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John Darius
ENG2420
Chapter Summary: “When It Changed”
“When It Changed” is a science fiction story written by Joanna Russ. “When It Changed” is a science fiction story that takes place on a planet called Whileaway. The planet Whileaway was filled with a society of only women. In the story the men on the planet died due to a plague many years ago. Over the years women learned to fight and survive on their own and also learned how to reproduce without the need of men. The main character of the story is a woman named Janet. Janet is marred to another woman named Katy. Both of them eventually come into contact with astronaut men who turned out to be from earth. In class we discussed things that relate to the story “When It Changed”. Some of those things are Feminist Science Fiction. We talked about Diane Cook who defines feminist science fiction as science fiction that articulates in awareness of women’s place in a political system and their connection to other women or which has primary and feminist focus on women’s status. We also talked about Pamela Sargent who published a collection in 1974 called “Women of Wonder”. She writes science fiction and fantasy because she believes they are the only genres that enable the author to envision women in new, different or alternative surroundings and social structures. We also talked about the three themes of Joanna Russ’s work which were to have a strong female person, she uses scientific tropes for centrical purposes, and she always has duels in her stories.
The story “When It Changed” by Joanna Russ, starts with a description of Katy’s driving by her Janet, Janet. Katy drives like a maniac, but she is very good with cars. They have three children, one from Katy and two from Janet. They’re still in the car driving, Janet reaches for a rifle and puts it on her lap. Yuriko jumps out of the car and starts shouting. They start talking about when they met the alien where they had landed near the farmhouse they’re in. Janet talks to the alien and Yuriko went up the alien, the alien asks Janet who she was, in Russian. The Janet begins to talk about where they are and about the plague that wiped out half the population. When the alien asked where all the people, they meant where are all the men. Janet tells them that they died thirty generations ago. The aliens turn out to be men that have come from Earth. The men begins telling Janet that their race has too much genetic damage and can use Whileaway’s genetics, Janet refuses. Katy has Janet’s rifle and points it at the man. The man continues to persuade Janet and saying that there must be men on Whileaway. Katy is angry with the man that kept insulting her and Janet and their people, she almost killed the man, but Janet knocked the rifle out of aim. Janet agrees with Katy and regrets not killing them where they stood. Katy and Janet return home and starts thinking about the future, the men that would come, her daughters, her wife, and herself.
In this class lecture, we continued on feminist SF. The point of origin is considered to be Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly because she was the first SF writer. There were 300 women SF writers in 1950s that used fake names to publish their work. Diane Cook’s working definition for feminist SF is “SF that articulates an awareness of women’s place in a political system and their connectedness to other women or which has a primary and feminist focus on women’s status.” The 7 characteristics of feminist SF are: 1. It explores patriarchal, matriarchal, and egalitarian social orders, 2. Construct alternative governmental and organizational systems, 3. Re-imagine gender roles, 4. Undermine the naturalized sex-gender relationship, 5. Posited varied means of reproduction, 6. Illustrate various sexuality, 7. Consider the ramification of both masculine science and feminist science.
“When It Changed”, a science fiction story written by Joanna Russ is a short story that takes place on a planet called While-away. While-away the planet where the colony or society of the planet only are women; there’s no men at all because they all died from a plague of some sort many years ago and only left the women unharmed in the end. Over the course of the years the women of this planet learn how to live without the help of men by learning to defend themselves and work on making use of technology be there suited for their survival. The women sort of resemble amazon warriors’ aka Wonder Woman for example but they differ with their use of tech. The technology they used help in reproduction by the integration of ova and use of heavyweight labor necessary to maintain their way of life, which has evolved and are ok with their life. Until that life somehow becomes threating to some of the amazon like women when a space craft full of men arrive on their planet and immediately the women, well some of them especially Janet’s wife Kathy feel to kill all of men because they will undue all of what they have built and won’t be treated as equals in their utopia. The idea of women and men being equal might be a constant struggle and when the men died the women were treated the same; it is that reason in class as we continued our discussion on feminist S.F. The revelations sort of speak of feminist; women being equal in society. It began with no other than Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly because being the first SF writer brought in 1950’s a total of 300 S.F. women writers who used pennames in order to publish their works first. Then second with Diane Cook’s own definition for what is meant by feminist S.F. was that it articulates an awareness of women’s place in a political system and their connectedness to other women or which has a primary and feminist focus on women’s status. Last in class we learn of the 7 characteristics of feminist S.F. that came from this the 1st. It explores patriarchal, matriarchal, and egalitarian social orders, 2nd
. Construct alternative governmental and organizational systems, 3rd Re-imagine gender roles, 4th Undermine the naturalized sex-gender relationship, 5th Posited varied means of reproduction, 6th Illustrate various sexuality, & 7th Consider the ramification of both masculine science and feminist science.
