12-16-2007, 05:39 AM
I was hoping for so much more. All the blurbs made it sound like Alice Sheldon had this fantastic life culminating in her writing as James Tiptree. It was supposed to be a mystery for the ages. James Tiptree was very secretive and speculation ran rampant on his real identity.
In reality the mystery lasted about a decade. Far from being a prolific writer, Sheldon only produced two collections of short stories and one Novel. She did however win two Nebulas and one Hugo. One of the Nebulas she won under a different pseudonym. I guess Tiptrees big claim to fame was his correspondence with quite of the few of the big Science Fiction authors of the seventies, most frequently with Ursula K. Leguin.
Most of the book however deals with Alice. The book started off hot with Alice and her adventurous parents traveling to Africa in the 1910's when Alice was nine. Her and her parents were the first white people to travel through some parts of Uganda and Rwanda. Her mother shot lions and gorillas and wrote a book about Alice's adventures which were a huge success. In Alice's early years she traveled the world.
The problems started in puberty when Alice started to question her sexuality, which becam a life long theme. She was also manic- depressive without the manic phases.They had a special name for it, but it escapes me now.
If you list her accomplishments, she did a lot in her life. She was one of the first WAC's. She was photograph interpreter for the airforce. She worked for the CIA. She got a doctorate in psychology.
But it all seemed to be secondary to her depression, her problems with being the daughter of a famous mother, and her sexuality.
You would thing given the books title, it would be this big adventurous life. But in the novel, Alice comes across as this sad woman who did a lot of things by happenstance.
In reality the mystery lasted about a decade. Far from being a prolific writer, Sheldon only produced two collections of short stories and one Novel. She did however win two Nebulas and one Hugo. One of the Nebulas she won under a different pseudonym. I guess Tiptrees big claim to fame was his correspondence with quite of the few of the big Science Fiction authors of the seventies, most frequently with Ursula K. Leguin.
Most of the book however deals with Alice. The book started off hot with Alice and her adventurous parents traveling to Africa in the 1910's when Alice was nine. Her and her parents were the first white people to travel through some parts of Uganda and Rwanda. Her mother shot lions and gorillas and wrote a book about Alice's adventures which were a huge success. In Alice's early years she traveled the world.
The problems started in puberty when Alice started to question her sexuality, which becam a life long theme. She was also manic- depressive without the manic phases.They had a special name for it, but it escapes me now.
If you list her accomplishments, she did a lot in her life. She was one of the first WAC's. She was photograph interpreter for the airforce. She worked for the CIA. She got a doctorate in psychology.
But it all seemed to be secondary to her depression, her problems with being the daughter of a famous mother, and her sexuality.
You would thing given the books title, it would be this big adventurous life. But in the novel, Alice comes across as this sad woman who did a lot of things by happenstance.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit