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A review by poisonenvy
With Her in Ourland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Despite not caring for either Moving the Mountain or Herland, Herland ended in such a way that I felt compelled to read With Her in Ourland.
At the end of Herland, Van Dyke and his wife, Ellador, have decided to leave the utopian Herland in order to show Ellador the greater world, for a two-fold purpose: to get the world's measure and see how it's run, see if it would be appropriate or desirable to introduce Herland to it.
The go first to Europe, and the Great War where World War I is in progress; it's rather a shock to Ellador, who has lived in a country that has been at peace and has known nothing like war at all for close to 6000 years. Then they go to Asia, before finally making it to America. Ellador is not impressed by what she sees, has plenty of criticisms, but she has some measure of hope.
In keeping with the theme of the other books, this one is again didactic, perhaps even more so than the previous ones. There's little thought given to plot or characters, and it's more use as a vessel for Gilman to get her thoughts down on paper.
Gilman does seem to have a stronger ability to see faults than to come up with solutions, and in that way, this book was stronger than the previous two. But her general racism and xenophobia manages to shine through, and in the last quarter of the book, we're slapped full in the face with some pretty intense antisemitism. The culthood surrounding motherhood still makes my skin crawl.
Her ideas on education and community supports still shine through, even if her general view of ecology is "if it's not useful specifically and only for humans, it shouldn't exist."
In the end, I don't think I'm especially glad that I decided to read all three books, but at the very least, at least all three of them were short (each of them being well under 200 pages).
At the end of Herland, Van Dyke and his wife, Ellador, have decided to leave the utopian Herland in order to show Ellador the greater world, for a two-fold purpose: to get the world's measure and see how it's run, see if it would be appropriate or desirable to introduce Herland to it.
The go first to Europe, and the Great War where World War I is in progress; it's rather a shock to Ellador, who has lived in a country that has been at peace and has known nothing like war at all for close to 6000 years. Then they go to Asia, before finally making it to America. Ellador is not impressed by what she sees, has plenty of criticisms, but she has some measure of hope.
In keeping with the theme of the other books, this one is again didactic, perhaps even more so than the previous ones. There's little thought given to plot or characters, and it's more use as a vessel for Gilman to get her thoughts down on paper.
Gilman does seem to have a stronger ability to see faults than to come up with solutions, and in that way, this book was stronger than the previous two. But her general racism and xenophobia manages to shine through, and in the last quarter of the book, we're slapped full in the face with some pretty intense antisemitism. The culthood surrounding motherhood still makes my skin crawl.
Her ideas on education and community supports still shine through, even if her general view of ecology is "if it's not useful specifically and only for humans, it shouldn't exist."
In the end, I don't think I'm especially glad that I decided to read all three books, but at the very least, at least all three of them were short (each of them being well under 200 pages).