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Book Review
Aug. 9th, 2010 10:54 pmHe, She, and It
by Marge Piercy
This beautiful sci-fi novel is set in the mid-twenty-first century, several decades after a major ecological cataclysm and resulting societal upheaval. The reduced human population can no longer live in the open without protective gear and structures, the majority of food must be derived from algae and grown in vats; but computer technology is very advanced, with AIs, service robots, and sophisticated virtual reality. People live in closed corporate enclaves, the sprawling and chaotic urban Glop, or in a few free towns. It's a world that is part cyberpunk, part post-apocalypse, but with a little more organic warmth to be found.
It is in this world that Piercy sets a re-telling of the golem story, alongside a very detailed and elegant rendition of the original tale.
The main character, Shira, has just lost her son in a custody settlement manipulated by her corporate employers. She returns to her grandmother Malkah's house in Tikva, the free town in which she grew up, where she begins working with the town robotics expert and inventor on the training and development of Yod, a highly advanced cyborg he built to protect Tikva from physical and computer-based attack. As Shira's relationship with Yod grows and blossoms, her former employers target Tikva in order to get their hands on the new technology, and the town also makes some alliances with newly emerging communities in the Glop and elsewhere. Piercy thus creates a fascinating and complex story that operates on both an intimate scale and in a wider scope. Interspersed with the main story is Piercy's version of the original golem story, as told to Yod by Malkah, who made major contributions to his programming. This interpolation is nearly seamless and, despite having many parallels with the main narrative, never feels like a repetition or contrived device.
He, She and It is a very moving book, with wonderful characters and a vivid setting. It touches on interesting questions of personhood, control, freedom, development, growth, and the bonds between parents and children, and between lovers.
by Marge Piercy
This beautiful sci-fi novel is set in the mid-twenty-first century, several decades after a major ecological cataclysm and resulting societal upheaval. The reduced human population can no longer live in the open without protective gear and structures, the majority of food must be derived from algae and grown in vats; but computer technology is very advanced, with AIs, service robots, and sophisticated virtual reality. People live in closed corporate enclaves, the sprawling and chaotic urban Glop, or in a few free towns. It's a world that is part cyberpunk, part post-apocalypse, but with a little more organic warmth to be found.
It is in this world that Piercy sets a re-telling of the golem story, alongside a very detailed and elegant rendition of the original tale.
The main character, Shira, has just lost her son in a custody settlement manipulated by her corporate employers. She returns to her grandmother Malkah's house in Tikva, the free town in which she grew up, where she begins working with the town robotics expert and inventor on the training and development of Yod, a highly advanced cyborg he built to protect Tikva from physical and computer-based attack. As Shira's relationship with Yod grows and blossoms, her former employers target Tikva in order to get their hands on the new technology, and the town also makes some alliances with newly emerging communities in the Glop and elsewhere. Piercy thus creates a fascinating and complex story that operates on both an intimate scale and in a wider scope. Interspersed with the main story is Piercy's version of the original golem story, as told to Yod by Malkah, who made major contributions to his programming. This interpolation is nearly seamless and, despite having many parallels with the main narrative, never feels like a repetition or contrived device.
He, She and It is a very moving book, with wonderful characters and a vivid setting. It touches on interesting questions of personhood, control, freedom, development, growth, and the bonds between parents and children, and between lovers.
