Woman on the Edge of Time
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''Woman on the Edge of Time'' is a 1976 novel by
Marge Piercy Marge Piercy (born March 31, 1936) is an American progressive activist and writer. Her work includes '' Woman on the Edge of Time''; '' He, She and It'', which won the 1993 Arthur C. Clarke Award; and ''Gone to Soldiers'', a New York Times Best ...
. It is considered a classic of utopian "speculative" science fiction as well as a feminist classic. The novel was originally published by
Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
. Piercy draws on several inspirations to write this novel such as utopian studies, technoscience, socialization, and female fantasies. One of Piercy's main inspirations for her utopian novels is Plato's Republic. Piercy describes the novel as, "if only...". Piercy even compares Woman on the Edge of Time and another one of her utopian novels He, She, and It when discussing the themes and inspirations behind Woman on the Edge of Time.


Plot summary

In the 1970s, an impoverished and intelligent thirty-seven-year-old Mexican-American woman Consuelo (Connie) Ramos, a resident of
Spanish Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...
, is unfairly incarcerated in a New York mental hospital due to her supposed violent criminal tendencies. She had been recently released from a previous voluntary commitment in a mental institution after an episode of drug-related child neglect, which led her also to lose custody of her daughter. Connie is caught within the government welfare and child custody labyrinth of 1970s New York City. She is after the first scene recommitted involuntarily by her niece's pimp on grounds of violent behavior, after she strikes him in the course of protecting her niece, Dolly (Dolores), from him. Dolly had sought Connie's protection because she was being forced by the pimp into having an (illegal) abortion. One of Connie's chief abilities is her perceptiveness and empathy. As a result, before being committed, Connie had for some time begun to communicate with ("receive" from) a figure from the future: an androgynous young woman named Luciente. Connie retains her visions and her connection, which become more and more real, even while heavily drugged in the mental hospital in New York, based loosely on Bellevue and other mental institutions from that period. Luciente is time-traveling from a future (the date is given as 2137), in which a number of goals of the political and social agenda of the late sixties' and early seventies' radical movements have been fulfilled.
Environmental pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, th ...
, patriarchy, homelessness, homophobia,
racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...
, ethnocentrism,
phallogocentrism In critical theory and deconstruction, phallogocentrism is a neologism coined by Jacques Derrida to refer to the privileging of the masculine ( phallus) in the construction of meaning. The term is a blend word of the older terms '' phallocentri ...
,
sexism Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers pri ...
, class-subordination, food injustice,
consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the su ...
, imperialism, and
totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regu ...
have been effectively dealt with in this world, which is governmentally decentralized in a loose version of anarchism. In contrast to the contemporary 1970s setting in an abusive mental institution where patients are labelled "violent," "incapable," "irrational," etc. on the basis of their response to an unjust and harshly stratified class-, race-, and gender-ridden society, future dwellers experience enormous personal freedom and train one another in self-control and ways of producing win-win results in all social situations. In particular, the subjects of volition and free will, mental institutionalization, and interference in others' willed actions are key to the vision of the utopian future. Connie is introduced by Luciente to the agrarian, communal community of Mattapoisett, where children grow up in a culture where they are encouraged to know themselves and their own minds and emotions thoroughly through practicing a type of meditation from an early age ("in-knowing"), in the service of social harmony and the ability to communicate with others without domination or subservience. This classless, gender-neutral (non-gendered pronouns are used, notably "per" or "person" for "he/she/him/her"), racial-difference-affirming society is sketched in detail, including meeting and discussion structures that eliminate power differentials as much as possible, the extensive use of technology only for social goods, the replacement of business and corporate agendas with general planning for social justice and respect for all human beings' individuality. Disputes between towns and regions are settled peacefully through discussion and merit-based competition of ideas, with the winning parties being obliged to "throw a big party for" or otherwise conciliate the losers in each case, in order to maintain friendly relations. A 70s emphasis on individual freedom can be seen at times: each person lives in a private tent or one-room home, and children develop outside the womb of an individual and are adopted by three "mothers" (of any gender) who guard and teach them only until puberty; every person chooses their own name, and can also choose their field of study and work, as well as when to disengage from their community, or join a new one; total freedom also applies to one's mental and emotional choices—in this future world one can check oneself into and out of the equivalent of a sanitorium at will, go into or out of various kinds of therapy, or take a mental break in some other way, and no other person has the right to choose this on one's behalf. One's field of work is self-chosen, and dicta apply to both one's life path and one's mental or emotional desires, needs, and capacities: "Per must not do what per cannot do" and "Per must do what per needs to do" are applied to both personal/emotional and professional life choices insofar as possible. There are limits to this utopia, which threaten always at the margins: the death penalty is imposed on occasion, and
war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
is in the background, but both are considered extreme and unusual measures. Connie learns tools of emotional and physical survival from Luciente and the future population of Mattapoisett, and comes to feel that she is living at an important time in history, and that she herself is in a pivotal position; her actions and decisions will determine the course of history. In particular, it is slowly revealed that Luciente's utopia is only one possible future; alternate futures are a possibility, and the novel shows us one example— a future consumerist, hyper-capitalist, environmentally sick and strictly classist, racist, and gender-stratified society in which a wealthy elite live on space platforms, sustaining themselves by dominating and exploiting the majority of the population through total control of knowledge and technology, personal control extending to physical "farming" of bodies (harvesting organs regularly) and the surgical control of moods through the use of
psychotropic drugs A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, psychoactive agent or psychotropic drug is a chemical substance, that changes functions of the nervous system, and results in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition or behavior. Th ...
. Women in this intensely violent, misogynistic and homophobic world are valued and "grown" solely for appearance and sexuality, and plastic surgery that gives women grotesquely exaggerated sexual features is commonplace. It does not decide for the reader whether Connie's visions are by-products of her mental instability or are literal time-travel, but ultimately, Connie's confrontation with the future inspires her to violent revolt against her institutional captors. She uses her limited means, despite her very restricted situation, in a desperate and apparently heroic way to prevent the dissemination of the mind-control technology that makes the future dystopia possible, putting an end to the mind-control experiments and prevents the lobotomy operation that had been planned for her and hundreds of other imprisoned patients. Connie acts in the tradition of revolts by
oppressed Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment or exercise of power, often under the guise of governmental authority or cultural opprobrium. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced. Oppression refers to discrimination w ...
or
subaltern Subaltern may refer to: *Subaltern (postcolonialism), colonial populations who are outside the hierarchy of power * Subaltern (military), a primarily British and Commonwealth military term for a junior officer * Subalternation, going from a univer ...
classes to put a wrench into the system of oppression within which she is caught. Though her revolutionary action ensures her own permanent incarceration and possible death sentence, and may not ensure the existence of the Mattapoisett future, Connie nevertheless sees her act as a victory, and perhaps the reader is encouraged to agree: "I'm a dead woman now too. ... But I did fight them. ... I tried."


