73fe44e4   
   From: Omixochitl2002@yahoo.com   
      
   Carolyn S Tysor  wrote in   
   news:Pine.A41.4.44+UNC.0404212358190.32824-100000@login6.isis.unc.edu:   
      
   >      I'm writing about cultural reproduction in Stephenson's The   
   > Diamond Age.   
   > I'm trying to make the argument that the primer replaced Nell's   
   > cultural education by causing the way she thought about and responded   
   > to her environment to be radically different from the rest of her   
      
   Well, "cultural education" includes a lot.  Nell was still getting input   
   from Tequila and Harv and assorted bullies, and then from the Dovetail   
   crew and Constable Moore and students and teachers at Miss Matheson's   
   Academy.  It's just that she *also* got the Primer input.  So she grew up   
   neither the way a Primerless Nell nor an unabused Nell might have.   
      
   Speaking of other inputs, it's a pity that Stephenson didn't show more of   
   the Nell-Fiona-Elizabeth interaction.   
      
   > community.  I'm also trying to weave in the necessity of the author of   
   > cultural reproduction being female, or at least having a female   
      
   Don't forget Purple.  :)   
      
   > component.  That's how I'm working Miranda, the ractor/surrogate   
   > mother figure in, anyway.  I want to say because it's reproduction, it   
   > must have a female author.   
      
   OTOH, IRL lots of men reproduce too (hi Dad!) and lots of men pass on   
   memes instead of only genes (all-male fraternities, monastic orders, etc.   
   have traditions of their own too).   
      
   Meanwhile, Stephenson did a great job of not labelling men the default   
   gender and women the reproductive extra.   
      
   When I was younger I noticed that a lot of male coming-of-age stories   
   focused on the boy leaving home to seek his fortune and getting a baptism   
   of fire, and a lot of female ones focused on the girl sitting at home and   
   discovering boys and/or contemplating puberty.  :/  Having Nell leave   
   home to seek her fortune and get a baptism of fire and so on was pretty   
   refreshing.  Neal Stephenson kicks Judy Blume's ass.  ;)   
      
   So...could a guy have done Miranda's job for a Young Gentleman's   
   Illustrated Primer?  I think so.  As for the YLIP curriculum itself,   
   remember who did Miranda's job for Fiona?  ;)   
      
   >         I'm really excited about this, because I've never had the   
   > opportunity to analyze literature like this academically, and I think   
   > it should occupy a much larger portion of the critical literature than   
   > it currently does.   
      
   Hey, go for it!  :D   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)