Episode 1440
Dreamsnake
Wed, 2021-Apr-14 01:12 UTC
Length - 2:35
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Wednesday, 14 April 2021 is Dreamsnake.
Dreamsnake is a 1978 science fiction novel by American writer Vonda N. McIntyre. It is an expansion of McIntyre's 1973 novelette "Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand", for which she won her first Nebula Award. The story is set on Earth in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. The central character, Snake, is a healer who uses genetically modified serpents to cure sickness; one of these is the titular "dreamsnake", an alien serpent whose venom gives dying people pleasant dreams. The novel follows Snake as she seeks to replace her dreamsnake after its death.
The book is considered an example of second-wave feminism in science fiction. Inspired to change traditional quest stories, McIntyre placed a woman at its center. She also avoided gender pronouns to challenge expectations about characters' gender identities. Dreamsnake also explored varying social structures and sexual paradigms from a feminist perspective, and examined themes of healing and cross-cultural interaction.
The novel was well-received, winning the 1978 Nebula Award, the 1979 Hugo Award, and the 1979 Locus Poll Award. The strength and self-sufficiency of Snake as a protagonist were noted by several commentators. Reviewers also praised McIntyre's writing and the book's themes. Scholar Diane Wood wrote that Dreamsnake demonstrated "science fiction's potential to produce aesthetic pleasure through experimentation with linguistic and cultural codes", and Ursula K. Le Guin called it "a book like a mountain stream—fast, clean, clear, exciting, beautiful".
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:12 UTC on Wednesday, 14 April 2021.
For the full current version of the article, see Dreamsnake on Wikipedia.
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This has been Justin Neural. Thank you for listening to featured Wiki of the Day.
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