User talk:Gabeechka/sandbox

Suzy McKee Charnas was born in Manhattan to two professional artists. Her father was an illustrator for Wonder Books, a company that made picture books for children, and her mother was a textile designer. Her parents divorced in her childhood. Charnas helped her mother raise one younger sister, who is six years younger than she is. Despite being from a low-income family, Charnas was able to pursue a prestigious education. She received her undergraduate degree from Barnard College, where she majored in economics and history. She continued her education at New York University, where she received (or earned) a Master's degree in education. She has taught in Nigeria as a part of the Peace Corps (Gordon). Charnas' work focuses on the sociological and the anthropological, rather than exclusively the technological, ( maybe it would be better to use a long dash ( - ) here instead of commas to be less confusing?) dimensions of science fiction. Her background in history and economics, as well as her experiences in Nigeria, have had a profound impact on her work. She considers the HOLDFAST series, a four-volume story written over the course of almost thirty years (the first installment, Walk to the End of the World (titles should be italicized) was published in 1974, and the last installment, The Conqueror's Child was published in 1999), to be her best accomplishment in writing. The series addresses the topics of feminist dystopia, separatist societies, war, and reintegration.

She considers the HOLDFAST series, a four-volume story written over the course of almost thirty years (the first installment, Walk to the End of the World was published in 1974, and the last installment, The Conqueror's Child was published in 1999) to be her best accomplishment in writing. The series addresses the topics of feminist dystopia, separatist societies, war, and reintegration. Another of her major works, "The Vampire Tapestry"(is this a short story or novel? if novel, need italics), has been adapted (by Charnas herself) into a play called "Vampire Dreams".

Life

Suzy McKee Charnas was born in Manhattan to two professional artists. Her father was an illustrator for Wonder Books, a company that made picture books for children, and her mother was a textile designer. Her parents divorced in her childhood. Charnas helped her mother raise one younger sister, who is six years younger than she is. Despite her being from a low-income family, Charnas was able to pursue a prestigious education. She attended an arts high schoolmaybe 'a high school for the arts'? in New York City and, influenced by her parents, even considered pursuing a career in visual arts. She received her undergraduate degree from Barnard College, where she majored in economics and history. She continued her education at New York University, where she earned a Master's degree in education. She has taught in Nigeria as a part of the Peace Corps [1].

Influences and Themes

Charnas' work focuses on the sociological and the anthropological, rather than exclusively the technological, dimensions of science fiction. Her background in history and economics, as well as her experiences in Nigeria, have had a profound impact on her work. She had keenly explored the genres of Western, adventure, and science fiction in the books she had read earlier in her life, yet she realized that these books lacked strong female characters. She considers Ursula K. Le Guin's 'Left Hand of Darkness' to have been a major inspiration for the initiation of her writing career, as it was one of the first feminist novels she had encountered. Despite this, she did not intend to write feminist literature. Her work did not take a feminist slant until after the first draft of "Walk to the End of the World", which she had originally intended to be political satire.

Controversy

When Charnas tried to publish "Motherlines", the second installment of the HOLDFAST series, she was met with some resistance. The company that had published "Walk to the End of the World", Ballantine Books, rejected "Motherlines" because it was deemed inappropriate for what they considered to be their target science fiction audience: young boys. This was because the book contains no male characters, and there are some controversial sexual relationships. Charnas tried to get the work published several times. It was generally rejected not for the quality of the story, but rather its controversial themes. One editor even said that he could accept the work- and even that it would be very successful- if all the female characters were changed to men. Charnas rejected this offer. The book was finally accepted after one year (which was a long time for science fiction in this era) by editor David Hartwell, who went on the publish several of Charnas' other works.

'''Lovely. dont forget links!''' — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gshum24 (talk • contribs) 08:45, 3 December 2013 (UTC)