What would happen if an author wrote a book about men having the power to electrocute to death, women?
And someone has answered:Bottom of Form
It would be under history category
And that’s pretty much all you need to know about where the author was starting from when she wrote this book. We live in a society where, by virtue of superior physical strength, men have had the upper hand since recorded history began.
And that’s the key. Since recorded history began.
Because one of the truths the author works with is that history is written by the victors. The main story, which is styled as a book written about the beginning of ‘The Power’, when women and girls developed the ability to generate an electrical current within their bodies with the capability to injure and kill others, is framed within a correspondence between the male author and his female editor. Interspersed within the book are pictures of historical artefacts that have been interpreted within a strongly matriarchal paradigm.
The story of the rise of the power is interesting. It’s definitely interesting. It is told from multiple viewpoints, including that of a man, and shows how women throw off the
It takes the basic concept of women suddenly having all the power and runs with it, speculating what would happen to individuals, relationships, families, communities and society. What would happen to our governments, to our crime networks. There are a lot of ideas, and all of them are very clever.
However, the main reason this book didn’t get five stars is because while I was interested to read the many ideas in this book (and they were really clever), the plot wasn’t engaging enough for me. The sparkle of the ideas didn’t make up for a storyline that felt just a bit too patchy.
Another truth the author plays with is the notion that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Women, in her world, now have absolute power over men. Aside from a few terrorist cells and ragtag insurgents, women soon find themselves completely in control. Men are now the ones who are afraid to walk alone after dark (and, in fact, the book looks in depth at rape culture).
And do women use their newfound power for good? Of course they bloody don’t. The power is misused in varying degrees by every woman in the book, but instead of finding this vaguely insulting, I actually found it very positive, because it supports on of the founding principles of feminism: at the end of the day, we are all human beings. Given the same opportunities and without a society trying to shoehorn us into gender-specific boxes, we will all make the same mistakes, strive for the same things. A world run by women wouldn’t be any more nurturing or peaceful than a world run by men, because if women had complete power, we would abuse it just as much as men do.
People have feted this book as ‘A Handmaid’s Tale for the 21st century’ and while I can see where they’re coming from, I don’t think The Power has the subtlety of A Handmaid’s Tale. It’s so fantastical (magic powers) that the story has a really theoretical feel throughout, and lacks the This-Could-Really-Happen aspect of A Handmaid’s Tale that makes it so terrifying.
4 stars