From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

The Gate to Women's Country

Sheri S. Tepper

Why we're reading this: Tepper's finest novel to date is set in a post-holocaust feminist dystopia that offers only two political…more
[close] Tepper's finest novel to date is set in a post-holocaust feminist dystopia that offers only two political alternatives: a repressive polygamist sect that is slowly self-destructing through inbreeding and the matriarchal dictatorship called Women's Country. Here, in a desperate effort to prevent another world war, the women have segregated most men into closed military garrisons and have taken on themselves every other function of government, industry, agriculture, science and learning.

The resulting manifold responsibilities are seen through the life of Stavia, from a dreaming 10-year-old to maturity as doctor, mother and member of the Marthatown Women's Council. As in Tepper's Awakeners series books, the rigid social systems are tempered by the voices of individual experience and, here, by an imaginative reworking of The Trojan Woman that runs through the text. A rewarding and challenging novel that is to be valued for its provocative ideas.

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Oct 01, 2007 Christy rated it really liked it

Shelves: readinglist2-sf, feminism-and-gender-studies, utopian, dystopian, science-fiction-and-fantasy, dissertation, 20th-century-american-lit

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. On my second reading: I don't think I gave Tepper enough credit the first time I read this book.

The treatment of homosexuality still bothers me. Although, as one commenter has said, it could be argued that this is simply an authorial choice to make it easier for Tepper to explore the specific issues she wishes to focus on, it strikes me as too simplistic to simply say, "Oh, teh gay, we fixed that a while back," especially since the book is so much about questions of biology and essential nature ...more

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Sep 15, 2010 Zach rated it liked it

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, science-fiction, feminism-gender

The Gloria Steinem of second-wave-inspired post-apocalyptic novels of gender separation? (making Walk to the End of the World Shulamith Firestone, perhaps, and The Shore of Women... Simone de Beauvoir? I don't know, I haven't actually read those two yet) Anyway my point is that this is the sort-of-essentialist (but maybe not?) liberal feminist version of the story, wherein men and women are fundamentally different and need to be mostly kept separate for their own good, except for those "womanish The Gloria Steinem of second-wave-inspired post-apocalyptic novels of gender separation? (making Walk to the End of the World Shulamith Firestone, perhaps, and The Shore of Women... Simone de Beauvoir? I don't know, I haven't actually read those two yet) Anyway my point is that this is the sort-of-essentialist (but maybe not?) liberal feminist version of the story, wherein men and women are fundamentally different and need to be mostly kept separate for their own good, except for those "womanish" men who have opted out of the warrior lifestyle and live among the women (no, not gay men-homosexuality has been medically eliminated... I know, I know), and where women are just better suited to lead because of their biological drive to nurture.

Anyway 300 years after the "Convulsion" women live in towns while the male warriors are garrisoned outside of them, kept uneducated and without access to most tools or technology in order to prevent another war.* We explore this world through a Councilwoman's daughter, Stavia, whose main purpose appears to be making terrible choices in order to drive the narrative along. Not that there's that much narrative, anyway-this book is an exercise in social worldbuilding and little else. There's an "enemy" culture introduced like 2/3s of the way through to provide some conflict and a short adventure, but their whole episode feels rather tacked on, which is too bad, because if they had been developed from the beginning it would have strengthened the novel considerably.

I remain, I must confess, a little mystified as to whether Tepper was trying to reinforce or deconstruct this essentialist society-although much of that might be my own disdain for such ideas rendering it a little difficult for me to take this stuff seriously. I guess it didn't help that the society didn't really make any sense at all anyway.

* It must be noted too that a lot of negative reviews of this book on here center on Tepper's "unfair' characterization of men, which is great because A) turnabout is fair play, chumps, and B) these male characters are carbon copies of the heroes of most speculative novels. ...more

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Jun 27, 2008 Michele rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia-apocalypse, reread-regularly, makes-you-think, women_being_awesome

Tightly written, well crafted, this short but powerful novel poses all kinds of uncomfortable questions about gender, culture, and society. Much like Herland, it invites the reader to reconsider accepted truths and assumptions, and think about what might be possible if we moved beyond them. ...more

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May 11, 2011 Becky rated it it was amazing

This was the first Tepper book I read, many ago, and it is amazing. She's gone a bit over the edge in recent years (I've found her last few works almost unintelligible), but this is one anyone interested in feminist themes and/or a post-apocalyptic world shouldn't miss. ...more

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