Joanna Russ, feminist short story, “When It Change”, is a about a future society on a distant planet, called Whileaway, where 30 generation earlier a plague has killed of all men and the population now consist of only women, who have figured out how to combine eggs to produce female offsprings. The story is told in the perspective of Janet Evason.In this society human behavior of both men and women are taken up by the females. For example, Janet has fought several duels, and girls love to hunt and have adventures. One day when Janet, her wife Katy and daughter come in contact with male astronauts, who turns out to be from earth. The men are bewildered by the all female society. They come to the assumption that the women must be missing men, which lead them to display sexist traits. Janet doesn’t at first understand that she is being treated insultingly, and does not understand the men’s amusement. Katy tries to kill the men but Janet stops her, which she later regrets. Now that men are here, Janet muses upon how things will change now. The men tell her that they now have equality between the sexes on earth, but she wonders how that can be true, given their casually condescending attitude toward the all-female society.
In class we talked about Pamela Sargent and Diane Cook. Diane Cook, who’s definition of feminist science fiction is science fiction that displays an awareness of women’s place in a political system and their connection to other women. Pamela Sargent published a collection in 1974 called “Women of Wonder”. We also talked about the three themes of Joanna Russ’s work, which were to have a strong female person, she uses scientific tropes for centrically purposes, and she always has duels in her stories.
Joanna Russ, feminist short story, “When It Change”, is a about a future society on a distant planet, called Whileaway, where 30 generation earlier a plague has killed of all men and the population now consist of only women, who have figured out how to combine eggs to produce female offsprings. The story is told in the perspective of Janet Evason.In this society human behavior of both men and women are taken up by the females. For example, Janet has fought several duels, and girls love to hunt and have adventures. One day when Janet, her wife Katy and daughter come in contact with male astronauts, who turns out to be from earth. The men are bewildered by the all female society. They come to the assumption that the women must be missing men, which lead them to display sexist traits. Janet doesn’t at first understand that she is being treated insultingly, and does not understand the men’s amusement. Katy tries to kill the men but Janet stops her, which she later regrets. Now that men are here, Janet muses upon how things will change now. The men tell her that they now have equality between the sexes on earth, but she wonders how that can be true, given their casually condescending attitude toward the all-female society.
In class we talked about Pamela Sargent and Diane Cook. Diane Cook, who’s definition of feminist science fiction is science fiction that displays an awareness of women’s place in a political system and their connection to other women. Pamela Sargent published a collection in 1974 called “Women of Wonder”. We also talked about the three themes of Joanna Russ’s work, which were to have a strong female person, she uses scientific tropes for centrically purposes, and she always has duels in her stories.
Mike Paar
After Class Summery
5/2/16
The story “When It Changed,” by Joanna Russ, was a story about the return of men to the planet Whileaway, which had been occupied by all women for several generations. So much time had passed that the culture and perspectives of the individuals had varied a significant degree. But the story was told from the perspective Janet Evason and her spouse Katy. The case was made that the two woman lead fairly rough and difficult lives, one that consists of living in hostile environments in which they normally take part in duels. With the arrival of men on their planet, they make the comparisons of them looking more like apes and speaking rough Russian. The men are confounded by their culture and their ways of breeding, having been manipulated for centuries to sustain their race. But although the discussions are hostile and almost turn violent, the men insist that their arrival and reoccupation of the planet is inevitable. The story ends with Janet lamenting on their planets past and previous name right after the men had left the planet which was then named “For-A-While.”
