Customer Reviews

Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Beyond

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Marleen S. Barr decided that she was going to be a reviewer for what was important to her and not what was important to her academic career -- would that more of us made that decision. The result of over a decade of her reviewing this important work, feminist science fiction and feminist fiction in general, is presented in this one volume of thirteen of her essays. For Barr feminist fiction challenges the patriarchy, it speaks the truth through exaggeration, and it pushes for change. And while most men can only manage to write antipatriarchical ficion, some can indeed become male feminists just as not all women can be feminists. While I do not agree with her that we need a new category, which she calls fabulation, to replace other genre, I did find a lot of her commentary to be strong and well-reasoned. If you like literature criticism or need suggestions for good feminist or antipatriarchical work, this collection is well worth your time.

Barr's collection of reviews is as sharp in its writing style as it is venomous against patriarchy. Her creation of "Feminist Fabulation" as a new literary category is clever and perhaps necessary to distinguish a sub-genre but threatens to further marginalize feminist science fiction to the most outer orbit of fiction's solar system. A more synthetic approach might have served as a better vehicle for launching a new literary genre.

I assigned the book for a graduate course in "The Future of Law: Science Fiction and Legal Fiction". Students, mostly women, were not receptive to the book or its ideas finding them too extreme in attacking males even within the context of discussions of cyborg sexuality and other fantastic ideas such as futuristic sex role reversal and males bearing children. Although the book did not meet the needs of this class, it is insightful as a work in the feminist genre and might indeed have a place in another curriculum.