The Future Looks a Lot Like Now
Admittedly, some pretty weird stuff is going on in the future that these stories envision. That said, however, it must also be admitted that much of what is going on in that future bears a strong resemblance to the world today. The title character of “Daughter” is, for instance, a programmer who must hide this fact from her overbearing father in protection of the reputation of her brother because women aren’t deemed up to the level of male programmers. The story which immediately follows it, “Dull Drums” is centered around computer storage technology that sounds an awful like the “cloud” but was written back when Gates and Jobs were still in high school.
Her, too?
That father who thinks less of his daughter’s programming skills even though she can program rings around her brother? He’s like, maybe, the second most evolved male in the collection, behind the college counselor in the same story. Because the patriarchal misogyny is so pervasive that it only stands out when it is not exhibited, it is difficult to tell if it is a theme that is intended or is the result of unconscious motivation. The chauvinism of the father in “Daughter” is actually a welcome relief from the more violently sexist manifestations occurring in other stories. It is not merely a strange convergence of opinion that the word “rapey” is one which is often attached to the stories in this collection. That this collection of stories so deeply steeped in misogyny and patriarchal support was written by a woman suggests the potential for irony, but it is never entirely clear.
Versatility
The stories in this collection were written between 1959 and 1973. As a result, this is not a collection based upon chronological creature. Nor is there any immediately identifiable unifying theme. The stories were chosen by the author for inclusion and that is a definite clue to latch onto when looking for a unifying theme not immediately obvious. What kind of stories did the writer pick? Two are described by her as “unashamed love stories.” An introductory page to three stories is prefaced by her assertion that “Humor is one of the hardest things to carry off in a story” which hints that in those three stories this difficult task was overcome. Three completely different stories were composed upon request for children’s tales.
Another story-upon-request is about crime prevention and the book concludes with McCaffrey’s own favorite of all the stories she’s written to that point. This display of versatility on the writer’s part may be completely incidental to the guiding reasons behind the choices of what to include in the book, but the introductory pages pointing out that versatility suggests otherwise. Not that there is anything at all wrong with an author wanting to show off the range of her talent, especially a writer working solidly within a specific genre.
