While reading He, She and It I immediately thought of Tasha and Data from Star Trek: TNG. Shira and Yod and Tasha and Data had similar relationships. Yod is just like Data in the aspect of wanting to become human and being an artificially created. Yod eventually "dies" making him more human depending on your train of thought.
I can't help but sympathize with Shira. She remains me of someone I know, personality and relationship wise. Gadi himself seems to be reflective of the social construct of men today. The emphasis on sex, be it man or machine, has made me understand that men are pigs. It irritates me as a woman for there to be heavy emphasis on sex in the novel and in society today.
I also thought it was interesting that when I was talking to Scott about at Gamers' Club this past week about the book. He told me he related more to the novel from the perspective of the golem and not the characters. I found the parts focused on the golem rather confusing and dry. Perhaps you're sex/outlook on life influences the way the book is interpreted more so than the other books we have read thus far.
Also, I don't feel like Yod is a cyborg in the classically defined way. Yes he has biological parts, but when I hear cyborg I immediately think of the Borg in Star Trek. Starting from organic components then added mechanical attachments.
Now, if we only had our own version of the Wired.
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3 comments:
I am not sure how a bunch of fictional characters have made you come to believe men are pigs, but I am a little offended. Any emphasis on sex in the novel should be blamed on Piercy--a woman.
I have plenty of beef with Shira as well. But at the same time when you look at it Gadi and Shira are similar in their sexual relationships. However, looking at both of them Shira will be seen as the "immoral" one. Look at society today, men have there own little competitions to see who can sleep with the most women. When a woman does that she's labeled a whore. And I actually think Shira is a little too loose for my taste. The book itself hasn't made me come to the "men are pigs" conclusion but that was one of the first things I thought about when reading about characters like Gadi.
Society today? Methinks you read your own meaning right into the book. The only slutty character in the whole novel, really, is Gadi. By your argument, his sexual exploits would be prized because he's a man. Despite his gender, Gadi's not exactly heralded for sleeping with everything in sight. Shira is certainly seen as the moral one and Gadi is immoral and absurdly hedonistic.
You've created a dichotomous argument whose only solution is that everybody stays completely sexually repressed forever, Puritan-style. That doesn't particularly appeal to most people, I don't think.
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