He She and It, Reading Questions

We will be meeting on Minerva Island at 11am PDT on Sunday, July 6.

We will conduct meetings in text chat, unless all members of the group agree otherwise. The format of the reading group is up to the members. To start us off, I have posted some reading questions below, but there's no need to feel restricted to them. I also recommend Kay Fowler's list of questions from her 2005 course in Science Fiction at Ramapo College.


Reviews of this novel: http://www.margepiercy.com/main-pages/reviews.htm#12

QUESTIONS:

1. The novel tells two stories. One story begins in renaissance Prague, and the other begins fifty years from now. Simply put, what are the two stories about? How do they connect?

2. Compare Joseph and Yod.

3. The novel uses a rich background of Jewish culture and traditions. Why is this cultural content important for the meaning of the novel?

4. What is the role of corporate hierarchy in the novel?

5. Is there a gender hierarchy within the novel?

6. The nature/human hierarchy of the novel shows an Earth that has been sacrificed to human greed and competition. Although environmental destruction is a common theme in science fiction, is Piercy using it here to make a particular point about humans and nature? Can you think of examples?

7. As an avatar, can you easily visualize Shira's battles in cyberspace? If your human half had read this novel when it first came out in 1991, do you think he/she would have seen it differently? Are there characteristics of a virtual world that don't appear in the novel?

8. As a human, what augmentation have you undergone? Are all the life choices you make completely free, or are you "programmed" by your society?

9. Can we classify all of the following characters as human?

Yod - although a robot, he has emotions, judgment, and the ability to choose.
Shira - she is augmented, controlled by a hierarchy, and translates herself into cyberspace. As someone who was conceived after the death of her own father, is her "human" status in question?
Nili - She is well adjusted to her natural environment. Does this make her more "natural?"

10. What other examples of the "posthuman" can you see in Piercy's novel?

11. What does "Tikvah" mean? What does it mean for the novel?



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Here's a useful timeline taken from Kay Fowler's reading notes:

1543 Jews of Prague exiled
1599/1600 Time at the opening of the Joseph (Golem story)
1946 77,3987 Jews died in camps. Malkah's mother born in Cleveland, Ohio.
1987 Malkah born
2008 Malkah (age 22) in Prague; Visits Altneushul; love affair with professor; Riva conceived
2009 Riva born, daughter of Malkah and professor.
2011 First direct linking/interface to cyberspace
2013 Death of Yosef Golinken, physicist, grandfather of Nili, and posthumous father of Shira.
2022 Kisrami plague
2017 Two Week War (Nuclear/chemical/biological device destorys Jerusalem and surrounding region. Followed by "The Troubles." Anti-semitic persecution following the Two Week War which many have blamed on the Jews
2020s-2030s famine; ocean rising; desertification. 2 billion die from famine and plagues.
2029 Great Hurricane
2031 Assassination of Mohatela the Lion (Malkahís lover) from Johannesburg who has been trying to free Africa from European and Asian domination
2031 Shira born daughter of Riva and preserved sperm of Yosef Golinken
2040 Opposition to humanoid robots mounts. Cyberriots. No robots in human form thereafter (until Avramís' illegal experiments)
2044 Gadi and Shira Lovers; Avram creates Cyborg Alef who kills David, Avramís' assistant. Alef is destroyed.
2048 Shira breaks off with Gadi; goes to school in Europa.
2059 Time at the opening of the novel. Custody hearing re: Ari Shipman/Rogovin. Malkah 72; Shira 28; Yod (tenth of Avramís cyborgs) is 3.