When I recently came across a copy of Houston, Houston Do You Read? I had never heard of James Tiptree, Jr. This story, which resides somewhere between long short story and novella, won both Nebula and Hugo Awards, though, and that certainly snared my interest. In the end, though, I find myself much more interested in the author than the story - frankly, the story never really captured my imagination at all, and I'm having trouble understanding why it was such a big deal. It is a feminist story, and that is its primary claim to fame. As for myself, I saw some men behaving badly (what else is new?), but obviously I'm not close enough to the feminist wavelength to get a real charge out of what I read here.
In the story, three astronauts returning to Earth are stymied in their attempts to contact Mission Control in Houston; some women keep popping up on the frequency, and it takes a while for the startling truth to sink in: somehow, the three male astronauts have experienced a time slip and now find themselves a few hundred years in the future. They aren't that keen on being saved by a bunch of women (you know how men hate to ask a woman for directions), but it eventually becomes clear that they have no choice (unless they would prefer a slow, agonizing death in space). These women are a little different, though, and it soon becomes clear that they are hiding something. The truth is rather obvious, but it takes a while for the protagonist to figure things out - in the midst of a drug-induced haze, we flash back with him to earlier parts of the story and slowly put together the clues that make his situation, without question, unique.
James Tiptree, Jr., was famous for writing incredibly insightful gender-bending and feminist stories. A generally unsuspected truth about the author finally became public about the time this story was published, however. To the shock of basically everyone (including Robert Silverberg, who had recently gone out of his way to characterize the masculinity of Tiptree's writing), Tiptree (a former Army Air Corps major and retired CIA employee) turned out to be a woman named Alice Sheldon. Actually, Houston, Houston Do You Read? was published under the name Raccoona Sheldon (the use of two pen names was a handy means of getting two stories published in one collection). A general brouhaha ensued, robbing the author of much of her creative utility in the years to follow. In 1987, she was found dead alongside her husband; he had no desire to live since he became infirm, and she had no desire to live without him, so she killed him and then herself.
A sense of darkness and mystery seems to characterize Sheldon's fiction, and her writing was reportedly rather shocking for reading audiences in the early 1970s. Today, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award is given annually for the science fiction work that best explores the issue of gender, proving that the trail-blazing legacy of Alice Sheldon lives on. I wish I could say I really enjoyed this award-winning story, but it never really drew me in to its strange future world. Those with an interest in feminism, though, especially feminism in science fiction, should definitely check out the work of James Tiptree, Jr., and this famous story would certainly seem to be a good place to start.
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Top reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 February 2005Format: Mass Market Paperback
Top reviews from other countries
- RowanReviewed in the United States on 9 April 2012
Old Sci Fi
Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase - M. ThornburgReviewed in the United States on 19 February 2016
A revealing trip in time...
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase - Jessica R McKinleyReviewed in the United States on 1 May 2015
A Must Read!
Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase - ElizabethReviewed in the United States on 11 November 2015
This is a classic novella with wonderful twists and an ambiguous
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase - Nonato R. CrespoReviewed in the United States on 31 July 2017
Sad picture of Humanity
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
