Memories of November 22, 1963

 

MEMORIES OF NOV. 22, 1963:

https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/2013/11/17/Memories-of-an-awful-day/stories/201311170061

 

Invisible Class

 Here's *one* reason it's so difficult for most of us to believe we live in a class society. Although we live in an economic oligarchy, with massive and faceless corporations & bureaucracies controlling our lives, we also live in a political democracy, where everyone is theoretically "equal." It is this political equality that helps befuddle us into blindness to the economic inequality of our lives. This is one reason people are mystified by the question, "What class do you belong to?" and find it so hard to answer. After a moment of puzzlement they say, "Why, we're *all* middle-class in America, aren't we?"

 

Suzette Haden Elgin

 

SUZETTE HADEN ELGIN ((b.Patricia Anne Wilkins) (1936-2015)

 

One of the most powerful -- and powerfully feminist -- short stories I ever read was, "For the Sake of Grace," in 1969, by Suzette Haden Elgin. It just blew me away. Sometimes a short story can do that. Even more amazing, this was her debut story! It has to be one of the most powerful genre debuts, ever. Your knowledge of SF is woefully incomplete if you are unfamiliar with this story. Try to find it and read it.

 

Elgin followed her debut story a year later with the novel "The Communipaths." She may be best known in the science fiction field for her Native Tongue trilogy. 

 

However, she was also a linguistics professor and she also had much success in the field of linguistics with her book, "The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense," for which she wrote several sequels. 

 

In 1978, she founded the Science Fiction Poetry Association, and their Elgin Award is named in her honor. The SFPA also presents the annual Rhysling Award for the best science fiction poem of the year.

 

Suzette Haden Elgin died on January 27, 2015.