Major themes


Social transformation

The essence of Piercy's utopian vision is social transformation achieved after the existing civilization had been destroyed through environmental degradation and war. "The transformation of existing society into utopia is a precarious enterprise attainable only through a process of making choices and crossing boundaries." Descriptions of Mattapoisett, the potential future society described in the novel, emphasize that collective struggle has led to their egalitarian lifestyle and collective action is how they get along so well. "What is most important in Piercy's concern with activism is the basic connection between personal action and historical change itself. The revolution is not inevitable. It is a process of change that may require appropriate conditions and happen more readily at particular historical moments, but it will not happen at all without personal commitment and struggle." The reader is left to decide whether Mattapoisett and the self-determination of its inhabitants are real or figments of Connie's imagination. "By couching the reality of Connie's visions in ambiguity, the text questions the idealism of utopian thinking while showing that social change nevertheless starts in the realm of ideas." The novel criticizes mental institutions and hospitalization of its time extensively, and brings the problem of free will to the forefront as well as suggesting alternative routes to mental wellness and social reform. Throughout the novel, Piercy demonstrates that violence is the key to getting change to occur. Connie's revolt against the system may have been unsuccessful, but it had inspired others to continue to fight. This overarching theme ties into real life as feminists and other activist groups have fought for social change during the 1970s.


Feminism

Piercy has described Mattapoisett as not a utopia "because it's accessible. There's almost nothing there except the brooder not accessible now. So it's hardly a utopia; it is very intentionally not a utopia because it is not strikingly new. The ideas are the ideas basically of the women's movement." Each character in Mattapoisett has a counterpart in Connie's present world, juxtaposing differences in personal power hence, opportunities for self-actualization. For example, Connie's friend Skip who has been committed to the mental institution by his father for being gay reminds her of Jackrabbit, a bisexual person who is not only accepted but very popular in Mattapoisett. In stark contrast to the mental hospital where the doctors are all men, in Mattapoisett, women have a special tradition and role in healing, and positions of power rotate among men and women alike. Even traditional parental power has been done away with, and the experience of motherhood is shared among women and men, as technology has been developed to gestate babies in a mechanical brooder and men have been enabled to breast-feed. Motherhood is seen as a duty to be shared equally by each parent, regardless of gender. "In addition, critics have treated the novel as an allegory for the conflict in academia between dogmatic feminism and the commitment to motherhood." "The deconstruction of power structures is continued on a linguistic level, where Piercy deletes the dimorphism of the objective and possessive pronouns 'his' and 'her,' which have been replaced with the unisex 'per' referencing the single personal pronoun 'person.'" Feminist futurists argue that Piercy's nonlinear and complex structure of the novel leads to a more broad argument in regards to feminism. This idea is arguing to show that in order to deal with feminist solutions for the future, that there are problems from the past that must be addressed.


