AUDIO

MIDTERMS

I am in the process of returning your midterms, and am now working on the “late” papers. You may rewrite the midterm if you are dissatisfied with it. But please take the advice of an old teacher: If you’re going to rewrite, do it soon. Also let me know that you will rewrite so that I can plan my time. I will be glad to answer any questions you have about the papers.

Generally speaking, in your papers, I saw three overall problems, each involving a need for greater accuracy, which is supposed to be the "flaw "of your generation. There are different types of accuracies : (1) being sure of the details of the stories you are writing about; (2) supporting your points with evidence from the text – direct quotation; (3) being careful about sentence punctuation, word forms, and all those “little” things that build credibility in a writer. That being said, many of your papers were excellent, and I have enjoyed and am enjoying reading them all.

GODDESSES by Linda Nagata

It is sometimes frightening to imagine what trials await the human race: whether hardwired male aggressive tendencies will end life on earth or whether the future holds any hope for change. Many women writers have turned to speculative fiction, a genre that departs from the conventions of literary “realism,” that is—strict adherence to what actually exists now-- in order to explore ideas about the present and the future.

Linda Nagata has a background in and knowledge of science. When she writes about PCE, for instance, she knows what she’s talking about. Bioremediation processes exist, even now. Whether they are actually being used on a large scale is another story, but they are being developed and hold out some hope for a future that otherwise may be disastrous.

Technically, the writer of “hard” or technologically-based speculative fiction is faced with a dilemma, how to work the hard science into the story without digressing from the action, as when we have just been introduced to Cody and we are told:

“PCE was a common –- and carcinogenic — industrial chemical. For many years it was believed that no microbe could break it down to harmless components. Then, in 1997, researchers unveiled a new bacterium found in the sludge of an abandoned sewage plant that could do just that. Genetic tailoring modified the strain to work in dry land environments, and since then thousands of polluted sites had been restored” (2).

This is a momentary and perhaps annoying break in the narrative. With this kind of technologically-driven fiction there is always a problem of how to convey information. Often the writer must halt the action in order to inform, to give a brief history of some aspect of technology so that the reader will be up to speed. That is part of the nature of the genre and that’s what happens throughout “Goddesses.”

Nagata, however, also considers the psychological well-springs of her characters as well as their relation to their cultures.

The Future
Her prize-winning novella “Goddesses” (2000) is set around the year 2030, the time period when experts believe the world population will be at 8 billion. The only other dates referred to are 1997and 2009, and they are in the past. Michael is, in the present time of the book, in his early thirties, and Cody’s childhood in Victoria Glen could well be in our present.

In the future world Nagata creates, computer technology has continued to advance as we know immediately from the first page where Michael sits by Jaya’s bedside as she is about to give birth andthey can hear the voice of her husband Sheo “speaking from the beige picture frame of the open portal, sitting on the rickety metal table at the head of the bed. It was a voice-only connection, so the portal's screen displayed a generic sequence of abstract art.” The technological innovations are numerous – the talking house (This exists now though economically out of reach for most of us.), the little drone airplanes, the instantaneous communications, and the use of technology to remedy human-caused problems.

It is truly one world, where people travel easily across continents and far-flung friends communicate through virtual terraces, where race no longer seems to matter. We learn much later in the novella that Michael is of mixed-race ancestry and we are never sure of Cody’s race. Sexism too, at first, seems to have vanished, as Michael and Jaya are friends and equals. It is only in the midwife’s disappointment in the birth of a female child that we first realize equality is not complete.

Human beings are taking steps to save the world from the negative effects of the past – both chemical and cultural oppression, neatly intertwined. Cody is proud to have kicked down the mental wall “that said kids from bad neighborhoods couldn’t make it in life. Or the one that said technology must eventually lead to apocalypse, whether through war, engineered disease, over population or pollution”( 2).

Major Ideas

The work seems at times to be in contradiction to some of our treasured beliefs:change is dangerous, corporations are evil, cultural traditions must be upheld, technology is destroying the human capacity for interaction.

