Venus Plus X

I'm glad, for one, that I did NOT read any of these reviews before I read this book. Theodore Sturgeon's writing style is not going to be the whiz-bang science fiction no-brainer rocket operas that people seem to be expecting when they pick up this book. He has a very poetic, almost Nabakov-like quality to his descriptions, and it's really beautiful at times, and sometimes, apparently, hard to accept for some readers. His motives in VPX, as I see it, are the highest: to help us SEE ourselves, and maybe, create a better world now and in the future. The reviewers who denounce this work more vehemently seem to not have learned the lesson that the human race IS destructive, and apparently cannot bring themselves to open their mind, as Charlie does (at first), to looking at it from the outsider perspective. Others seem to be confused by the alternating "present-time" storyline that doesn't seem to make any sense... however, I think it is perfect, and all little anecdotes, but most especially the buildup of how "progressive" and "equal" the father thinks he is being (yet coddles and showers the female child with love, and gives the male child a handshake - and doesn't get why the boy is upset), foreshadows very nicely the reaction Charlie has at the end... and makes his seemingly turnabout reaction no surprise at all. Charlie is representative of the better aspects of human society, and tries to keep an open mind, but Sturgeon shows with the end twists, that even the most "open" minds are still slaves to the generations of conditioning that the Ledom are trying to prevent... And that is only Charlie at his best.... Personally, I think the Ledom solution is practical, but in my life, I think we can enjoy "Vive la difference!" and grow to what the Ledom were trying to achieve, without artifically having to create it. But I'm an optimist.

The most important thing about good speculative fiction is that it can push the boundaries of common preconception; it can cause a reader to really examine their thoughts and values and think 'what if?' Venus Plus X was probably more significant in its message 40 years ago when it was written, but taking its premise in context of it being written in 1960 makes reading it extremely worthwhile today.This book is most often compared to The Left Hand of Darkness (another fine book!). This is a fair comparison - both novels deal with an intense examination of gender roles. However, The Left Hand of Darkness was written nearly 10 years later. A lot happened in the intervening time. Venus Plus X was even more stand-apart in its theme for its time.Today's reader will probably not feel the message as strongly as an original reader. BUT! we have an advantage. We are able to read this magnificent book AND see 40 years into the future at the same time. We can see that we have not progressed as far as we probably should have - this book is not insignificant in its message even today.Recommended.PS - Thanks to Vintage for rereleasing classic scifi works by such greats as Sturgeon and PKD!

My copy of "Venus Plus X" is old: priced on its cover at 40 cents, if not a first edition then close to it, a paperback whose brittle pages have all separated from the spine and cover and had to be turned with the greatest care lest some unwary movement reduce the entire book to a handful of leaf litter. But I love the book - I have read it three times and every time enjoyed it, from the fantastic world of the Ledom with its bright overcast sky and its buildings like architecture by Dali, to characters like the enigmatic Philos or bewildered Charlie Johns himself, to Sturgeon's conversational-poetic language . . . for that matter, almost everything about the book! So I am incredibly happy to see it back in print: I can now read "Venus Plus X" without fear of accidental destruction!Also I can now recommend it to all my friends and know that they'll read the book - as they should. Because although Ursula Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" may be the most famous work of science-fiction dealing with an androgynous society, as well as contemporary gender issues, "Venus Plus X" is every bit as good and occasionally a great deal weirder. Part of this is the style. The perspective, when it deals with Charlie Johns in the world of the Ledom, is outsider-only: the reader knows only what Charlie Johns knows and must believe only what Charlie Johns believes. When Charlie Johns' world is turned inside-out and upside-down, so is every single (pre)conception that the reader has held about the Ledom since the book's opening. It's wonderful. And although at first I wondered why Charlie Johns' story was periodically interrupted by the life and times of some random middle-class suburban family living on Begonia Drive, there is a very definite reason for their inclusion in the story, and it's wonderful too. More than that, I probably shouldn't say: part of the fun of "Venus Plus X" is the discovery. (Not that the book doesn't work a second time around; it's just a better read if you go along without any idea of what's ahead. That way you're nice and unsuspecting when Sturgeon pulls the rug, not to mention the floor, out from under your feet.) And what kind of wacky title is "Venus Plus X" anyway? It's explained - later on, of course. Just read the book. It was a classic when it came out, it deserves to remain a classic now. (And now you don't have to worry about pulverizing your copy with a sneeze . . .)

If it was possible to give 7 stars I would do so for this book. Though I wouldn't have thought so during the first couple of chapters. The book starts slowly, like many of the SF out of that period does: it leaves the reader a bit disoriented (modern readers are more used to books starting at the peak of an action) But it's a miracle of fresh and mind provoking ideas on what it is to be human. Mostly on the relationship between religion, sexuality, domination and destruction. No: don't think now, because of what I just typed, that you can now predict what Sturgeon will show you. His views are not common property even 40 years after the book was first published. I can imagine it must have been a shocker in 1960!It's a highly quotable book, that alteres your perception of the world and the "logic" of how we are behaving. What good fortune that there is gonna be a reprint at last. If you only can buy one book in your life: buy this one.

When Charlie awakes after a plane crash, he finds himself in a future where humans are no longer divided into male and female. As he comes to grips with this, the reader shares his initial disgust and gradual acceptance. Then the author drops a proverbial anvil and everything you thought was true gets turned inside-out. A fast read, but be sure to make someone else read it with you -- you'll want to talk about it.