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October 07, 2005
The Postman
I have heard of David Brin's The Postman before, but never had a chance to read it until recently. I am glad that I finally read this book.
Gordon is a pre-apocalytic American idealist who had become hardened by many years of post-apocalytic surviving on his own. The story really begins as he stumbles upon an old postman's uniform. From there on, he is somehow compelled to change the state of bleakness that characterizes the formerly great United States of America.
I figured that Gordon would find ways to inspire people he met in the story to hope for a better life. That was pretty clear from the beginning of the story. What I hadn't figured on was the ample amount of feminist ideals in this story. It's not that that's a bad thing - it's just that I never expected a male author to produce such thoughts. That was a big surprise.
Without this spark of feminism, the story would have been completely male-dominated. Although the main character is Gordon, it is nice to see some strong female characters as well. I would have expected feminist ideals from authors like Ursula LeGuin and Marion Zimmer Bradley, but this, coming from a male writer, made the story even better. I know that the focus is supposed to be on one man's ordeal to bring hope to the masses, but to me, the feminist aspect of the story made up a large part of what this story is about as well.
Posted by Kathy at 08:11 PM | Permalink