The major theme is obvious: change is inevitable, and it poses not so much a danger as a hope. At the beginning of the novella as he holds Jaya’s hand “Michael Fielding felt chaos rise quietly through the world. Like the gentle flood of an untamed river, it seeped into his life, dissolving the past, laying down the mud that would grow the future”(1). Over- population — the result of thegenetic, though by now counter-productive, mandate to have as many children as possible -- is here; now we must deal with it rather than wallowing in nostalgia over memories of a life that can never be the same. “Already the land, the climate, and even the ecology of the oceans had been transformed by human activity. …Every disaster outside of seismic instability would…fall squarely at the feet of technology” ( 6). We are, Michael knows, “a river flooding the world. Inevitably remaking it” ( 1).

The biggest hindrance to this remaking of the world in a safe way, Michael sees as past traditions, particularly fundamentalist beliefs:

“The brand of fundamentalism didn't matter, and it didn't even need a religious affiliation. ….Fundamentalism was so frightening because it taught the mind to not think. Such belief systems cramped people's horizons, sabotaging rational thought while virulently opposing all competitive ideas “ (10).

But even here there is cause for optimism. Michael sees the acceptance of the babyjack by the fundamentalist enclave of Four Villages as –eventually--a good sign: “The sex selection implant was an aspect of modernity that had worked its way inside the fundamentalist quarter. It was a breach in the walls that must ultimately bring them tumbling down”(10).

Reflecting on the future of humanity, Cody muses: “Contamination had been rampant in this land too, but it had been chased away, broken down in a series of simple steps by microorganisms too small to be seen. The scars of the past were being erased” (11).

Similarly, the three main characters must each deal with the pull of the past on their lives. Michael’s cultural beliefs that families provide care and ability will be rewarded interfere with his present circumstances where he cannot see the danger Rajban is in from her “family.” Ms. Muthaye sets him straight toward the end of the book: “You are a kind person, Michael, and obviously you've done well in life. It's only natural that you believe opportunity is omnipresent, that we all rise or sink according to our talents and our drive—but the world is more complex than that “ (10).

Cody learns that the loss of her baby was not through her own carelessness at a work site, but lay in her childhood exposure to contaminants. She too must overcome her past in Victoria Glen, the subsequent loss of her child, and move on. She only does this when she deprograms the babyjack so that she can conceive a baby of either gender; in this way she lets go of her attempt to recreate the past in the person of the baby girl she lost.

Rajban must and does muster enough courage to leave her oppressive situation with her family and by the end of the book is well on her way to a successful microeconomic venture with her “magic” soil, even though it was initially scorned by the well-meaning women wishing to help her.

Culture vs Free Will
Another area of controversy is the clash of cultures. This dilemma is obvious in Michael’s ambivalence about Rajban. He does not want to be responsible for her and fears even his housekeeper’s criticism. When Rajban leaves with her brother in law, he does not forcibly constrain her. He is chided for this by his ex-wife Cody and Ms Muthaye, who tells him that culture is more powerful than free will: “[Rajban] knows that she lives at the sufferance [permission] of her husband's family. Obedience and acceptance have been drilled into her from babyhood. To expect her to freely decide to defy her brother-in-law would be like expecting a drug addict to freely decide to stay sober at a crack party. There is no difference.” But Rajban is freer than Ms. Muthaye realizes.

The story opts, ultimately, for the ability of individuals to be other than the sum or their environmental constraints. If Michael had not let Rajban go, she would never have had the opportunity to come to the realization on her own: when she does leave, it is her own free choice as it is Cody’s choice to turn off the babyjack and to return to Michael.

Multinational Corporations
We have, to say the least, mixed feelings toward multinationals. We tend to see them as evil power-hungry entities, ignoring the needs of individuals in their lust for profits. And there is reason that we feel this way. But who will do the jobs that need to be done to save the planet? Can government do a better job? Government’s past record is not promising. In “Goddesses” the government is clearly subservient to the multinational: “Global Shear was responsible for developing infrastructure, overseeing environmental restoration, encouraging private credit, and enhancing agricultural extension service [….] they were also the tax collector.”(2) This is conventional in a lot of future fiction and visible in its embryo stages today in, say, the inept governmental response to Hurricane Katrina or the fact that corporations are becoming increasingly involved in education -- Etsuko in “Goddesses” works in corporate-sponsored online education (1).

