| Nowhere in the book is it suggested that Podkayne dresses like this. |
I regret that the mighty Heinlein has struck out. So far I have greatly enjoyed every Heinlein book I’ve read until this one. With Podkayne of Mars (1963), Heinlein breaks many other patterns as well. The hero, Podkayne, is a girl. She is not in the military or in training for that. The book involves a political intrigue that Podkayne is only tangentially connected to. I have to admit, though, that by the end of the book, I liked it. I had to put aside my “modern” womanist values and be patient (book is quite slow up until the last 50 pages) in order to see the charm of this book.
Podkayne is 16 years old and is from Mars, though of Swedish/Maori descent (!). Her life on Mars is pretty tame, livened up by a bratty genius brother. At the beginning of the book she is committed to becoming a space explorer, piloting her own ship out into the universe. In the course of the book, however, she “grows up” and realizes that maybe she could just be a crew member on a ship…piloted by her husband…at least until she devotes herself to motherhood. In the crisis that develops in the plot, it is the genius brother who saves the day and in fact he takes over the first person narrative that has been in Podkayne’s words all along. Podkayne’s voice is taken away. The old Podkayne is pretty much burned to a crisp…she didn’t follow her brother’s orders.
These harsh lessons are learned as Podkayne goes on her first interplanetary journey. She is supposed to go from Mars to Venus to Earth. She doesn’t make it to Earth, so I don’t know why it was even in the book. The plot self-aborts on Venus. There is some cool science in the book, like how to plan an interplanetary journey given the various orbits and rates of rotation of the various space bodies. There’s also a somewhat obligatory sequence of everyone in the space ship cooped up in a radiation shelter during a solar flare event. I’m glad Heinlein allowed for the existence of solar flares, but the main lesson that Podkayne learned was that taking care of babies in space would be more fun than being a pilot.
| I was shocked by the unbridled sexualness of almost every image that came up for the search "girls in space." |
Podkayne is a typical 1960s teenage girl, a bit vain, worried about clothes and boys. Her science-orientation sets her apart until her conversion to traditional womanhood later in the book. It is the broadening effect of traveling to other planets that helps her see the error of her ways. Her mother, a famous engineer responsible for the terraforming of whole moons and the establishment of civilizations thereupon is criticized in the end for not spending enough time with her children…her neglect is seen as responsible for Podkayne’s insufficient attachment to infants.
| Heinlein went with the cannister model of spaceship |
I am not upset with this book. It is just funny now and majorly out of date, as it should be 50 years later. I had more trouble with its slow pace. A hundred pages of roaming around a space ship preceded the 40 or so where the plot actually happened. The word “dithering” comes to mind.
Hei
I’m sure Heinlein faced some pressure to write a girl’s book. This book, though, seems high-jacked in the middle, veering into a different book altogether. I would love to know the story of the writing of this book.
Sci-fi and the Status Quo
| I did not add the circle. Later in the series Troi's hemlines dropped, but then her neckline also did. |
Science fiction almost always reinforces the status quo, even as it claims to go beyond any known world. Traditional (antiquated) sex roles almost always prevail, even in the most up-to-date sci-fi with the most liberal values--I’m thinking of Counselor Troi’s wardrobe from Star Trek Next Gen.
The 21st century Battlestar Galactica finally pushed back on these stereotypes and it broke open all sorts of amazing possibilities. The crucial moment was the decision to cast ace pilot Starbuck as a woman. But generally, women are passive nurturers in science fiction--the same role they are cast in in most portrayals in film, TV, and literature. Being a female sci-fi fan is a hard road to travel.
| Starbuck |
Another thing I appreciated about Battlestar Galactica was that they didn’t focus on an “alien creature of the week.” There were no Klingons or Vulcans. Because, you know, if there are other sentient life forms out there in space, they are not at all likely to be close together. We probably won’t encounter them in any near-earth neighborhood. Battlestar Galactica saw space as bleak and empty, hostile to life. (And, of course, there are amazing implausibilities in Battlestar Galactica--I simply choose to ignore them in this blog post.)
Images of Women in Science Fiction
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