Creating Gender in Linear and nonlinear texts
Body of Glass
| Body of Glass has some themes in common with Victory Gardens and Wasp Factory - violence, murder, war, gang culture and exploitation, but the narration and general tone of the book is strongly female, strongly life-affirming. | ||||
| Like Patchwork Girl it is about the construction of 'monsters', artificial warriors. | ||||
| The historic tale within a tale is the story of the creation of a Gollum in the Ghetto, a city within a city. | ||||
| The main story, that of Yod, a male cyborg, who is built by a man but programmed by two women. They included actual social interaction and sexual initiation. |
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He is capable of deadly force and enjoys the chance to kill in defense of the town, yet he is capable of great gentleness and is interested in being allowed to take part in the spiritual life of the community. This is not a masculine interpretation of cyborg.
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The violence and lawlessness in this novel is not random.
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It is a consequence of the economic and social structure within which it takes place. We see these mechanisms at work . |
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It is possible to consider the societies portrayed in terms of utopias and dystopias. The overall message is that it is not really ethical to make a cyborg to use as a weapon. It is a form of techno-slavery The conclusion is that it is ethical to enhance humans, who freely elect to be developed in this way. This seems to be a creative, 'feminine' solution. Women in the novel do use deadly force; but only when higher needs compel it.
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