What if women were physically more powerful than men?
4 stars
Naomi Alderman's answer is not a ‘more kind, more gentle, more loving and naturally nurturing’ matriarchy that lets men off lightly. This is a violent, tumultuous tale that sometimes makes uncomfortable reading. But this is not ‘merely’ a list of feminist talking points brutally driven home; Alderman plays a long and subtle game, bedding in the most important and durable perspective changes (at least for this male reader) subtly over the course of the entire novel.
This novel is perhaps a kind of response to the call of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, to which it owes much; from the framing of near-future action within far-future intellectual perspectives, to the presentation of events that appear at first preposterously unrealistic, until one realises that most have actually happened, and in some cases continue to happen, IRL.
Yes, yes, I should read the original before watching the adaptation, but sometimes you can't help it. What's interesting here is the way the TV series tells the story in a much more conventional way than the novel, especially omitting the framing device that allows the novel to speed through many parts. There are times when I wished it would slow down a little and explore ideas a bit more, but it's a good read and raises a lot of interesting questions - and what if our whole existence is just part of a fable to explain the lost history of a distant future?
Content warning
Kind of hard to discuss the 'but' without giving something of the plot of the book away
It's not that the story wasn't good to read, but there's something not so enjoyable about the it. I'd guess it's because it feels like reading a critique of a biological deterministic view of power, or one that only sees power relations through the lens of patriarchy/matriarchy. This leads to a story where the abuse of power by men swaps for exactly the same behaviour in the same structures by women.
Maybe it's the nature of power, but it feels more a perspective of it that only sees it one way which after a while makes it a hard read.
Even under the pretext of the book - women becoming physically stronger than men through having The Power. Would no other structures really change? Would society be so exactly reproduced?
A fantasy I could indulge in but philosophically shallow, positing only that power corrupts. A simple reversal without consideration of history of oppression, blanketing humanity with the empathic capacity of a child wanting to be king of the hill.
I kept falling asleep constantly/unexpectedly all week because my anxiety finally crashed so it took me a while to get through this one, but it was super entertaining. A little too binary, but an intriguing premise. Ordered with my refresh of the sci-fi collection at work.
Aside from being a bit transparent from the outset, the premise and flow of this "tale" is good. I particularly enjoy the view of the world in obverse. It does help make today's world seem, somehow, more clear.
The concepts are really interesting and (once you get over the sketchy science of the skeins) quite plausible. For my taste, the storytelling was too disjointed and the separate character arcs didn’t come together soon enough. The writing style was sometimes a forced. Overall, a worthwhile read.
Really wonderful science fiction about a world slipping into dystopia after women are suddenly in possession of the ability to shoot electricity from their fingertips. The book switches between characters at each chapter break, so we get a variety of perspectives on the situation. It all unfolds about like one might expect. Grim stuff, but an interesting thought experiment. Riveting, too.
The weakest part for me was the framing device (set many years later), which I found to be a bit on the nose, especially in comparison to what Atwood was able to do with the historical notes to "The Handmaid's Tale (to which this book is often compared to) or Orwell was able to do with the appendix to 1984.
I’m a sucker for speculative fiction and this book nails it. Simple premise, excellent execution, and great writing. I liked how the different plots threads converged at first, randomly then inevitably. Finally, the slow steady ratcheting of changes to the social norms actually took me off guard.
It starts out really empowering, making me feel the same way when leaving Marvel’s “Black Panther”. Like I could do stuff. Soon the mood changes and the whole story gets quite scary, actually. Worth the read, but really not a light topic, in a sneaky way. You’ll find yourself thinking about it a lot afterwards, even without meaning to.
When the power to control society changes hands, does the violence and coercion in society change, do the formerly powerless seek revenge and advantage over all else or can we fashion new ways of relating? Reminded me of Parable of the Sower, but with less of a palatable point.
Tengo sentimientos encontrados con este libro. Por un lado me ha encantado la idea principal de la historia y todas las reflexiones que he hecho gracias a ella, pero por otro lado siento que la autora no ha sabido cómo transmitirlo del todo con la historia. Algunas partes se me han hecho un poco cuesta arriba, pero considero que esta es una historia necesaria y que deberían leer tanto hombres como mujeres.
I saw The Power on so many best-of lists last year and with its inclusion in the Women's Prize shortlist, I bumped it up my TBR. The premise is that girls have evolved to give off electrical shocks and they pass this on to older women, where the power lies dormant. This is used as a vehicle to explore what would happen if women had an advantage over men.
The patriarchy doesn't magically disappear straight away. Women still see their jobs at risk because their male bosses are scared. The girls are segregated from the boys out of fear of what they might do. The women have to justify their existence, placate the men that they mean no harm. Gun and bombs can still hurt them. Yet eventually, it shows how women can be just as corrupted by power, or misogynistic, as men. Some scenes are really quite uncomfortable reading …
I saw The Power on so many best-of lists last year and with its inclusion in the Women's Prize shortlist, I bumped it up my TBR. The premise is that girls have evolved to give off electrical shocks and they pass this on to older women, where the power lies dormant. This is used as a vehicle to explore what would happen if women had an advantage over men.
The patriarchy doesn't magically disappear straight away. Women still see their jobs at risk because their male bosses are scared. The girls are segregated from the boys out of fear of what they might do. The women have to justify their existence, placate the men that they mean no harm. Gun and bombs can still hurt them. Yet eventually, it shows how women can be just as corrupted by power, or misogynistic, as men. Some scenes are really quite uncomfortable reading as the women repeat the crimes of men.
It says a lot about the male reaction to feminism too although it does seem to feed into the paranoia that women would mess things up or make life bad for men. This fear that women having more rights will make men obsolete, no longer at the top of the food chain, is explored. UrbanDox is a 4Chan-esque website where "men's rights" activists lurk, sharing their conspiracy theories and hatred of the opposite sex. Many see a gender war emerging, where violence is the only answer to keep the women in their place.
I think it's important that the journalist is a man. Tunde sees how women are freed from tyranny, from oppressive cultures and slavery. He doesn't feel like the women are against him and he relays this to the world through his reporting. Yet as the story goes on, the tables are turned.
It also touches on religion, with the rise of a new evangelical faith. I thought it was an interesting use of the power but was a bit of a side act as so much was going on. The power also serves as a metaphor for sexual enjoyment at times, with women thinking they could never experience it, then feeling what it's like, and then there's also something that's akin to female genital mutilation if you see the power in that sense.
The format is reminiscent of World War Z and it doesn't really have a gripping character arc (no pun intended). It is bracketed by correspondence between a fictional male writer and his female editor (Naomi), implying this is a historical text. This and another event includes a little dig at how literary types have often been snobbish about women's fiction. I think there's a lot of ideas and the story is built up around them, which meant it sometimes lost momentum.
A part of be felt a little let down by my gender. I don't believe women would run a perfect world but I would hope we wouldn't just repeat the same mistakes either. However, maybe that's the secret to equality, we're all just as bad as each other.