LGBTQIA+ Equality

The idea of queer characters can be seen throughout the novel with Skip, Jackrabbit, and Luciente. Piercy shows the Skip going to a mental hospital for being gay showcasing her continuation of struggle other individuals. Also, Luciente has a queer relationship with her friend Diana. Piercy through this novel shows through the struggles of queer characters that there is progress to be made for those who are queer. Connie goes through a journey in Mattiposett in regards to the queer characters as she associates gendered roles to parents of the children. This is disproven by Luciente as they have both masculine and feminine qualities while in a queer relationship. Connie soon adapts to this idea by and begins to embrace homosexuality casting aside her patriarchal ideals from her present time. Through Piercy's portrayal of Connie's adaptation to Mattipoisett's homosexual relationships, it continues to show Piercy's point of queer progress in the novel.


Publication history

* * * * * * * *


Literary significance and reception

Early reviews called the novel absorbing and exciting and beautifully written, but also polemical and didactic. Piercy's utopia was noted for "literally embodying every ideal of the
counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
/ Movement:
ecological wisdom Ecosophy or ecophilosophy (a portmanteau of ecological philosophy) is a philosophy of ecological harmony or equilibrium. The term was coined by the French post-structuralist philosopher and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari and the Norwegian father ...
, community,
androgyny Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to biological sex, gender identity, or gender expression. When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics in ...
,
ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...
, respect for madness, propertylessness, etc." At the time, leaving the Sixties behind, American novels generally shared a post-apocalyptic feeling, asking "what are to be the new social and spiritual arrangements now that the old ones are completely shattered?" In that context, Roger Sale, in the ''New York Times'', found nothing new in ''Woman on the Edge of Time'', calling the book imitative and derivative, and pointing out that "the major instruments … are terribly familiar pieces of apparatus, the mental hospital and a utopian community of the future." Academic reviews, however, placed the novel among the important innovative fiction of the mid-1970s, characteristically works of social realism, all in some way describing a "new consciousness," "even though they don't always use the techniques of verisimilitude, and despite the mythical dimension of their representative characters." Combining feminist ideals with utopian visions of a future society based on principles of community and equality, Piercy imagined a post-apocalyptic world that established ''Woman on the Edge of Time'' as an early feminist innovation in the traditionally male genre of
dystopian fiction Utopian and dystopian fiction are genres of speculative fiction that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal t ...
. Depictions of sexuality and relations between the genders were already recognized as useful elements in depicting the conflict between individual and societal demands. "For example, the governments of dystopian societies like those described in '' We,
Brave New World ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hiera ...
,'' and ''
1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
'' all focus on sexuality as a crucial matter for their efforts at social control. And it is also clear that this focus comes about largely because of a perception on the part of these governments that sexuality is a potential locus of powerful subversive energies." ''Woman on the Edge of Time'' "finely counterpoints the utopianism of Mattapoisset with the dystopian realism with which Connie's actual world is represented." The novel has been analyzed as a dystopia, as speculative fiction, and as realist fiction with fantastic episodes. "By her vivid and coherent descriptions of new social institutions, Piercy has answered the famous Cold War dystopias like ''1984'' and ''Brave New World'' which lament that there is no possibility of imagining an anti-totalitarian society." The book is often compared with other feminist utopian or dystopian fantasies such as
Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the '' Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was ...
's ''
The Dispossessed ''The Dispossessed'' (in later printings titled ''The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia'') is a 1974 anarchist utopian science fiction novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, one of her seven Hainish Cycle novels. It is one of a small number o ...
'' and ''
The Left Hand of Darkness ''The Left Hand of Darkness'' is a science fiction novel by U.S. writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Published in 1969, it became immensely popular, and established Le Guin's status as a major author of science fiction. The novel is set in the fiction ...
'',
Joanna Russ Joanna Russ (February 22, 1937 – April 29, 2011) was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as ''How to Suppress Women's Writing'', as w ...
's ''
The Female Man ''The Female Man'' is a feminist science fiction novel by American writer Joanna Russ. It was originally written in 1970 and first published in 1975 by Bantam Books. Russ was an ardent feminist and challenged sexist views during the 1970s with ...
'',
Angela Carter Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...
's ''
The Passion of New Eve ''The Passion of New Eve'' is a novel by Angela Carter, first published in 1977. The book is set in a dystopian United States where civil war has broken out between different political, racial and gendered groups. A dark satire, the book parod ...
'', and Margaret Atwood's ''
The Handmaid's Tale ''The Handmaid's Tale'' is a futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, totalitarian theonomic state known as the Republic of Gilead, which ...
''.


References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * (U.S. variant title of preceding)


External links

* {{isfdb title, id=8226, title=Woman on the Edge of Time 1976 American novels 1976 science fiction novels 1970s LGBT novels Novels about time travel American speculative fiction novels Utopian novels American LGBT novels Bisexuality-related fiction Dystopian novels Feminist science fiction novels Feminist books Alfred A. Knopf books Novels by Marge Piercy LGBT speculative fiction novels Bureaucracy in fiction