Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a nineteenth century adventure/polemic. It begins with the classic trope of three adventurous young men encountering a country run entirely by women.Utopias fell out of style in the late twentieth century--understandably. Before then, Gilman's fantasy would have come across as distinctly "cutting edge" as she tackles everything from the best way to educate children to dated cultural attitudes towards women. Now, quite obviously, some of Gilman's progressive ideas seem dated in themselves.
As the creator of the horror story "The Yellow Wallpaper," she remains an author of deserved repute.
Herland is less story and more ideas-about-progress-wrapped-in-a-narrative. Like any good utopia, it provokes a response (a less thoughtful utopia would simply elicit a shrug).
So I'm responding--from Terry, the kind of/sort of villain's point of view. Chapters will be posted every 6-10 days (I hope).
