Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree Jr.

I read it in the collection Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. First published 1976 in Aurora: Beyond Equality. It is a must-read and takes the 3rd place in Locus’ 20th century novella list. As James Tiptree Jr., Sheldon created some of the darkest feminist dystopias you can imagine One of the most recognized works that Sheldon wrote as Tiptree is a novella called Houston.

It won a Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1976 and a Hugo. I want to emphasize the brilliance of the last sentence – which is the better future for humanity? Houston, Houston, Do You Read is a novella by James Tiptree Jr. It contrasts all of those testosterone-stuffed space captains like Han Solo or Kirk with a sharp bite, a provocation. The male crew reacts in a bad way to this revelation.Ī dark, sarcastic, feminist story – men wake up just to find out that they are unwanted and useless, resorting to violence and rape. Scholar Kim Kirkpatrick reads Tiptree/Sheldon’s work as. Among her reasons for the masquerade: I’ve had too many experiences in my life of being the first woman in some damned occupation. They gather clues and figure out that the whole humanity is cloned from some 11,000 genotypes. James Tiptree, Jr.) Sheldon called the name James Tiptree, Jr.inspired by a brand of jamsgood camouflage. As they realize that this is the future, they wonder why it isn’t further advanced.

Houston doesn’t react any more, but they are grabbed up by a spaceship with female crew. The story follows three male astronauts via flashbacks on their circumsolar mission, when something goes wrong and they are transported into a future, where males are completely extinguised by some epidemic on Earth.

Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree Jr.