The Stone Gods

For my Environmental Literature class, I just finished reading The Stone Gods, by Jeanette Winterson. It's a very interesting novel, and definitely worth the read. To be honest, I didn't like it that much when I started, since it's so weirdly structured. But after you give it some time, it really grows on you. Plus, there's a subtle explanation for why the novel is the way it is.

My teacher pointed out that it's so weird because it's a blatantly postmodern novel, but its narrative style serves another purpose: pointing out the problem with our culture's mindset. We read an essay by Ursula K. LeGuin, in which she talked about the "male" narrative being the dominant one--the narrative of conquest, of defeating the enemy, of the hunt, of winning and losing. And because we tell these stories, that is how we see life.

Stories like The Stone Gods make it very obvious that this kind of attitude will get us nowhere. In the book, we find a new planet, Planet Blue, and we are getting it ready for colonization. We realize that we have ruined Earth (or Orbus, as the characters call it), and want to have a second chance on a new world. However, with our culture the way it is, our understanding of environmental problems is very minimal. Orbus is deteriorating faster than we admit, and it is because of the waste of human nature (with capitalism being the worst cultural force here).

I was annoyed that the book was broken into four parts, since I wanted to find out what happened next in the first part, but that's part of the point, really: I'm looking at it hoping to see an answer. Hoping to see humans pull through in the end, and solve their problem. Overcome adversity. Defeat the evil. But that's not what life is always about. The novel is very cyclical, starting in the future, going to the past, and then going to another part of the future. A lot of philosophy, which I really liked. I would definitely recommend this book.

Rating: 7.8/10