Comments on: Top Five All-Male Utopias/Dystopias http://everseradio.com/top-five-all-male-utopiasdystopias/ Poetry Reviews, Opinions, Pop Culture | Ernest Hilbert Video, Audio, Blog Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:45:12 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Ernie http://everseradio.com/top-five-all-male-utopiasdystopias/comment-page-1/#comment-233661 Ernie Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:26:56 +0000 http://everseradio.com/?p=6328#comment-233661 Thank you for your thoughtful comment on the list. We have a list of top five all-woman utopias coming up today on E-Verse. Bethany, one of my staff writers, created the basic list, but I had to add at least two obvious additions as alternates. Thank you for your thoughtful comment on the list. We have a list of top five all-woman utopias coming up today on E-Verse. Bethany, one of my staff writers, created the basic list, but I had to add at least two obvious additions as alternates.

]]> By: Hudson Owen http://everseradio.com/top-five-all-male-utopiasdystopias/comment-page-1/#comment-233508 Hudson Owen Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:10:19 +0000 http://everseradio.com/?p=6328#comment-233508 I was unaware that sf is "littered" with all-female societies, presumably written by all-female authors. Even if this is so, it is an aberration of the female imagination. It is much more characteristic of women to write about a world in which it is difficult, though not impossible, to raise children, and not only female children. Men, on the other hand, frequently write about all- or near-all male societies. So contrary to the blurb above, there are many such all-male creations. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom is one of them. I read the book and saw the movie Lawrence of Arabia, and was struck by the fact that there were no real female characters in the story. Men know all too well the rigors and historical frequency of strong male societies, be it in war or exploration. Maybe such societies are on the wane in our gentrified, diversified age. Maybe not. In any event, men who are prisoners in such historical worlds imagine kinder, gentler fictional societies where love, marriage and family are possible, though perhaps not without irony and struggle. That would be true to the male imagination. I was unaware that sf is “littered” with all-female societies, presumably written by all-female authors. Even if this is so, it is an aberration of the female imagination. It is much more characteristic of women to write about a world in which it is difficult, though not impossible, to raise children, and not only female children.

Men, on the other hand, frequently write about all- or near-all male societies. So contrary to the blurb above, there are many such all-male creations. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom is one of them. I read the book and saw the movie Lawrence of Arabia, and was struck by the fact that there were no real female characters in the story.

Men know all too well the rigors and historical frequency of strong male societies, be it in war or exploration. Maybe such societies are on the wane in our gentrified, diversified age. Maybe not. In any event, men who are prisoners in such historical worlds imagine kinder, gentler fictional societies where love, marriage and family are possible, though perhaps not without irony and struggle. That would be true to the male imagination.

]]>