Cozette’s Corner, LMST 345 Fall 2020

 My reaction to this story is that it is somehow familiar. Not in the way that Butler stole from someone else her idea, or that this story has been rewritten ad nauseum. I mean it in that Gan's story is something that is very familiar to the average consumer of period romance, and maybe even at some level, the female-hindbrain. This is an arranged marriage between Gan and T'Gatoi, something that was practiced for a majority of human history, across culture and era. T'Gatoi being a literal alien isn't even that strange in this context - humans use that word to describe 'foreigners' after all, and cross culture marriage for the consolidation of power and resources was an extremely prevalent reason for arranged marriages.  Gan's equivocation over accepting T'Gatoi before ultimately accepting is interesting to me. He doesn't care as much as he thinks he does about becoming T'Gatoi's 'bride,' but he is afraid of hosting her young. He's...

Some of the moments in Herland  are absolutely hilarious - the boys being asked if virgin is a word applied to men as well is a double standard that still rings true to this day. But Gilman, though visionary, is very much a product of her time, and her 'utopia' reflects that. For starters, that's not actually a utopia - its a monoculture, much like Japan. Everything is homogenous and stable, with no member thereof actually acting under her own agency; it's a fragile culture, where everyone only acts to the benefits of society as a whole and not for themselves. There is no 'individual,' which obviously comes from Gilman's infatuation with socialism as a concept, and her disillusionment with the gender roles of her time. That's fine and all, but not the solution example she actually thinks it is.  Sometimes when fighting for survival, you're no longer fighting for a right to live but other people who just want to make ends meet. Other people who strugg...