Heinlein, Podkayne of Mars

[timeripple]

I would just like to state, for the record, that this book gives me the SCREAMING HEEBIE-JEEBIES OF RAGE.

Comments

[timeripple.livejournal.com]

The female protagonist and diary-style narrator, circa 1962. She's a total ditz, actually IS as dumb as her bratty little evil genius brother says she is, rethinks her dream of becoming a spaceship captain in favor of a career with BABIES BABIES BABIES because convincing people she's capable might be too hard, and doesn't even get to narrate her final chapter because she's almost dead after going back to an about-to-be-time-bombed building to rescue... yup, an alien baby.

There are certain ways in which the text problematizes her baby obsession (she almost gets killed because of it, so obviously there's a downside), but there's an overwhelming amount of BABIES ARE AWESOME AND ONLY WOMEN CAN LOOK AFTER THEM PROPERLY, IT IS THEIR ULTIMATE AND ONLY HONOR IN LIFE. Even on Mars.

Because God forbid that the future have, you know, gender equality or anything.

I'm trying to look at it as an interesting product of its time, but it's hard when all I can hear are my own shrieks of rage. If Podkayne is Heinlein's "most remarkable heroine" like the back cover says, I don't want to see any of his other ones. What I really want is some Bujold as an antidote, and I want it NOW.

[satakieli.livejournal.com]

Oh, boy, now I remember. Gah. I'm sorry. Yes, I also read an edition with "most remarkable heroine" on the cover, and had the same stabbity reaction.

He writes very engagingly, but writes women TERRIBLY. ALL THE TIME. And I mean all, because I've read every novel he's ever written except J.O.B., and most of his short stories. (What can I say? I was 13.) The only two exceptions for me were Hazel Stone in The Rolling Stones and Friday, in Friday, though for the latter your mileage may vary all over the place, as it has some of the same awfulness, but by the time it shows up it felt to me that it had been earned (the character has idiosyncratic non-gender-based reasons to feel that way). That's always provided you can make it past the first or second (I think) chapter, which can also be rage-inducing.

(edited to fix typo)

[timeripple.livejournal.com]

GAHHH. Well, I'll keep those two in mind in the event that I ever decide to read Heinlein again.