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A review by reluctantheroine
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.
3.0
Note: I finished this book two weeks ago, so I'm mainly going to discussion my reactions to my favourite story, The Girl Who Was Plugged In.
I like this novella for two reasons. Firstly, I feel like how it discusses the shared and separate sexism that traditionally attractive and not-traditionally attractive women experience. I think the best example of this (especially given this American election cycle) is the passing mention of how when the non-traditionally attractive woman reported her sexual assault she was laughed at. The second reason I liked this novella, is that I think it did a really strong job of predicting the current advertising climate of product placements in traditional media, and relying more on "ordinary" people on mediums like Instagram and YouTube for promoting products compared to traditional celebrity endorsements.
My only qualm with this story is that it’s narrator is written to sound like Mary Jane Watson written by Stan Lee in 1960s’ The Amazing Spider-man. This is not necessarily a negative for me personally, but I can see how other readers might find it alienating.
I like this novella for two reasons. Firstly, I feel like how it discusses the shared and separate sexism that traditionally attractive and not-traditionally attractive women experience. I think the best example of this (especially given this American election cycle) is the passing mention of how when the non-traditionally attractive woman reported her sexual assault she was laughed at. The second reason I liked this novella, is that I think it did a really strong job of predicting the current advertising climate of product placements in traditional media, and relying more on "ordinary" people on mediums like Instagram and YouTube for promoting products compared to traditional celebrity endorsements.
My only qualm with this story is that it’s narrator is written to sound like Mary Jane Watson written by Stan Lee in 1960s’ The Amazing Spider-man. This is not necessarily a negative for me personally, but I can see how other readers might find it alienating.