For class we continued our discussion if feminist SF, now looking at the precursors to the subgenre such as “The Blazing World” and “Her Land.” We then continued to discuss the various characteristics of feminist SF, such as the exploration of patriarchal and matriarchal social orders and reimagined gender roles. Often they construct alternative systems of governments. They tend to undermine the naturalized sex-gender relationship. They also suggest new varied means of reproduction and illustrate various sexualities. And finally they tend to consider the ramifications of both masculine and feminist sciences.
Shana
This story is about a female only planet called While-away. All the men died from a plague on this planet. They have learned to reproduce without men. This story is told from Janet’s perspective. Janet and her wife Katy are visited by men who came on a spaceship from Earth. They ask about the men there and the women tell them there are none because of the plague. The men look at the reproductive technology and tell Janet that they have too much genetic damage and they must reproduce with them. Janet offers to take samples and the men refuse saying that’s not how it will be done. The longer they talk the more the women see them as primitive, and ape-like with the way they speak and how easily they insult the women and their way of life. Katy tries to shoot the man they’re speaking to but Janet stops her and then later regrets that since the men are promised to come in droves and their way of life will be ruined.
Chauncey Dumaguing
In the story, “When It Changed”, by Joanna Russ, takes place in a colony on a distant planet where the population is entirely female humans. The reason for this is that the male population of the colony was wiped out from a plague that didn’t affect women. In the aftermath, the women were able to figure out how to reproduce without the need of men and live their lives where the behaviors of both men and women are exhibited in the women population. The story focuses on Janet Evason, who has taken a male behavior since she has fought in duels. Further into the story, male astronauts arrive on the colony and are surprised to learn that it is an all-female society. The more the women talk with the men, the more they see them as nothing more than primitive due to the way they talk to all the women.
In class, we discussed further into feminist SF. One of the things that was talked about was the seven characteristics of feminist science fiction. Also, some authors of feminist SF we talked about are Diane Cook, Pamela Sargant, and even Joanna Russ, the author of the short story we read for the day. We even learned about Joanna Russ’s three themes within her writing.
It takes place on a human colony on another planet, called Whileaway. 30 generations earlier, a plague killed off all the men and the population now consists only of women, who have figured out how to combine eggs to produce offspring. It is a largely agricultural society, and the whole range of human behaviors exhibited by men and women on earth are now in evidence within the all-female society. For example, Janet has fought several duels, and girls love to hunt and have adventures. When astronauts from earth arrive, they are bemused by the all-female society, find it quaint, are sure that the women must be missing men, and that the society must be deficient in some way due to the lack of men. Janet doesn’t at first understand that she is being treated insultingly, and does not understand the men’s amusement. The men for their part leer at the women and look forward to having children with them. Janet’s wife tries to kill the men. Janet stops her, but then that night a part of her regrets doing so. She muses upon how things will change once the men are there. They told her that they now have equality between the sexes on earth, but she wonders how that can be true, given their casually condescending attitude toward the all-female society of Whileaway, and she fears how their contempt will influence her daughters.
In this class lecture, we continued on feminist SF and its seven characteristics of it. The seven characteristics are; 1. It explores patriarchal, matriarchal, and egalitarian social orders, 2. Construct alternative governmental and organizational systems, 3. Re-imagine gender roles, 4. Undermine the naturalized sex-gender relationship, 5. Posited varied means of reproduction, 6. Illustrate various sexuality, 7. Consider the ramification of both masculine science and feminist science.
