Venus Plus X in The Evolution of Science Fiction

From the Bookshelf of The Evolution of Science Fiction…

Venus Plus X

Theodore Sturgeon

Start date: July 1, 2021

Finish date: July 31, 2021

Discussion: Group Reads 2021

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Group Reads 2021

* Dec 2021 BotM - "The City and the Stars" by Arthur C. Clarke
By Jim · 45 posts · 48 views

last updated Dec 29, 2021 04:49PM

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* What this folder is for & Nomination Rules
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last updated Dec 01, 2020 04:35AM

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What Members Thought

Mar 18, 2021 Jim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: scifi, 1audio, 2fiction

Published in 1960, I found this a far better look at gender fluidity & sexism than The Left Hand of Darkness which was published almost a decade later & gets all the love. Sturgeon contrasts the height of the 1950s "Father Knows Best" against something resembling a utopia where the inhabitants are truly androgynous. Even better, he tosses in some rather subtle, discordant notes that kept me on my toes. (view spoiler) ...more

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Jun 10, 2021 RJ - Slayer of Trolls rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This 160-page science-fiction novel is really more of an meditation on social attitudes and gender identities as well as a philosophical exploration of how a future genderless society might work. Like many other SF books of the era, the exposition is lengthy and, frankly, quite dull as the vast majority of the plot is devoted to explaining the society of "Ledom," how it functions and how different it is from men and women of the "modern era" (approximately 1960, when the novel was first publishe ...more

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Jul 07, 2021 Oleksandr Zholud rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is a SF that questions gender roles, written in 1960. It was nominated for Hugo best novel in 1961 but lost to A Canticle for Leibowitz. I read is as a part of monthly reading for July 2021 at The Evolution of Science Fiction group.

The story starts with the protagonist, Charlie Johns, waking up in some strange place with no memory of how he got there and why, but overwhelmed my remembering women he loved or liked, from his school teacher to his bride. He is approached by an anthropomorphic This is a SF that questions gender roles, written in 1960. It was nominated for Hugo best novel in 1961 but lost to A Canticle for Leibowitz. I read is as a part of monthly reading for July 2021 at The Evolution of Science Fiction group.

The story starts with the protagonist, Charlie Johns, waking up in some strange place with no memory of how he got there and why, but overwhelmed my remembering women he loved or liked, from his school teacher to his bride. He is approached by an anthropomorphic being, whom he has problem to definitely place as a male of female. His story is interrupted from time to time with short pieces about several couples from Johns鈥� period Earth or its near future, where gender roles of the 50s are questioned e.g. with a man nursing his baby or discussing where to buy underwear 鈥楲ike a bikini only less. Knit.鈥�

As story goes on, readers discover that anthropomorphic beings are in our future and they are both sexes in one, so conflicts based on e.g. patriarchy are absent here. Moreover, their true love is when 鈥榓 Ledom and his mate mutually conceive, and each bears twins鈥�. There is also some wonderful tech that makes life easier and a new form of religion, which deifies children.

The novel is definitely an important step in discussing gender in SF. While in details our present is sometimes further away than the wildest dreams of 50s SF authors, he seen the destination quite well. And, as the narrator notes, 鈥楬e remembered reading an ad in a magazine listing ten quite common items on a shopping list, aluminum foil, an anti-biotic ointment, milk in cartons, and the like, and pointing out that not a single one of these things could be had twenty years ago. 鈥� Maybe he was as funny as the West Indian lady on the escalator, but he shouldn鈥檛 overlook the fact that her first escalator, strange as it was to her, wasn鈥檛 even a product of her future.鈥�

The downside of the later part of the book is that the author starts to preach his ideas about how gender issues of his times are bad, for this sound quite out of date.
...more

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Nov 07, 2015 Timtam rated it it was amazing

So, one problem I have with the comments is when people say that Ledom is a utopia. It was not created to be "the perfect place" it is a preservation for humanity. But, to talk about the book itself, wish.

I don't think it's bad that "nothing happens" until the end, you are walking through a learning experience of a society made by someone who obviously didn't think too highly of the way things were being done.

I think the way religion is portrayed in this book is how religion should be looked at ...more

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