Japanese Science Fiction: A View of a Changing Society, and: Rationalizing Genius: Ideological Strategies in the Classic American Science Fiction Short Story (review)
tially destructive and transgressive." Thus, attempts to show the bleaker side of the feminist struggle are decidedly devalued because they "do not provide a stable base for social activity and political struggle." It is not surprising, then, diat Palmer ends her book (and her search for the perfect feminist novel) on a note on yearning: "The problematic question of how writers create a form of fiction which makes an intervention in the political arena instead of merely reproducing existing conditions or deflecting attention from them is clearly as urgent today as it was in earlier periods." Somewhat wary of seeing the creative art of fiction confined to such a narrow venture, I cannot, however, quite appreciate Palmer's sense of urgency nor her particular brand of literary criticism.