“When It Changed”, written by Joanna Russ, lived from 1937 to 2011, is taken place on a planet called Whileaway. There has been centuries that have gone by and on this planet only women exist. On Whileaway, women have learned to live independent of me. The narrator Janet is a mechanic and her wife Katy is a farmer. They have a child through technological advances on their planet. Then men astronauts land on Whileaway planet because of the destruction of their planet. The men approach the couple and are confused by the relationship. They are quick to identify the gender roles of the couple. The men assuming the planet needs to be saved by men lead the conversation. Janet and Katy discuss the outcome of men on their planet and the future outcome on Whileaway. The fear of becoming second-class citizens again is argued.
As the reader even though I knew the writer was a feminist writer, I assumed in the beginning the stereotypical gender roles (assumed Janet was male). Joanna Russ by not quickly revealing Janet made a statement of the society we live in.
Diane Cook defines feminist science fiction as the articulation and awareness of women’s place in a political system and their connectedness to other women or which has a primary a feminist focus on women’s status. 7 characteristics of feminist science fiction is it explores patriarchal, matriarchal, and egalitarian social structures, construct alternative governmental and organizational systems, reimagined gender roles, undermine the naturalized the sex/ gender relationship, posit vary means of reproductive systems, illustrate various sexualities, and consider the ramifications of both masculine and feminist science.
“When It Changed” by Joanna Russ, takes place on a planet called Whileaway. This is a planet where, much like Wonder Woman and the Amazonians, women rule, or are the dominant figures on the planet, with no men. Janet and Katy are married, and have had a child through technological breakthroughs. Men land on Whileaway, after their planet had been destroyed. The men are confused at the change in gender roles, and are quick to think that men need to save Whileaway. This is a HUGE example of feministic writing, where the author shows how the men want to rule the planet to save it from the “inferior” women.
In class we spoke about Diane Cook, and her feminist SF. We also talked about Pamala Sargent, who also wrote feminist SF and fantasy. We spoke about the 7 characteristics of Feminist SF: 1. Explores patriarchal, matriarchal, and egalitarian orders 2. Alternate governmental and organizational systems 3. reimagine gender roles 4. undermine naturalized sex-gender relationship 5. posit varied means of reproduction 6. illustrate various sexualities 7. consider ramification of masculine science and feminist science. We also spoke of Joanna Russ, and the 3 theories of her work.
“When It Changed” is a short Science Fiction story by Joanna Russ. It begins with a woman, Janet explaining how thing went on Whileaway. A planet on which men died out long ago. There are children however. They are able to reproduce using a method called parthenogenesis. Things are pretty quiet on Whileaway, There are duels but nothing too heavy that calls for needing a serious military or arms training. Weapons are only used for hunting purposes basically. Everything seemed to be going well on this matriarchal planet, that is until the men showed up. After their planet was destroyed they returned to Whileaway and immediate try to reconstitute traditional gender roles. While they claim equality has been restored on Earth our main character doesn’t believe them. They don’t approve of how things are done on Whileaway such as reproduction via parthenogenesis and intend on taking over and setting things back to the way they used to be before the men died out. As the story ends we see Janet worrying that they won’t be able to stop the men and their firepower from taking control.
In the lecture we learned about the characteristics of feminist science fiction and also about Joanna Russ and her work in Science Fiction as well as the themes of her stories.
When it changed is a short story written by Joanna Russ about a human colony on the planet called whileaway where all the men have died off. Even though the society consists of all female they found a way to reproduce amongst themselves. Even though men have long since gone the women have adopted the same behaviors as the society before them of men and women. Many women in the society have adopted “male” behavior such as fighting duels, hunting, or going off on adventures. One day astronauts from earth arrive and are stunned by the all-female population. They think the women miss men and speak to them in an obvious condescending way. The stories protagonist Janet doesn’t really catch on right away; it was more obvious to her wife Katy who at one point tries to kill the men but is stopped by Janet. The astronauts tell them that male and females are equal on earth. The men also announce that they will inevitably come to the planet, Janet regrets stopping Katy from killing them. In the end Janet contemplates how their way of life will change with the arrival of men and remembers the planets old name created by the first generation of women on the planet, for a while. The name seemed to predict the future. In class we discussed seven characteristics of feminist sf such as re-imagined gender roles, illustrations of various sexualities, the ramifications of both female and masculine science, and the naturalized sex gender relationship.
