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tani's review
4.0
The premise of this story was extremely intriguing to me. Basically, there is a new disease, possibly an STD on the scene, called GDS. This disease affects women, although men can be carriers. The disease changes the eggs of these women so that they no longer need sperm in order to reproduce. In fact, these women will become pregnant spontaneously, asexually, basically giving birth to clones of themselves.
The story follows a reporter as she writes a story on this disease, getting opinions on policy and the possible consequences of this disease. It's not a terribly plot-driven story. Instead, it's more informational, I would say, using the main character as a vehicle to get out the idea and all its potential repercussions.
I thought that the idea itself was fascinating, and that's what carries the story. Tess, the main character, is fine, but it's the ideas here that will draw you back. I loved exploration of what changes in policy might come about and the different stances that the politicians featured in the story had. I would have really liked a longer story, with more details on how things play out, but I still very much enjoyed the thought experiment that this was.
The story follows a reporter as she writes a story on this disease, getting opinions on policy and the possible consequences of this disease. It's not a terribly plot-driven story. Instead, it's more informational, I would say, using the main character as a vehicle to get out the idea and all its potential repercussions.
I thought that the idea itself was fascinating, and that's what carries the story. Tess, the main character, is fine, but it's the ideas here that will draw you back. I loved exploration of what changes in policy might come about and the different stances that the politicians featured in the story had. I would have really liked a longer story, with more details on how things play out, but I still very much enjoyed the thought experiment that this was.
books_and_keys's review
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
nobodyatall's review
5.0
available online here:
https://medium.com/@glorioushubris/the-new-mother-9df848da415b#.vr1bsts5g
really enjoyed this.
takes a simple 'what-if' and explores it from all angles. it's kind of clinical, and there is not much emotional development with the characters, but it doesn't suffer for this. really interesting.
and wonderfully liberal. This certainly won't end up on a sad puppies slate!
https://medium.com/@glorioushubris/the-new-mother-9df848da415b#.vr1bsts5g
really enjoyed this.
takes a simple 'what-if' and explores it from all angles. it's kind of clinical, and there is not much emotional development with the characters, but it doesn't suffer for this. really interesting.
and wonderfully liberal. This certainly won't end up on a sad puppies slate!
barry_x's review
3.0
What a thought provoking novella this is and a worthy winner of the Tiptree award.
The premise is that there is an STD that effectively means women reproduce clones of themselves without the need of a man's sperm.
This novella manages to examine all sorts of perspectives and positions on what this would mean if this was the case in a near-future world and it crams an awful lot into it's word count.
I suppose the obvious is that this STD threatens the very existence of men. Men are no longer needed to conceive and furthermore the logical conclusion of this STD is that there will be fewer and fewer men born thus potentially rendering them extinct.
There's an obvious feminist reading of this and flipping of gender roles and expectations. Some of the male politicians in the book are represented through a 'Man's Rights / Religious Right' perspective and are rightly deplorable (in my opinion). That said, there is something there - should natural selection take place and eliminate males or should 'something' be done to preserve the male of our species. You can definitely read a sense of male threat in here.
Of course there are plenty who see the 'clone girls' as 'not human' and we see the flip-flopping of pro-life campaigners now calling for the abortion of 'clone girls'. We view the story through the eyes of women who have the condition - her children are still her children and deserve the right to life and happiness as other children.
The central character is a lesbian of colour who is having a baby with her partner, the father's identity is not known, having come as a donor. Fischer makes his point with a sledgehammer about what it really means to be a mother (or a parent for that matter) and actually challenges one to consider societies own assumptions and prejudices.
I really liked the exploration as to what this condition would mean in the third world. In countries with a good standard of healthcare a woman can have many of her children relatively easily. In the developing world where childbirth is potentially life threatening and a woman has no choice as to how many of her girls she will give birth to this will be significantly reduce her life expectancy, as well as reducing the male population this reduces the life expectancy of women.
One thing that isn't touched on is the passing on of identical genetic code. For most this will not be an issue, but what about those with genetic disorders? Does this condition improve general wellbeing by 'isolating' genetic disorders and mutations or does it condemn future generations of girls to her Mother's genes?
What I did find interesting was the notion of choice, and it's a point strongly made. On one level there are good cases for inoculating men and women who carry the condition should a cure be found (and the book explores quite horrible notions of putting women in camps, ostracising them etc.). However, I think there is a strong case to be made for, 'should a cure be found then it should be for a woman to decide'. The book notes that a man is not needed to raise a child, logically why should a man be required for a woman to conceive her child.
The novella can be quite ugly at times. Fischer doesn't pull his punches. Even though men spread this condition the 'blame' is firmly rooted in women. It's HER fault screams through the novella, even rape victims. The sad thing is that this is not that much of a surprising position. Fischer does a great job holding up a mirror to how society views women.
