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everythingreviewed-extra · 7 months

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Transgender people in the world of The Power by Naomi Alderman

In a world where women develop organs that let them electrocute people (organs known as "skeins"), it is easy to extend this to imagining artificial skeins and skein removals as an aspect of the surgical part of the transition. Some people would feel dysphoric for having a skein, whereas other people would feel dysphoric for not having a skein.

Patriarchal norms of our world do not disappear in the original story - they only flip around. Testosterone is the controlled substance in our world, not oestrogen, so similar transphobic norms around artificial skeins could easily exist.

I was okay with the fact that transgender people were not in the book. Intersex people were acknowledged, and I think to do transgender people justice you'd have to have another book with a transgender character to give it enough focus. if the TV series has a second season, it would be disappointing if there was no trans character.

I'm an endosex cisgender person, but I'm also gender non-conforming... Maybe if there's a third season, there could be an endosex gender non-conforming character who hates the entire system but knows that their body meets gendered expectations.

Or maybe a genderfluid character...

There are 1,000 different questions that the book raises, and I just had some thoughts about the ones that it doesn't get around to answering.

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everythingreviewed-extra · 8 months

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"Reading Group Questions" for Wool

The population must now live in the silos because of the toxic air, and therefore a degree of order must be maintained to ensure survival. How would you change Bernard's way of running the silo?

I think I'd try to implement some sort of more democratic structures so there is no perceived need for uprising. People should be trusted to understand what's happening on the surface.

Holston suggests that Allison was happier before she found the information which drove her outside. Do you believe that ignorance is bliss? Or would you want to know the truth?

I personally would want to know the truth, but I can see why some people would be worse off with the knowledge. Ignorance can feel like bliss, but the distraction of not knowing can hang over you.

Both Holston and Marnes lose people very dear to them, which leads them both to drastic actions. Are there any other similarities between the two of them?

When you feel like there are no options, drastic actions stops feeling like a choice.

Juliette gets to experience both life in Mechanical and life as the sheriff. If you had to choose a sector of the silo to work in, which one would it be?

Probably random person in the basic part of IT - not doing surveillance or making suits for cleaning - just doing programming.

Juliette is the first person to not clean the cameras when she leaves the silo. Would you have wanted to clean the cameras if you had gone outside and seen the landscape through the visor?

If I knew that the images that were being shown to me were fake, then I probably would not clean, but with the information that most people get, I would probably have given into the ritual because of the awe.

Juliette fares better than anyone once she steps outside thanks to certain people in the lower layers of the silo. Is it ultimately this network of relationships that ensures Juliette's survival when she returns?

Juliette survives leaving Silo 17 because of the better heat tape given to her by her colleagues in Mechanical. Juliette survives returning to Silo 17 because of her colleagues from Mechanical ousting Bernard and Lukas taking over IT from Bernard.

Bernard clearly believes in the Order and the Legacy. Do you think he is evil or just brainwashed by the system?

Potentially, I might be wrong about people being better off with more information and transparency, and the way the Order suggests running the Silo is the only way - because of the Legacy detailing all the other failed arrangements.

In Part 5, Juliette and Lukas are in very different situations. Who do you think would feel more isolated?

Juliette is isolated from other people in her home silo. Lukas is isolated from everyone around him and his past less informed self. Juliette has Solo (||Jimmy||) and Lukas has Bernard, but Solo is at least on the same 'side' as Juliette. Lukas' scenes with Bernard in the secret part of IT.

Solo believes he is alone in his silo. What would you do if you thought you were the only survivor of your world?

I would become depressed and lonely.

Juliette is viewed as a symbol of the uprising. Do you think an uprising would have occurred without her? Who else could have been a figurehead for it?

There needed to be a disturbance in the rituals and traditions of the narrative set up by IT, as described by the order for an uprising to occur.

Peter realises that he has a choice between doing what is expected of him and doing what is right. Can you relate this decision to any other situation in the book?

The easiest thing for Lukas, Juliette, and people from Mechanical is to do what they are expected by Bernard/the Order, the Pact, the Silo (respectively) but every character develops an understanding that they would not be happy with the guilt of taking the easy option, because of their sense of injustice. Lukas was expected to treat Juliette like an enemy. Juliette

Juliette is an inspirational female character in the novel. What other strong women appear in the story and how do they gain or use their power?

Jahns is a female mayor. She takes difficult decisions like the power holiday and communicates that to the population of the Silo. Shirley is a female worker in Mechanical and is involved in the uprising because she knows that what happened to Juliette is an injustice.

#scifi #dystopia #books #spoilers #silo series

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