and he decides she’s also acting funny and has a few absolutely awful thoughts about her. Alice truly knew how to make a character hateable. He starts a conversation about women and she tells him that women only survive in the tiny spaces allowed them in a world that men fill up. Aliens show up looking for something they dropped and Ruth says if they bring Don back to the plane she’ll give it to them. Once they get there safely She tells them in order to get their stuff back they have to take her away from this awful place where she is looked down upon and treated badly by men. Don objects and nobody cares about him or his opinion and they take Ruth and her daughter away as she requested.
Chauncey Dumaguing
In the short story, âThe Women Men Donât Seeâ, by James Tiptree Jr., the story is told from the perspective of Don Fenton and revolves around Ruth Parsons. Fenton, an American government agent, meets Ruth and her daughter, Althea. Ruth gets a plane with the pilot, Esteban, and allows Fenton to join her, but the plane crashes. Don and Ruth decide to go find water and separate from Althea and Esteban, and during the time Fenton is with Ruth, the more they talk, the more Fenton is getting irritated with the way Ruth is acting, since it doesnât fit the way he expects a woman to react. In the end, they encounter aliens, and Ruth successfully pleads with the aliens to take her and Althea away with them.
In class, we discussed more about many different feminist SF writers. Some writers include Ursula K. LeGuin and Marge Piercy, both writers who are still alive today. Included with them is James Tiptree Jr., which is a pseudonym for Alice B. Sheldon. Among the things that the we learned about Sheldon was that themes of her work, which include sex, identity, ecology, feminist view of male and female relationships, and death.
The short story is told from the perspective of Don Fenton, an American government agent, and revolves around Ruth Parsons, a woman he meets while on vacation in Mexico. Ruth and her daughter Althea charter a plane with the Maya pilot Esteban and allow Fenton to travel with them. When the plane crashes, Don and Ruth split off from Althea and Esteban in order to search for fresh water. Throughout the ordeal, Don becomes increasingly annoyed when Ruth does not panic or act in a way he expects of a woman. His conversations with Ruth reveal that she feels alienated since she is a woman, though Don is unable to understand her views. She tells him, “What women do is survive. We live by ones and twos in the chinks of your world-machine.” During an encounter with aliens, Ruth pleads with them to take her and Althea away from Earth while Don tries to “save” her from the extraterrestrials. In the end the aliens leave with the Parsons, leaving Don bewildered and questioning why the two women would rather leave with aliens than stay on Earth.
In class, we talked more about many feminist SF writers. Ursula K. LeGuin and Marge Piercy, they both still with us. After that we talked about Sheldon and six themes of her work. The six themes of her works are 1. sex, 2. identity, 3.ecology, 4. feminist view of male and female relationships, and 6. death.
âThe Women Men Donât Seeâ by James Tiptree Jr. pseudonym for Alice B. Sheldon, lived from 1915 to 1987, starts on a plane with Captain Esteban, Don Fenton, Ruth Parsons, and Althea Parsons going to Cozumel. During the flight Fenton is inquisitive of Ruth Parsons but she seems to have built a wall. She doesnât give into his attempts to converse. The plane crashes on the way there and all survive. The women are not complaining or dependent of the men. They realize limited recourses, so Fenton and Ruth Parsons seek fresh water. Fenton instigates that her daughter Althea is alone with Esteban but not to worry she wonât do anything she doesnât want to do. They have to stay overnight therefore set up the sleeping situation. He states “The woman doesn’t mean one thing to me, but…the defiance of her little rump eight inches from my fly–for two pesos I’d have those shorts down and introduce myself”. Fenton continues to objectify her beyond the primal human instincts. Fenton get hurt rummaging through the jungle. Ruth then takes care of him despite her feelings of Fenton. She states in a moment of desperate conversation, “We live by ones and twos in the chinks of your world-machine . . . Think of us as opossums, Don. Did you know there are opossums living all over? Even in New York City?” Some lights appear vaguely and seems that something is dropped. Ruth goes to investigate but upon returning she seems a little suspicious to Fenton. Aliens come to inquire about something they have lost. Ruth owns up to it but with the condition that they help them back to Althea and Captain Esteban. The aliens agree to the terms. Once reunited Ruth changes the terms and demands to go with the aliens back to their planet. âTwo of our opossums are missingâ
Characteristics of work that standout of Alice B. Sheldon are sex, identity, feminist depiction of female and male relationships, death, and ecology. She led a very interesting life. Air Force and CIA are some of her accolades in her career being that they are male driven professions.
âThe Women Men Donât Seeâ by James Tiptree Jr. is a story about a woman named Ruth Parsons, who takes her daughter on a trip to South America. She hires Captain Esteban, a pilot, to take her and Althea there. Before they leave, a hitchhiker asks to jump on at the last minute, to which he is allowed. Don Fenton, the hitchhiker, and the Captain, Ruth, and Althea are all in the plane in the air as the plane crashes, however, all of them survive. Ruth and Don go off to find water for a few days, and she tells Don about her background: she was never married, neither was Ruthâs mother, and she didnât want her Althea to marry, but she wanted her daughter to have a child. Ruth hates the male dominated society, and when Ruth and Don come across aliens, she asks them to take her and her daughter away from this world, to which they agree.
In class we spoke about James Tiptree Jr., which was a code name for Alice B. Sheldon (1915-1987), a Female SF writer. In 1987, her and her husband both committed suicide, her shooting her husband then shooting herself. Some of her ideas in her work were feminist depictions and male/female relationships, identity, sex, death and ecology. We also spoke about Ursula K. LeGuin, who was born in 1929 and is still with us today. LeGuin served in the Army, serving her time in intelligence, then retired and went into the CIA. She lived a life most men wanted to live, which is why her writing was of much controversy.