Great stuff, would love to see this develop into a longer novel.
The premise is that there is an STD that effectively means women reproduce clones of themselves without the need of a man's sperm.
This novella manages to examine all sorts of perspectives and positions on what this would mean if this was the case in a near-future world and it crams an awful lot into it's word count.
I suppose the obvious is that this STD threatens the very existence of men. Men are no longer needed to conceive and furthermore the logical conclusion of this STD is that there will be fewer and fewer men born thus potentially rendering them extinct.
There's an obvious feminist reading of this and flipping of gender roles and expectations. Some of the male politicians in the book are represented through a 'Man's Rights / Religious Right' perspective and are rightly deplorable (in my opinion). That said, there is something there - should natural selection take place and eliminate males or should 'something' be done to preserve the male of our species. You can definitely read a sense of male threat in here.
Of course there are plenty who see the 'clone girls' as 'not human' and we see the flip-flopping of pro-life campaigners now calling for the abortion of 'clone girls'. We view the story through the eyes of women who have the condition - her children are still her children and deserve the right to life and happiness as other children.
The central character is a lesbian of colour who is having a baby with her partner, the father's identity is not known, having come as a donor. Fischer makes his point with a sledgehammer about what it really means to be a mother (or a parent for that matter) and actually challenges one to consider societies own assumptions and prejudices.
I really liked the exploration as to what this condition would mean in the third world. In countries with a good standard of healthcare a woman can have many of her children relatively easily. In the developing world where childbirth is potentially life threatening and a woman has no choice as to how many of her girls she will give birth to this will be significantly reduce her life expectancy, as well as reducing the male population this reduces the life expectancy of women.
One thing that isn't touched on is the passing on of identical genetic code. For most this will not be an issue, but what about those with genetic disorders? Does this condition improve general wellbeing by 'isolating' genetic disorders and mutations or does it condemn future generations of girls to her Mother's genes?
What I did find interesting was the notion of choice, and it's a point strongly made. On one level there are good cases for inoculating men and women who carry the condition should a cure be found (and the book explores quite horrible notions of putting women in camps, ostracising them etc.). However, I think there is a strong case to be made for, 'should a cure be found then it should be for a woman to decide'. The book notes that a man is not needed to raise a child, logically why should a man be required for a woman to conceive her child.
The novella can be quite ugly at times. Fischer doesn't pull his punches. Even though men spread this condition the 'blame' is firmly rooted in women. It's HER fault screams through the novella, even rape victims. The sad thing is that this is not that much of a surprising position. Fischer does a great job holding up a mirror to how society views women.
Great stuff, would love to see this develop into a longer novel.
cathepsut's review
5.0
"The girls were spayed. That is the only word for it. Four sisters, the oldest five and the youngest barely two, with dirt-crusted fingers and baggy t-shirts, huddled next to a police van. They are identical in the way of twins; different sizes but, excepting perhaps some scars and birthmarks, their bodies are the same. The picture of them standing together next to the van is like a textbook illustration of early human development. And hidden under their shirts, carved low across the belly, the one scar they all share."
I have read dystopian fanfiction, where all women on Earth died and what the repercussions of that could be. This is a different take, similar scenario -- women can procreate asexually and essentially bear clones of themselves, without any male contribution.
Interessting idea and the author poses some fascinating questions to his set-up.
Winner of the Tiptree Award.
Story is available for free at https://medium.com/@glorioushubris/the-new-mother-9df848da415b
I have read dystopian fanfiction, where all women on Earth died and what the repercussions of that could be. This is a different take, similar scenario -- women can procreate asexually and essentially bear clones of themselves, without any male contribution.
Interessting idea and the author poses some fascinating questions to his set-up.
Winner of the Tiptree Award.
Story is available for free at https://medium.com/@glorioushubris/the-new-mother-9df848da415b
morgandhu's review
4.0
Eugene Fischer's novella The New Mother is one of those stories you keep thinking about long after you finish reading it, because it raises questions that are not easily answered.
Fischer begins with a solid what-if premise: how would society react if suddenly women began reproducing asexually - if instead of producing haploid ova designed to merge their DNA with haploid sperm, they began producing diploid ova, with no need for fertilisation, ready to develop into functional clones of their mothers? And what if men also began producing diploid sperm, making them essentially infertile, since a diploid sperm can not fertilise haploid or diploid ova?
Tess Mendoza is a freelance journalist who has followed the story since rumours first began surfacing of some women reporting that something seemed wrong with their pregnancies. Now that scientists are finally researching the reports and have identified what's going on - a new STD that alters the reproductive process in men and women, so that they no longer produce haploid gametes - Tess has been hired by a major national magazine to write a feature on the history, current knowledge and social implications of Gamete Diploidy Syndrome, or GDS.
