Response: Herland
Nov. 19th, 2008 08:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhameiaI just finished reading Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
What a brilliant book. So ahead of its time. Shit, so ahead of OUR time.
It's a bit like reading Real Adult Sex, what with the beautifully feminist narrative in a male voice questioning masculinity values with that keen intellectual tone.
What a brilliant setting: a country of people who work together, in tandem, for self-improvement and the improvement of the community - for the higher education of the children to ensure they have the best start possible in life, and the happiest lives ahead of them. A country in which children are of paramount importance, and each child grows up with so many choices ahead of them to cheerfully work towards. A place where industry is happiness, and everything is so fluid, things change as soon as they are no longer practical. A world where women have forgotten how to fear and treat men as equals, loving men for who they are, rather than for what they can give. Where children set about live from their parents, not for, and in service to the next generation, not the generations gone before.
And yet inexplicably, a place where women long to see Fatherhood in place, equal with the greatness of Motherhood, and willing to accept males into their world to see that ideal realized, even if it takes forever.
What a curious book, especially if you take into consideration the following:
Gilman wrote the Yellow Wallpaper to depict how hard post-partum depression was on her. Granted, the motherhood wasn't the problem: the men were.
She gave up her daughter to the care of her ex-husband and his new wife (the three of them were great friends despite the divorce) so she could focus on social activism and STILL provide her daughter with the stability a child needs.
In a sense, Herland is like an extension of her action. And though it stigmatized her back then, why shouldn't it work now? We know the nuclear family isn't economically sustainable. We know educating children from young, stimulating their minds, by playing with them or reading with them, gives them the best possible start in life. We know that having extended family around enables them to have a great cushion in childhood.
And Herland covers that and so much more. I mean, one could see this gender-neutral nation as a nation of both men and women, once we give up notions of proprietry and ideals of marriage, division between the public and the private.
Shit, this novella was miles ahead of Victorian ideals, and frankly, it's still miles ahead of us. We got a lot of work to do, everybody.
What a brilliant book. So ahead of its time. Shit, so ahead of OUR time.
It's a bit like reading Real Adult Sex, what with the beautifully feminist narrative in a male voice questioning masculinity values with that keen intellectual tone.
What a brilliant setting: a country of people who work together, in tandem, for self-improvement and the improvement of the community - for the higher education of the children to ensure they have the best start possible in life, and the happiest lives ahead of them. A country in which children are of paramount importance, and each child grows up with so many choices ahead of them to cheerfully work towards. A place where industry is happiness, and everything is so fluid, things change as soon as they are no longer practical. A world where women have forgotten how to fear and treat men as equals, loving men for who they are, rather than for what they can give. Where children set about live from their parents, not for, and in service to the next generation, not the generations gone before.
And yet inexplicably, a place where women long to see Fatherhood in place, equal with the greatness of Motherhood, and willing to accept males into their world to see that ideal realized, even if it takes forever.
What a curious book, especially if you take into consideration the following:
Gilman wrote the Yellow Wallpaper to depict how hard post-partum depression was on her. Granted, the motherhood wasn't the problem: the men were.
She gave up her daughter to the care of her ex-husband and his new wife (the three of them were great friends despite the divorce) so she could focus on social activism and STILL provide her daughter with the stability a child needs.
In a sense, Herland is like an extension of her action. And though it stigmatized her back then, why shouldn't it work now? We know the nuclear family isn't economically sustainable. We know educating children from young, stimulating their minds, by playing with them or reading with them, gives them the best possible start in life. We know that having extended family around enables them to have a great cushion in childhood.
And Herland covers that and so much more. I mean, one could see this gender-neutral nation as a nation of both men and women, once we give up notions of proprietry and ideals of marriage, division between the public and the private.
Shit, this novella was miles ahead of Victorian ideals, and frankly, it's still miles ahead of us. We got a lot of work to do, everybody.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-20 09:24 am (UTC)YOU MADE ME LOOK AT HALF NAKED FIGLEAF
I had almost forgotten how much I'd like to shag him silly.
...Oh, er, you wrote a post around that. Right. yes. I haven't read "Herland" but will look it up at some point.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-20 04:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-20 05:28 pm (UTC)