The short story The Women Men Donât See by James Tiptree Jr, or Alice Bradley Sheldon (real name), is an interesting story about how two women, mother and daughter Ruth and Althea Parsons decide that leaving earth would be better than living in it as it is a male dominated society. The story begins with Ruth hiring captain Esteban in a private plain, they are accompanied by Don Fenton, the story is told through his perspective. On route to their destination the plane crashes but they all survive. Fenton becomes increasingly annoyed at the fact that Ruth remains calm despite all that has happened, due to his skewed perception of women. As they head out together and spend some nights out in search for water Ruths hatred for men becomes more and more apparent. She tells Fenton how many women in her family were never married such as her mother and the fact that she doesnât want her daughter to marry but wants her to have a child, especially now that she is alone with the captain. They encounter aliens who left behind some object and Ruth bargains with them to take her and Fenton back to the plane as he is injured, then she pleads with them to take her and her daughter with them off the planet. They agree, and throughout this âordealâ Fenton was trying to stop her, thinking he was being some kind of hero. It ends with him confused in his ignorance as to why the Parsons decided to leave earth. In class we discussed the exciting early life of Tiptree, and how she was a real life secret agent working for the CIA and the pentagon, then her unfortunate final years battling many health issues. And for many years she wrote under the Tiptree name to conceal her gender, baffling many when she revealed herself.
Mathew Tackett
5/24/16
Alice B. Sheldon wrote the story âWomen Men Donât Seeâ under the name James Tiptree Jr. The main character in this story is Don Feldon, an avid fisherman taking a trip in Mexico. He boards a shuttle plane that is doomed after takeoff, the plane crash lands onto a beach somewhere in the Yucatan. Everyone survives but after a day of waiting they figure they might have to move elsewhere to find fresh water in case the rescue takes a long period of time. Don and Ruth Parson, a woman who boarded the plane as well make their way down shore to see what they can find to help the group survive. They donât get far before night falls but Don makes it a priority to try and control the situation with Ruth. During the night they are awoken by noise and lights out in the water. Don goes to investigate but injuries himself and becomes unable to walk. Ruth investigates in the morning and appears to be concerned with something as the rest of the day goes by. Don and Ruth have a poignant conversation about womenâs place in the world. As night comes once again they find out that it was aliens that caused all the panic the previous night. The aliens dropped a device while they were planet-side earlier, and Ruth while investigating happened to pick it up. She uses it to negotiate her return as well as Donâs to the crash site and that they are to take Ruth and her daughter off the planet with them. In class we discussed Alice B. Sheldonâs life and her career.
James Triptree Jr. pseudonym for Alice B Sheldon (1915-1987). Very accomplished person, she join the US Army, served in the air force, intelligence and pentagon, was a member of the CIA in 1967 and has a PhD in experimental Psychology. Her family was well off, occasionally went on safaris. Themes in her work include sex, identity, feminist depiction of male and female relationships, ecology, death and suicide.
For class we read âThe Women Men Donât Seeâ (1973). Ruth while on vacation meet Don Fenton. Ruth, her daughter Althea, Don and the pilot Esteban are traveling by plane and the plane crashes. Don and Ruth split from the group to search for water and help. During this time the duo sees lights and Don injuries himself and Ruth has to take care of him. Don is taken aback by how Ruth is reacting to the situation as in his mind it’s the job of men to take care of the women. The duo then encounter aliens, Ruth previously had found a strange object and kept it to herself. She then uses it as a bargain with the aliens – first to take them back to the crash site and second to take her and her daughter with them away from the earth. Don tries to save her but they leave in the end.
âThe Women Men Donât Seeâ was written by James Tiptree Jr. James Tiptree Jr. is a pseudonym of Alice B. Sheldon. It is a short story that follows Don Fenton, a government agentâs vacation trip. When boarding the plane piloted Captain EstĂ©ban, Don Fenton does not even pay attention to Ruth Parsons and her daughter Althea. However when the plane crashes one of the first thing Don Fenton notices is the Ruth and Althea. The survivors consisting of the pilot, Don, Ruth and Althea waits to be rescued. However when it seems that rescue would not be arriving, Don pairs up with Ruth to search for water in order to survive. During their interactions Don gets annoyed with how unfeminine Ruth was behaving. Don was expecting Ruth to be distressed and cling on him for security. Don confronts Ruth about this behavior and is rebutted by Ruth. Ruth says woman lives by one and twos in the chinks of the world machine of men. During camp Don investigates a light source and becomes injured. Ruth becomes the next person to investigate as Don was injured. Ruth discovers an alien object and hides it. When the aliens come to demand the return of the object, Ruth demands that the aliens take Ruth and her daughter Althea from Earth before she would return the object. This leaves Don confused to why Ruth would rather leave with aliens than to remain on Earth.
We discussed the career of Alice B Sheldon. She worked in the Airforce, at the Pentagon and eventually for the CIA. Her address at the Pentagon lead many to believe she was male due in part to the pseudonym.
In the story âThe Women Men Donât Seeâ by James Tiptree Jr about a lady name Ruth and her daughter who hired a private plane to go on vacation. While on this plane ride the plane encounters some difficulties and crashes leaving the passage stranded. Ruth decided with the pilot to go find water while her daughter and a young man stayed behind. Ruth begins to tell her Don thatâs she never marry and she wish her daughter didnât but wanted her to procreate, while walking with Don Ruth did explain to him that she did not feel confortable in male dominated society. While walking with Don and Ruth telling her story they encounter alien who she begs to take her and away with her daughter since she can no longer deal living in such society.