Where does time go

OK, its the end of October and no one has written anything for our blog. In August we gathered at Manhattan Beach and celebrated the birthdays of Jen and Sophie with a BBQ in the picnic area. We also discussed Octavia Butler's "Kindred" and Cecelia Holland's "Floating Worlds" - it was rather interesting.
Mary decided to send Cecelia Holland an e-mail - so, here is that e-mail:

Hi Cecelia,
My group is reading "Floating Worlds" tomorrow (Saturday Aug 4, at the Picnic area of Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn ) along with Octavia Butler's "Kindred" -- Both books were written in the 1970s and both have settings in 19th century America. Both address racism and sexism, misogyny and miscenation, fear of the "other" and of "self"- among other political issues: fascism, committee-ism, etc.
I have three simple questions for you, if you have time - if you were writing this book today, how might it have been different? was writing this in the sci-fi genre a safe way to enable you to address the tensions and inequalities of the times? whay have you not written other sci-fi?
Thanks so much for your time! I have also read and throughly enjoyed "The Angel and the Sword" -- and yes, I am a friend of your sister DK.
Thanks again!

And, here is Cecelia's reply:

-----Original Message-----
From: ceceliaholland@sbcglobal.net
To: mpagurel@netscape.net
Sent: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 12:19 PM
Subject: Re: Mary from Brooklyn Women's Sci Fi Readers Group

i'm glad to hear your group is reading floating worlds (also octavia butler's book--an amazing writer). let me answer your questions as much as i can.

1. i don't know if it would be too much different if i were writing it today. (i wrote it originally in the year of the watergate hearings; it's a lot about that period of time, with the vietnam war, the upheavals in america society, the cold war, race and feminism). the essential story--how to preserve your autonomy in a culture of power struggles, dependence and violence--still stands up for me. the inner planets still look like western civilization to me, eating itself up from the inside. clearly the issue of violence is still with us. the anarchists' dilemma is the central american dilemma--how to live free and yet maintain some kind of order in the resultant chaos. how to respect other people's freedom. how this freedom requires first a commitment to non-violence. and i still believe very vehemently that personal freedom is the goal--that when everybody can run her own life, people will come up with better solutions to problems than those some central authority tries to dictate. .

the risks of this are still the same. the stakes are the same. that last struggle between paula and tanuojin still resonates with me--you can overcome anything if you know who you are and stay on that center.

i would change the first few scenes, which are too slow, but that's just technical stuff.

2. i wrote it in the future because i had this intense need to say this stuff but no historical period presented itself. i also had a mad crush on a very tall black man at the time and wanted to express my, hmm, devotion.

3. i've actually begun a couple of other sf books (you know the sf people loathe the phrase sci fi) but never gotten too far. it's an interesting genre but unfortunately it is in the grip of a rampant orthodoxy which tries to dictate themes, structures, etc. i have wonderful friends who write sf and they're all in blinders most of the time. octavia butler one of the few exceptions.
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Everyone has been super busy with life: Jen has been doing theatre while Sophie is off to Medical School. Helen is teaching a graduate course at NYU School of Social Work. We are meeting on Nov 19 at Jen's and discussing Jan Coffey's "Silent Waters" - which I think is a bit of a stretch for self defining woman authored sf, but it is the book. We will also eat some brthday cake while we celebrate Helen's b-day.
PLEASE COME WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR NEW BOOKS.