This week, we read four of Vandana Singh’s short stories: “The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet,” “Conservation Laws,” and “The Tetrahedron” from The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and Other Stories (2014) and “Lifepod” from Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories (2018).
In “The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet” and “The Tetrahedron” in particular, I was struck by how the women seemed far more accepting of the alien than the men. While Ramnath Mishra in “The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet” treats his wife, Kamala Mishra, as if she’s a stranger spouting nonsense, Kamala is ready to accept her identity, her inhabitants, and her power. Likewise, while Samir in “The Tetrahedron” is only willing to experiment with and explore the Tetrahedron if he can be sure he could come back, Maya sees that the only way to learn more about the universe’s mysteries is to make herself vulnerable to them. Indeed, Maya ends up learning far more about the universe than anyone who remained on Earth could imagine.
How can we know anything about the Tetrahedron without ever having been in it?
The Tetrahedron by Vandana Singh
Reading these short stories, I’m interested in how the women’s perspectives on the alien illuminate women’s perspectives in our real world. Perhaps women are more open to accepting the other because they have less to lose by risking the unknown. On the other hand, dominant males can only lose their dominance by opening themselves to the influence of the mysteries around them.
Feminist Science Fictions 