Tess is also pregnant herself, and a little worried, because she and her partner Judy used a sperm bank, despite the small but present risk that the donor might be an undiagnosed carrier of the disease.
Tess's process in researching her article is at the same time Fischer's process for telling the story and inviting the readers to consider the implications of such a development in human reproduction. The novella is in fact structured as a series of sections: some containing text from the article, some showing interviews with people involved in some way with GDS - scientists, politicians, policy makers, women with the condition, men who have been affected by women bearing cloned daughters - and some portraying Tess as she relates to her lover, her mother, her editor, and herself as a woman with a potentially problematic pregnancy. What is interesting is that almost everything in the novella is said by, or filtered through the awareness of, women. Information Tess has gathered from men comes out in the article text, interview scenes take place only with women. Men rarely speak for themselves. Instead, they are quoted, and discussed by women; the few men who do have voices are subordinate in some way.
Some of the history and issues discussed will be very familiar to anyone who lived through the early years of the AIDS epidemic - from the changes of name as more facts about the disease became known, to the reluctance of some to touch people who might be infected, to debates over long-term quarantine and isolation, blood banks, allocation of research and healthcare funds, the morality of using birth control (in this case, hormonal suppression of ovulation in women) in dealing with the disease.
Added to the mix, however, are questions of whether the cloned infants are "really" people, whether GDS women and their children are essentially a new species, whether men might vanish altogether (since all the children of a GDS mother must be female), and whether that should be allowed, or prevented by any means necessary.
A profoundly thoughtful, elegantly written work.
Fischer begins with a solid what-if premise: how would society react if suddenly women began reproducing asexually - if instead of producing haploid ova designed to merge their DNA with haploid sperm, they began producing diploid ova, with no need for fertilisation, ready to develop into functional clones of their mothers? And what if men also began producing diploid sperm, making them essentially infertile, since a diploid sperm can not fertilise haploid or diploid ova?
Tess Mendoza is a freelance journalist who has followed the story since rumours first began surfacing of some women reporting that something seemed wrong with their pregnancies. Now that scientists are finally researching the reports and have identified what's going on - a new STD that alters the reproductive process in men and women, so that they no longer produce haploid gametes - Tess has been hired by a major national magazine to write a feature on the history, current knowledge and social implications of Gamete Diploidy Syndrome, or GDS.
Tess is also pregnant herself, and a little worried, because she and her partner Judy used a sperm bank, despite the small but present risk that the donor might be an undiagnosed carrier of the disease.
Tess's process in researching her article is at the same time Fischer's process for telling the story and inviting the readers to consider the implications of such a development in human reproduction. The novella is in fact structured as a series of sections: some containing text from the article, some showing interviews with people involved in some way with GDS - scientists, politicians, policy makers, women with the condition, men who have been affected by women bearing cloned daughters - and some portraying Tess as she relates to her lover, her mother, her editor, and herself as a woman with a potentially problematic pregnancy. What is interesting is that almost everything in the novella is said by, or filtered through the awareness of, women. Information Tess has gathered from men comes out in the article text, interview scenes take place only with women. Men rarely speak for themselves. Instead, they are quoted, and discussed by women; the few men who do have voices are subordinate in some way.
Some of the history and issues discussed will be very familiar to anyone who lived through the early years of the AIDS epidemic - from the changes of name as more facts about the disease became known, to the reluctance of some to touch people who might be infected, to debates over long-term quarantine and isolation, blood banks, allocation of research and healthcare funds, the morality of using birth control (in this case, hormonal suppression of ovulation in women) in dealing with the disease.
Added to the mix, however, are questions of whether the cloned infants are "really" people, whether GDS women and their children are essentially a new species, whether men might vanish altogether (since all the children of a GDS mother must be female), and whether that should be allowed, or prevented by any means necessary.
A profoundly thoughtful, elegantly written work.
enyamorwen's review
4.0
My only complaints:
-nobody mentioned the primary purpose of sexual reproduction (genetic diversity, adaptation rate, etc.) which is weird because the other implications were examined pretty thoroughly
-it only looked at US politics and social implications (which was excused in the story as the character writing for a magazine that only wanted to publish on US issues, but as a reader I think Tess could have at least seen some headlines hinting at what was happening in other countries with different politics and cultural trends)
-the open ending was enraging!! but that was probably the point so it's not exactly a complaint
-nobody mentioned the primary purpose of sexual reproduction (genetic diversity, adaptation rate, etc.) which is weird because the other implications were examined pretty thoroughly
-it only looked at US politics and social implications (which was excused in the story as the character writing for a magazine that only wanted to publish on US issues, but as a reader I think Tess could have at least seen some headlines hinting at what was happening in other countries with different politics and cultural trends)
-the open ending was enraging!! but that was probably the point so it's not exactly a complaint
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