WOMEN TRAVELING IN SPACE

Amazon and Goodread reviews by readers have become an important part of the current publishing experience. Every writer wants as many as possible, especially if they are positive and full of stars. But for some it’s a numbers game -- as many 3, 4 and 5 star reviews as possible, assuming that potential readers are only into the stars and numerology, and rarely read the actual reviews -- sort of like a Michelin Guide to Books. That, of course, has practical uses when it comes to selling the books you’ve written. And I am as interested in getting as many high numerical stars as any other writer. But what I really find useful is the engagement a good reader’s review offers. And I don’t mean good in the sense of 100% positive, but good if the review either confirms (or doesn’t) that you have communicated what you set out to communicate; that you gave the experience you set out to give. And I mean engage not so much with the readers one-on-one (although, as you will see below,that can happen) but rather engage the writer in thinking about, questioning, sometimes defending, and, on occasion, even understanding on a deeper level, his own work.  

I recently received a review on Goodreads that got me to engage with my novel, Traveling in Space, in a way I hadn’t before. 

The reviewer -- known only as Cheezstk, generally liked my novel, but wanted to know why -- well, I’ll let Cheezstk do the talking here:

This was an interesting take on the old alien encounter trope. Switching up old cliches can be interesting, and peering at humanity through an outsiders' point of view was entertaining. The take on the aliens, the Life, though nothing revolutionary, was well thought through and fairly clever.

The point, of course, is to have an "unbiased" critique of humanity. To look at humanity from an outsiders' point of view, so that it seems fresh and interesting. It's not quite as deadly serious as all that, however. The book has a light tone and is fairly fun throughout. This keeps it from being overly preachy, which might be a pitfall in this kind of story. I did like that some things were seen as amazingly positive, some as horrific, and some as just, well, alien. As would make sense. It did strike me, however, that it was odd that in all of the analysis of humanity that gender disparity is not mentioned once. 

The Life seem to have an egalitarian society in this regard; didn't they notice that humans have treated half of their population as "tenpercenters" throughout most of human history? It seemed like an odd omission.

Regardless, this was a clever book, a fun read, and a cute twist on alien contact. I'd recommend it.

After giving Cheezstk’s comments some thought, I felt compelled to address that matter, and communicate.  Via Goodreads, I sent this message:

Hello, Cheezstk --

I want to thank you for taking the time to leave a review of my novel, Traveling in Space, on its Goodreads page. I truly do appreciate it. You have a good and clear view of the book, and pointed out some of its strengths, which I’m happy to have revealed to potential readers. And, of course, it was very fair of you to question why the aliens did not note gender disparity among the Otherlife. For, indeed, they do not. Let me see if I can give an answer, and elaborate on another point you made.

The leader of the aliens -- known, as you know, as Our Leader -- made the assignments for the research his factfinders are sent out to conduct. And the assignments are pretty big -- find out the extent of the Otherlife’s collective knowledge of the universe; discover how they govern themselves; look into why the Otherlife seem to have so much hate for each other, expressed through violence and death; find out the details of love and marriage, a very strange phenomenon, indeed. And, because it was called to their attention with talk of angels, some data on this religion thing had to be gathered. No one was assigned to look into gender disparity. This is because, as you rightly point out, the aliens have a completely egalitarian society, so it wouldn’t occur to them to look for it, and, indeed, I don’t think the aliens would have recognized it if they saw it. And, unlike religion, it was not pointed out to them.  Gender disparity is a much more subtle creature than governance, collective knowledge, love and marriage, and war and genocide. Which does not mean it is any less of a force, just that, to an extreme outsider, it may not be easily perceived.

All that said, of course, I do believe Traveling in Space considers gender disparity. Not by putting a spotlight on it, but by “leading by example,” if I may use that term, by portraying, again as you pointed out, a society that has gender parity. Indeed, I think you might agree, that the hero of my novel is not Life Seeder (later Leif), the narrator, but She (later Sheila), who is a great sportsperson, a pleasurepal, later the assistant leader of the lifeship, and eventually the leader. But, most important, she has the instincts to know, in regard to the birth gamble and the potential of life seeding, that if they were to seed themselves on a new planet, they will have to adapt to changing conditions -- the mark of true maturity. And she saves the day at the climax, by ending a war in an intelligent and clever way, without further violence and death, to bring an end to hate and bloodshed. The secondary hero, of course, is the 98 year-old Otherlife, Margaret Cleveland, who represents the hope that the Otherlife -- us -- will find that same maturity in themselves.  It was my hope that by showing these women as smart, naturally sexy (which I assume Margaret was in her day), dedicated, and tough, I put at the forefront the simple idea that if there is not gender parity, then who knows what talent, what intelligence, what capacity for growth for the whole of the species, is being squandered.

I hope this at least partly satisfies your pertinent and important question. Again, I thank you for reading Traveling in Space and taking the time to post the review. And, by doing so, allowing me to elaborate on something that I think concerns us both.

Warm regards,

Steven

Cheeztick’s response:

Wow.

You know, when you go sharing opinions about fiction on the internet, you don't usually expect to hear back from the creator. What a nice surprise. :-)

Anyway, that's a reasonably good in-story answer to my concerns, and it's clear you've given the issue some consideration. Thanks for your reply, Steven, and for creating an enjoyable book. Hope to see more from you in the future!

There may be some spoilers above, and unless you have read Traveling in Space, you may not get all the references. But that’s okay, I thought it was worth sharing for a number of reasons. I hope you agree. Plus, of course, you are all more that welcome to read (or listen) to Traveling in Space. Go ahead -- I encourage it. Join the conversation.

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