New 10.14.02
Elaine Hills wrote in the fall of 2002 with some notes about summer reading. Her note reminded me that there will soon be three PhD anthropologists on the Reading mailing list and that some of the best science/speculative fiction I've read is by Ursula LaGuin, who has a notable anthropological background (that is apparent in her stories).
"At last, I managed to squeeze in a couple of non-academic reads over the summer. I suppose both books
The first book I'm reporting on is called The Treatment and by Martha Stephens (2002). This book caught
"Stephens was a junior faculty member at the University of Cincinnati when she stumbled upon this issue.
"I also live in this publish-or-perish world and, for better or worse, I happen to be currently
"I highly recommend this book to those who care to learn more about such a [deliberately]
"My other summer pleasure read was The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. A friend at work recommended this
"This is fiction (an unusual venture for me!) and written by an anthropologist (awww - someone close to my heart).
"The story is set in two timeframes and the time period jumps back and forth every chapter.
"Without saying too much about what happens as the story unfolds, the book is about a group
"I was a bit disappointed with some of the similarities depicted between Earth as we
"One other note on the anthropological nature of this book: The Sparrow is the first in
could qualify as academic reads, but for me virtually anything other than a journal article listed with Pubmed
will suffice as pure reading indulgence!
my eye at our town library, and I'm glad it did! It is not fictional but rather is Martha Stephens' account of the
Cincinnati radiation tests that took place in the 1960s and 1970s.
Since the tests were being conducted at her very own institution and also because Stephens is a very leftist activist,
she and a junior faculty organization investigated the matter. They compiled their findings, after many uphill battles,
into a detailed report that did not treat the radiation subjects as subjects, but rather as PEOPLE who were victims
taken advantage of by radiation scientists (living in a publish-or-perish world) who were funded by the
Department of Defense.
employed on a grant funded by the DOD. [gulp!] So the story really appealed to me. I'm also
on the left of the political spectrum in this country (particularly in these times!), so Stephens'
very explicit political bent drew me in too. The book was broken into three parts (if I remember
correctly after all these months) and I felt there was a good amount of overlap, so some of it just
felt too repetitive. But I think the repetition served the function of providing a comprehensive view of
the story as it unfolded for Stephens.
hidden segment of this country's history! Stephens does a great job of exposing what
was hidden and perhaps could have been prevented altogether if more of our society was
oh...a bit more democratic, open, and honest.
one to me, and I'm so glad she did.
The anthropological background of the author really came out in this book, because the multiple themes really
challenge readers to think beyond the box of their own culture and worldview. I didn't consider this an easy
read, though other Readers who delve into fiction more often might say otherwise.
The two time periods are directly related, so the book unfolds a bit like a mystery (perhaps
an attraction for the many mystery Readers in the crowd). Though some of the concepts were
difficult to get my head around, I did find the text drawing me in - I kept wanting to get to the
next chapter so that the next piece of the puzzle could be presented to me.
of humans who visit another planet and then the return to Earth. The writing is deep, and
really captures humanity like an anthropologist should. The issues are tough: envisioning
other life forms and another planet, interactions in a truly different world and how these
interactions test our assumptions of what life is like for other feeling and speaking species,
biological challenges posed by living on another planet, issues of faith when we look
beyond our stratosphere, and others.
know it and this other planet and other life forms. But I guess it brings me back to the
question: can we ever really create an imaginary world that is truly beyond the bounds of
our conception. I know that question doesn't make sense, but I was torn with this idea while
reading The Sparrow.
a two-part series and is told from the perspective of the humans. The second (which I
think is called Children of God) I have not read but have been told is written from
the perspective of those on the other planet that the humans go to visit in
The Sparrow. So, they're both about the same story but are written from
different perspectives -- a truly anthropological series! Perhaps next summer I'll tackle
Children of God and hopefully in the meantime some of you will try these out too."
Write Tell a little bit of the world what you think.
By Ken Wedding. 09.01.02 Updated 10.13.01.