Joanna Ross (1937 – 2011) “When it Changed” (1972)
For class we read Joanna Ross’s “When it changed” The story is told in the perspective of Janet Evason. Her Planet is called Whileaway and the society is completely female, the males having been wiped out centuries ago. The woman have figured out a method to reproduce without males. In the society the females encompass all part of life including the role that males once play. Some woman hunt, go on adventures and fight one another in duels. At some point the society encounter 2 male astronauts. The men slyly try to impart their point of view onto the society and are condescending towards to woman. and leaves the Janet worried about the future and how the society will fare once males are reintroduced.
Characteristics of her writing
Strong female and/or underrepresented persons
Uses EF troupes for satirical purpose.
Feminist science fiction can be traced as far back as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein. (1831). Feminist SF is SF that articulates an awareness of women’s place in a political system and their correctness to other woman, or which has a primary and feminist focus on women’s status.
7 characteristics of F. SF
Explores patriarchal, matriarchal and egalitarian social orders
Construct alternative government and organized systems
Reimagine gender roles
Undermine the naturalized gender sex relationship
Posit varied mens of reproduction
Illustrate various sexualities
Consider ramification of both masculine and feminist science
“When It Changed” was written by Joanna Russ in 1972. It is a story about a lost colony named Whileaway that finally reconnects with Earth. However not all inhabitants of the lost colony was happy about the first contact. The story is told from the perspective of Janet Evason. Here Janet Evason has a wife and a daughter as there are no males in this colony. The colony grows its population by a form of cloning using chromosomes from each parent. The males were all killed by a plague leaving only females. The technological level of the planet seems to be slightly pre-industrial as they have steam technology. Due to the lack of males, females took up roles of males such as farming and high speed driving. When Russian astronauts from Earth reestablishes contact, it is discovered that the astronauts are all male. Janet Evason was the translator as she is one of the few people that can speak Russian. The astronauts asked Janet Evason where all the males on the planet are. When they are told that there are no males, the astronauts becomes more aggressive. They suggest that Earth would use the society on Whileaway as a breeding ground as Earth was irradiated from conflict. Janet Evason excuses herself from this conversation when more translators and government officials come to conduct talks. Janet Evason reflects on the future of this society when males become the dominate force, and becomes concern for her wife and daughter. She remembers that the original name for Whileaway was Forawhile.
We learned of the 7 characteristics of feminist SF are: 1. It explores patriarchal, matriarchal, and egalitarian social orders, 2. Construct alternative governmental and organizational systems, 3. Re-imagine gender roles, 4. Undermine the naturalized sex-gender relationship, 5. Posited varied means of reproduction, 6. Illustrate various sexuality, 7. Consider the ramification of both masculine science and feminist science.
“When It Changed”, a story written by Joanna Russ, this story is about a planet call while- way which is composed of all women since all the man on the planet died. During the course of time women learned how to defend themselves and used technology to their advantage. One day a spaceship lands on their planet with men occupants Kate Jane wife feel threaten and and want to kill them since they can destroy everything they have so hard work for. When Kate try to kill one of the man jane stop her and then the old them they will return to which compromise everything they work hard for.
In class we discuss the 7 characteristic of feminist SF 1. Explores patriarchal, matriarchal, and egalitarian orders 2. Alternate governmental and organizational systems 3. reimagine gender roles 4. undermine naturalized sex-gender relationship 5. posit varied means of reproduction 6. illustrate various sexualities 7. consider ramification of masculine science and feminist science. We also spoke of Joanna Russ, and the 3 theories of her work.