Top tags: science fiction, fiction, asimov, scifi, isaac asimov (all tags)
“The book was a fun-time to read but the chapter "The Gods themselves" was a bit boring. Asimov described the daily life of the para-men in too much detail, probably to let us get the proper hold of those characters and their universe. And the moment when Odeen, Tritt and Dua realize that THEY are Estwald was really nice.But i could not understand a few things. The Pump actually violates the basic conservation laws of mass and charge. So the very foundation of physics might hve been shaken. I understand that this was fiction but still he should have included some "theory" to explain that.But the book was a bit slow but worth reading...”
“Asimov's choice of genders for the Soft Ones?Asimov was obviously using the Soft Ones to explore sexual taboos, sexuality, gender roles, and the concept of gender itself. I find his choices for the genders resoundingly odd, however, and wonder what kind of point he was trying to make about gender roles.The aliens could have been referred to as "it", or they could have been given a male or female pronoun randomly, but instead, each of the three Soft-One genders is assigned the pronoun "he" or "she."The Rational, a.k.a. Left, member of the triad was male, and this makes perfect sense in terms of reproductive sex, because the Left contributes the "seed." It also makes sense in terms of stereotypical gender roles, which cast logical thinking more of a male trait than a female trait.The Emotional, a.k.a. Middle, was given the female gender. The Middle's role in reproduction was to facilitate the process, which I think has little bearing on biological gender. However, the Middle's role as the Emotional clearly makes it stereotypically female, and the Middles are characterized as having stereotypically female traits, flirtatiousness, flightiness, etc.The one that stumps me is the Right, or Parental member of the triad, which is referred to as "he." Wouldn't the logical pronoun be "she?" The Parental is the one that receives the seed and bears young, making it the closest biological analog to the terrestrial female. The Parental also rears children, a stereotypical female role.Is this supposed to be the exception that brings to light the arbitrary nature of human notions of gender and sexuality? In other words, was making the Right's gender male just a rejection of the "obvious" choice? If so, then why not make the Left female or the Middle male?There is a lovely moment when the young Parental, Tritt, wants to experiment sexually with Odeen. Was assigning the pronoun "he" to the Parental gender just a set-up for this provocative "homosexual" encounter, intended to challenge the reader's notion of sexuality?Or maybe Asimov decided each one with the flip of a coin. What do you think?”