Before condemning Global Shear, I think it’s important to look carefully at what Nagata is saying: the world is overpopulated already and will become more so (barring nuclear warfare and other forms of environmental destruction). Meanwhile, the leaching of poisonous materials into the soil and water continues and will render large parts of the planet unlivable unless remedies are found. Will these remedies come from government bureaucracies? Nagata is implying that they will not.

Technology and Privacy
Another touchy issue is privacy. “What did privacy mean anymore?” Cody thinks to herself (10). The technology in “Goddesses” is intrusive to say the least. Privacy in the sense that we have it today (such as it is) is obsolete. In Nagata’s world, fortunately, the intrusion is used for good, not evil. Rajban is saved by intrusion. Michael’s friends in the Terrace are with him whenever he wants, to advise and aid him, though they are scattered over the world. The hopelessly self-seeking fundamentalist Gharia, the last time we see him, is screaming at the little airplane which easily evades him. "The plane shot out of reach, and Gharia became a little man” (10). His privacy has been invaded and he is literally dwarfed by technology.

Women
This is a work filled with moral complexities about reproductive issues: the uterine implant, the “Babyjack” being a prime example. In our time, to find out the sex of a child in advance is already possible and already a problem in countries like India where one sex is preferable. Even now, in China, where women are also seen as liabilities, couples abandon girl babies or use ultra sound to determine their gender, subsequently aborting females. In the novella the babyjack gives women even more direct control over the gender of their child, and the decline of the adult female population is causing a scarcity of wives for young men, as seen in Michael’s conversation with Kanwal and his friends.

It is from this conversation that the title of the book comes. When Michael lectures Kanwal on proper attitudes toward women, Kanwal says: "Oh yes ….They are goddesses" (6).

In turn, Rao, Rajban’s fundamentalist brother-in-law, lectures Michael: “You are a foreigner, and your modern culture holds little respect for a woman's dignity. . . A widow should be given respect!" (9)

But statements like these are contradicted by the characters who make them; just previously, Kanwal says, justifying his father’s choice to have only sons, “My old man wanted to get ahead, not raise a servant for another man's family’’ (6) .And Rao follows his proclamation with its opposite: “Sometimes, though, a woman will not have respect. The immorality of the world infected this woman. Carnal desire drove her into the street "(9).

This hypocrisy is not unusual. In many cultures women are extravagantly praised as women in the nineteenth century were “the angel in the house,” a concept belied by the subtext of oppression.

The status of women is being changed in India by projects such as Ms Muthaye’s Southern Banking Association.The presumption here is that economic equality is essential. As long as women are economically dependent there can be no social equality. Nagata tells us that “Microeconomics had begun in Bangladesh, where a few hundred dollars loaned to a circle of impoverished women could seed a microenterprise that might eventually grow into a thriving business.” (See also “The Micro-Finance Promise.")

This may not be the grand solution we prefer where inequality is swept away overnight along with capitalism, multinationals, corrupt governments, and estranging technologies, but it is realistic. Perhaps it is only through efforts such as these that any change can occur.

Conclusion
As Michael faces his boss Karen at the end of the book, he thinks to himself:

“Four Villages was a microcosm of the world and it faced formidable problems—poverty, overpopulation, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and, perhaps worst of all, the poison of old ideas—but none of these challenges was insurmountable. Michael swore it to himself. Nothing was insurmountable. Terrible mistakes would be made, that was inevitable, but the worst mistake would be to pull back, to give up, to give in to the dead past”(11).

In true corporate disregard for the individual, Karen, Michael’s boss, is angry at him for considering the welfare of a single human being, a “damsel in distress,” and possibly endangering the goals of the corporation. Michael tells her that women like Rajban are part of the economy. “Everyone matters and you know it. The more inclusive the system is, the more we all benefit" (11). In this is hope for a future of enlightened multinationals doing a job that government, mired down by bureaucracy and outmoded thinking, can no longer do.

“Goddesses” finally is a novel of great hope.