Saturday, January 20, 2007

Charles Stross' 2006 book, Glasshouse, ostensibly science fiction, is in fact a fine piece of feminist writing. The book's premise is that people from the future agree to enter an experiment that simulates what they call the "dark ages," actually our current times, to learn what happened since 100 years of history (1950-2050) was lost due to proprietary data formats (e.g.; Microsoft, etc.).

The ongoing observations of people from the future when forced to live in a simulation of the present day are an eye-opening critique. In particular, the sim participants are shocked at the strong gender-based roles that prevail in current society as the main character observes:

"No advanced society expects half its workforce to stay home and divides labor on arbitrary [e.g.; gender-based vs. capability-based] lines."

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