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The feminist classic dystopia now
reissued by Orb, comprising Walk to the end of the World and The
Motherlines in a single edition. Originally published in 1974, Walk to
the End of the World reads as crisply and with a vision that is timeless,
exploring ideas that feminist writers still pursue with passion
today.
Walk to the end of the
World
In this post-apocalyptic
world, men live in the Holdfast, in rigidly ordered hierarchies, with hate
as the glue that keeps the society together. Women are, without exception,
slaves that serve the men and are viewed by them as less than animals.
Since all the animals were killed in the Wasting, women, called ‘fems’,
stand in for them as well, as pack animals, breeding stock and
scapegoats.
In this rigid, self-consuming culture, young men are lied
to and misused in ways broadly similar to the way fems are used, and only
rise to any kind of power as old men. Charnas makes this point strongly
but makes it clear that however ill-used they are as children, the men
continue with the traditions that they have been abused by; it is a
choice.
The fems have their own, closely guarded traditions, and power
hierarchies, which are easily hidden because the men believe that they
cannot think, speak, or do anything at all without instruction. Rape is
the tool which allows the men to demonstrate their superiority, and in
addition to that they hate the mating process, birth and anything to do
with fems.
However horrible the
details get, Charnas holds the attention until the very end of the book,
her clear crisp prose working in opposition to the pitiful stories that
keep the men in a state of constant hatred and fear, and the stories that
the fems tell, out of men’s hearing.
Following two men who have in
various ways violated the usual rules, the story of the Holdfast unfolds
dramatically. They discover that surfaces often deceive, and that fems can
have a minor, but surprising influence. They travel across their small
part of the world on a forbidden quest, taking with them a fem, Alldera,
and find that however bad things are, there are plans to make them far
worse.
The Motherlines
The action has
moved out of the Holdfast and into the plains, far away from the
stronghold of men. Women live on the plains, having been free since before
the Wasting, when women realised that disaster was coming and made a way
for women to survive. Their life can seem idyllic, but has a hard,
uncompromising edge. Nomads, the women live on horseback, moving around
with the seasons, part of nature’s give and take. They have a complex
culture and family system. They patrol the edges of their lands and kill
any men who come out from the Holdfast, and rescue fems who have managed
to run away.
They have their own stories, and self-songs, that each
sings of her own life and in remembrance of her ancestors. Their lives
have dependability and balance, and the whole culture struggles with
change, as the fems they rescue become strong but won’t give up their
desire for vengeance. The women would do anything to protect themselves
from the men of the Holdfast; if the men knew they existed, and that
animals existed, they would try to destroy and enslave them all. This is
not a story of easy unity between women and fems, but a far more complex
interaction that ultimately produces another way.
Part of Suzy McKee
Charnas’ achievement is to show how synthesis of ideas can come about
without the individual player’s consent and how hidden possibilities can
arise out of the change that inevitably comes when two different views of
the world clash.
It is precisely because the author fights for the
integrity of her characters that it is possible to be sympathetic to both
sides of the argument, and ultimately because no-one inflicts their will
on another that change is possible.
©Helen Knibb 1999 |
