In Regards to Chapters 5 through Chapter 9 of
Jonathan Letham's Girl in Landscape
8 February 1999
I wasn't quite sure what to make of the name Effram when I first came across it. The name was unfamiliar to me. I do recall feeling he would somehow be troublesome and as we learned more about him, I suppose it is accurate to say I painted a picture of an InterGalactic HillBilly.
When Pella met Effram I suppose sexual issues were raised although I wasn't sure what to make of it. I expected from the time we were told she was maturing into a woman at the beginning of the book that her sexuality should have some significant. And that Effram should see Pella as a woman when he has been living as a bachelor on a planet that offers very few is hardly suprising And it is only modern America that insists thirteen is too young to be a woman (and I believe this immaturity in Americans is intentionally fostered by American capitalist culture since a mature woman is less likely to indulge in frivolous expenses).
Archbuilders were supposed to be gender neutral. Although I wouldn't say anything necessarily contradicted this, when we first met Hiding Kneel he seemed somewhat masculine and when we first met "it" and I never lost that feeling throughout the book. Truth Renowned in a like manner seemed somewhat feminine when we first met "it" and again that feeling remained. It may be of consequence that their particular roles at the time we met them led to the gender assignments. For example, the implication that Hiding Kneel should help Ben move things early after meeting him led to a male assignment because that sort of thing, even in these days of woman's lib, is still considered largely "men's work". And since Truth Renowned was modeling for Merrow who seemed to have a sexual thing for "it", "it" received a female assignment.
The Archbuilder names seemed somewhat like Native American names. I think this is because the names were of the adjective - noun pattern we have come to expect from Native American names. While different ethnic names may have similar meanings, we only translate the Native America names.
I don't buy the suggestion that the household deer were particularly feminine. It is true, that I didn't picture any with antlers, and even though they were said to have a greater resemblance to giraffes, I still pictured them more like deer... but I didn't link them with always being in the home and nowhere else or with a women's place being in the home.
The Marshes went straight to a pathetic excuse for suburbia on a foreign world inhabited by alien Archbuilders from the big city of Brooklyn without even batting an eye. As a classmate pointed out, this might have made sense if such moves were already common place, but this was not the case since the settlers seemed to have no choice between Earth and this new world. The characters adjusted way too quickly... but somehow the author manages to pull this off without defying too much credibility.
I didn't link the arches to either St. Louis or McDonald's. I am not convinced there is anything to such speculation. It's a common enough geometric form.
I didn't think too much of two ruined civilizations meeting on the Planet of the Archbuilders. I thought it was interesting, in retrospect however, that humanity has become a starfairing ruined civilization. Usually, starbound humans are depicted as advanced and conquering. Only in Jack Chalker's Quintara Marathon Trilogy have I ever read of starbound humans as being sublimated, and even then they still retained an advanced civilization.
I didn't really think much of looking for Caitlin in the landscape. I did not link this with the face on Mars.
I did not link the politicians with patriarchy... maybe I've lived among too much feminism for that.
I didn't make anything of the lesbians when they showed up and by the end of the book they seemed to be extremely gratuitous.
I did notice the specie-ism / racism (how could one not), but thought, under the circumstances, it was to be expected, even if not condoned. People are naturally affraid of that which they don't understand and aliens by definition are something other. And these were aliens that were rejected by their own race.
I did not link the pill with sexuality or birth control. They seem very different. The pill in Girl in Landscape was taken by all the young, not just the female. It seemed more along the lines of an antibiotic which is common enough in our over-medicated culture. Nor do I know anyone who insists women should take birth control pills even if it has some merits as a preferred form of contraceptive.
Stylistic note: It occurred to me during class that this story all seemed to be told from the perspective of Pella even though it was written in the third person. The author probably should have written it in first person in order to create a greater bond with the heroin.