Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
PM Press (2013), 110 pages
Description
Well known in the mainstream for her bestseller, The Jane Austen Book Club (Putnam, 2004), Karen Joy Fowler has taken a new turn with this collection of short stories. The Science of Herself is at once perceptive, entertaining, thought-provoking and often hilarious, and each story is told with a progressive and feminist edge. Also featured is PM Press's Outspoken Interview, in which Fowler gets personal, discussing what kind of car she drives, what she watches on TV and what it's like to hit the Times bestseller list.
User reviews
LibraryThing member andreablythe
I wasn't sure what to expect from this little book. I didn't know Fowler (best known for the The Jane Austen Book Club wrote science fiction until I read this book. It provides a set of stories and nonfiction essays.
"The Science of Herself" provides a biography of Mary Anning, who became known for
"The Motherhood Statment" discusses the exploration of motherhood in science fiction novels an called for more such discussions to be made.
"The Pelican Bar" is a subtly fantastical story abou girl sent away by her parents to be "fixed". The tale is dark and bleak and so, so good.
"More Exubrent Then is Strictly Taseful" is an interview with a random set of questions that didn't flow well. They jumped around too much into too many random territories for my taste.
"The Futhur Adventures of the Invisible Man" is a great coming of age story. A man remembers the year he played baseball, revealing how his mom changed the story to suite her needs.
I have three or four more books in this "Plus..." Series and I'm very curious what they will reveals.
"The Science of Herself" provides a biography of Mary Anning, who became known for
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being and expert of fossils, digging them out lyme cliffs under treacherous conditions. She kept detailed research about the pieces she dug up and sold, even positing her own theories. Jane Austen is discussed in comparison because she visited Lyme and because Anning would not have made it into Austen's novels. A facinating read."The Motherhood Statment" discusses the exploration of motherhood in science fiction novels an called for more such discussions to be made.
"The Pelican Bar" is a subtly fantastical story abou girl sent away by her parents to be "fixed". The tale is dark and bleak and so, so good.
"More Exubrent Then is Strictly Taseful" is an interview with a random set of questions that didn't flow well. They jumped around too much into too many random territories for my taste.
"The Futhur Adventures of the Invisible Man" is a great coming of age story. A man remembers the year he played baseball, revealing how his mom changed the story to suite her needs.
I have three or four more books in this "Plus..." Series and I'm very curious what they will reveals.
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LibraryThing member Jaylia3
I enjoyed all five shorts in this Outspoken Authors collection by Karen Joy Fowler, but the title story reintroduced me to a fascinating woman from history. Combining Jane Austen, dinosaur bones, Nonconformist religion, and dissenting politics, The Science of Herself is an “almost true”, gently
Young Mary Anning would have spent her days combing the dangerous crumbling cliffs of Lyme Regis collecting fossils to sell for food during the time that Jane Austen visited the area--Austen even mentions Anning’s father, a cabinetmaker, in her diary. While Austen was on that trip she must have walked beside Cobb wall, where Louisa Musgrove will fall giving Anne Elliot a second chance at love, and she may have noticed Mary peddling her ancient stone curiosities, an idea Fowler uses in her story.
Karen Joy Fowler’s written work ranges widely, from The Jane Austen Book Club, about a group of people who gather to discuss novels, to We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, about a family with three children--two human and (spoiler alert!) one chimp. That variety is evident in this collection as well, which includes a transcribed interview with Fowler at her outspoken, whip smart best, an essay by Fowler challenging smug gender role assumptions made by authors and literary critics from all shades of the political spectrum, and two other short stories--one somewhat funny, about a boy whose father may or may not have been abducted by aliens, and the other quite disturbing, about an abusive, reality based overseas detention facility for wayward American teens.
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fictionalized mini-biography of Mary Anning (1799-1847), who grew up in poverty, taught herself (and helped create) paleontology, and was sought out by some of the most esteemed scientists of the day, including Louis Agassiz and Charles Lyell, but almost never given credit for her work. Young Mary Anning would have spent her days combing the dangerous crumbling cliffs of Lyme Regis collecting fossils to sell for food during the time that Jane Austen visited the area--Austen even mentions Anning’s father, a cabinetmaker, in her diary. While Austen was on that trip she must have walked beside Cobb wall, where Louisa Musgrove will fall giving Anne Elliot a second chance at love, and she may have noticed Mary peddling her ancient stone curiosities, an idea Fowler uses in her story.
Karen Joy Fowler’s written work ranges widely, from The Jane Austen Book Club, about a group of people who gather to discuss novels, to We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, about a family with three children--two human and (spoiler alert!) one chimp. That variety is evident in this collection as well, which includes a transcribed interview with Fowler at her outspoken, whip smart best, an essay by Fowler challenging smug gender role assumptions made by authors and literary critics from all shades of the political spectrum, and two other short stories--one somewhat funny, about a boy whose father may or may not have been abducted by aliens, and the other quite disturbing, about an abusive, reality based overseas detention facility for wayward American teens.
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Awards
Locus Award (Finalist — Short Story — 2014)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
110 p.; 7.5 inches
ISBN
9781604868258