It's a great question isn't it (and one I don't remember C.S. Lewis posing!) but I guess the 'kind of society' would be a ruling class one, whereas I doubt whether the same freedoms and female agency would be envisaged or countenanced for the rest of society. While the female in what Lewis saw as the 'allegory of love' was attributed with powerful choice and discretion, I tend to see the elevated role of the woman in these traditions as operating a kind of chivalrous choreography, affording exercise of knightly qualities and an iconic object of knightly desire that doesn't quite sit comfortably with me (though I admit I love the concept of gentilesse).

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

"What I do with emotion is not, strictly, to ‘bottle it up.’ I parcel it out. I make it drive me in work; I try to use it to understand the world; I occasionally try to form or express little bits in objective writing or drawing; I try to stay out of situations which encourage it; I take it out in physical exertion – and what still can’t be handled I do ‘bottle up’ and sit on. What else can one do? […]”

Alice Sheldon in “James Tiptree, Jr. - The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon” by Julie Phillips

Biographies have traditionally had a complex relationship with "truth." Hesketh Pearson's brilliantly readable mid-twentieth-century biographies favour "good stories" over the boring facts. Julie Phillips didn’t have to tackle one of the most difficult things in writing a biography: correct the distortions and myths in previous biographies. It was all a blank sheet. Phillips seems to favour the "bag of facts" approach to biography which has been gaining favour but this too has its problems – notably, that reading such a book tends to be a chore, not a pleasure. The challenge, I think, is to keep a balance between telling the story and being rigorously, “checkably” factual.

If you're into SF, read on.

Somehow I made it into my 30's without ever really being aware of James Tiptree, Jr.  I don't know how this occurred, especially since now I'm realizing how many authors I love have won the James Tiptree, Jr literary award.

Alice Sheldon, best known in the literary world as James Tiptree, Jr, led an amazing life that ended in tragedy.  His/her stories are original, powerful, and often unsettling.  Science Fiction set in a "now" or far in the future, close to home or far flung.

For me the biggest challenge came in the size of the volume - it appears my attention span for short story collections is shorter than the size such a comprehensive collection calls for.  It's a book that would have worked better for me not to have a month's framing to read it, but one to read stories then have time to take a break as they bounced around in my head.  That being said, I'm very happy I included it as the Virtual Speculation pick for June.  This is definitely on my "to recommend" SF reading list now.

Discussion Fodder

• What themes did you notice in the stories?  How were they handled?  What stood out to you?
• Alice Sheldon published both as a woman and as a man, using a female name for stories that might betray "James" as a woman.  What makes a writing style masculine or feminine?
• Alice's reasons for writing as James have been reasonably well stated - which ones would apply to an author today?
• How do her stories hold up some fifty years after they were written?  What shows their age, and what could be written today?
• Did you have a favorite story?  What drew you to it?  Were there stories that you disliked?  What pushed you away?

James Tiptree/Alice Sheldon was an incredible woman.

I've read some about her before, but this introduction Michael Swanwick makes me want to give the book 5 stars.

Front pages of Her Smoke Rose Up Forever - June pick for the Virtual Speculation Bookclub