Good morning!
I wish everyone felt as well as I do right now. And it also happens to be a lovely day.
In our present political climate, the sci-fi books that came out of the McCarthy era are getting another rotation, in particular, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. This past weekend, I was listening to a story on NPR that discussed the various adaptations of this novel, and the segment also included an interview of a high school teacher who was casting students for the play. His students impressed him with their thoughtfulness, and one of the students who wanted to play Captain Beatty was a girl. Tjos teacher's first reaction was...but that's a male character...WAIT.
Stop right there--I am motivated to reread this book. But this reminded me, yet again, that as prescient as so many sci-fi writers were about technology and social concerns, they all had a blind spot. I suspect this male teacher caught himself pretty quickly; in 2018, the fire captain can certainly be a woman! This young woman had specific reasons for wanting to play that part, and I enjoyed hearing her reading.
Even Philip Dick, the big idea man, the brain behind some of the best science fiction around, wrote some stories that make me want to smack him. Posthumously.
Okay, random mini-rant over, I'd better get clean and packed for work...
Whatchaupto?
I'm so happy that you're feeling well! I'm much better, but I have plague residue.
ReplyDeleteYesterday was indeed lovely, and I got out and about. Bonus.
You are so correct that writers of the past didn't foresee women in important roles. But then, as far as women have come, we still don't occupy the most important roles. And when we do manage to get a visible role, we're judged on what we wear and how we look.
I'm up to trying not to catch anything else so that I can finally get my heart tests done.