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From: peter@graffiti.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Silverberg, Tiptree, and author's sex.
Message-ID: <153@graffiti.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 2-Sep-85 09:08:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: graffiti.153
Posted: Mon Sep  2 09:08:33 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Sep-85 00:50:09 EDT
References: <1804@reed.UUCP> <23400001@ISM780B.UUCP> <3533@dartvax.UUCP>
Organization: The Power Elite, Houston, TX
Lines: 21

> anything other than an extremely fine male writer. I think it is extremely
> easy to point out after the fact ``well, of COURSE Tiptree was female, look
> at this story, and this one, and this one!''

I don't know about any "of course", but I do recall reading "Houston, Houston,
do you read" and thinking "this guy has some serious problems". It is obvious
in retrospect that Alice Sheldon has had very little experience with men who
haven't been "putting on a show" for her benefit. There are other female
authors who have this problem (Anne McCaffrey being a notable example), and of
course mail authors with the opposite problem (Heinlein, for example).

But "Houston, Houston, do you read" is probably the first story such people
will point to. The males in the story all behave exactly like one of Desmond
Morris's babboons. They think in sociobiological terms (how many of you
stuck in a capsule would be afraid to answer the comm because the "Alpha Males"
were both asleep?). Even Jack Chalker's "Fluxgirls" are more believable.

It never occurred to me that James Tiptree Jr was a woman, probably because
after reading "Houston, Houston, do you read" I put the collection down and
never picked it up again, never gave it another thought. Then when I heard,
it became obvious what was wrong.