{"id":3573,"date":"2022-04-26T20:48:22","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T20:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/?p=3573"},"modified":"2022-05-04T16:28:09","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T16:28:09","slug":"green-hand-book-review-shit-cassandra-saw-by-gwen-e-kirby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wsf\/green-hand-book-review-shit-cassandra-saw-by-gwen-e-kirby\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Hand Book Review: Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cover of <\/span>Shit Cassandra Saw <\/span><\/i>immediately caught my eye. It looks bright, modern, and unique. The short description of the book on the back cover reads \u201cMargaret Atwood meets Buffy in these funny, warm, and furious stories of women at their breaking points, from Hellenic times to today\u201d. I have really enjoyed the stories we have read written by women and about women’s experiences. I find feminist readings of science fiction fascinating, and this book sounded like a unique compilation of short stories written about women and written by a woman.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The book consists of many short stories that all center around a female main character or characters, but vary significantly in content and message. Most of the stories ended up being fiction, but some are science fiction. My favorite of the short stories, which I will focus on for this post, is called \u201cA Few Normal Things That Happen a Lot\u201d. The story recounts the experiences of women being harassed by or fearful of men throughout their daily lives, but each one ends with a science fiction twist. Some women possess alien powers that make them unable to be bothered by these men, others gained superpowers from a radioactive cockroach bite or a surgical operation that gave them vampire teeth or werewolf claws. As women find out about these solutions to their fears, they gain popularity and society is turned upside down. New power dynamics and issues arise, leading to very different experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

This story is a mixture of hard and soft SF. It consists of details of technological innovation and alien phenomena, at one point even focusing on the lab work of two women. However, it also focuses on women\u2019s experiences and addresses issues of patriarchal oppression. This focus on societal issues is more characteristic of soft SF.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The style of writing is quirky, unpredictable, and fun! It is a very interesting read with engaging stories and themes throughout. I wish more of the stories had science fiction themes, but the fiction stories are fun as well. They range from light and playful to heavier in content and message.<\/span><\/p>\n

I would definitely recommend this book.<\/p>\n

Reviewer: Kate Fosburgh<\/p>\n

Citation: Kirby, Gwen E. Shit Cassandra Saw. New York, Penguin Books, 2022.\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The cover of Shit Cassandra Saw immediately caught my eye. It looks bright, modern, and unique. The short description of the book on the back cover reads \u201cMargaret Atwood meets Buffy in these funny, warm, and furious stories of women at their breaking points, from Hellenic times to today\u201d. I have really enjoyed the stories […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":818,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wsf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/818"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}