Ocean 2

Approach to Literary Criticism as

• Political sf
• feminist
• Environmental/bio sf
• Lyrical style of writing

Her Quacker experiences shapes some of the themes in A Door into the Ocean. Her biology knowledge also features highly in her fiction.
the book is also pastoral, ecofeminist. Women who live on a planet in the ocean.
Themes

The power of language:
Lyrical accounts of sea and marine biology. genomics, speak of life-shaping science. trees grow in girth rather than in phallic mode (anti-male?) a bio-political novel; primacy of non-violence as a trait and political strategy. Shows that peace-making is hard work. Likens huiman political activity to animal behavior as reflected in the struggle betwen Shorans and Valans initially in the novel. Intergalactiv aggressors and small people struggling to survive in a poorly functioning economy. Interlinked binaries seen through the male/female lens.

The idea that people could choose to live peacefully without struggle and conflict. Peacesharing as an attribute of de-sign, of constructing humans living in the world.
She contributes to underscoring the importance of the emerging role of women writers of sf.
The difficult politics of quaker consensus and how they guilt people into doing things.

General Realger transformed into a monster seems suggestive of the kind of person he is
Nice's turn to violence is a little sad, but inevitable.