A Door into Ocean

Introduction

Joan Slonczewski was born in the year 1956 at Hyde Park, New York. He grew up in a nearby Katonah which was a quiet town, sheltered by forests at the time. She traced her imagery of water-anchored raft roots in her novel “A Door into Ocean” to the huge trees she used to watch there. She imagined them growing upside down. Her father was a physicist who practiced in Zurich. Due to which during Joan's childhood her family had to move to Switzerland for two years.

In 1977, she graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a degree in biology, and went on to earn a Ph.D. at Yale University in the year 1982. She held several postdoctoral appointments before joining the biology faculty of Kenyon College. She worked as a professor there and specialized in molecular microbiology and biology. She married Michael Barich who taught her classics at Kenyon. The couple had two sons.

Joan Slonczewski has always maintained an opinion that the world that is controlled by the men is a symbol of dystopia, and in this world, the women have to bear a number of problems and have to live under the dominance of the males. She has discussed in this novel the female utopia, in the form of Shora, and has compared the feminine utopia and the male dystopia.

Discussion

A Door into Ocean is the second science-fiction novel by professor of biology Joan Slonczewski; following Still Forms on Fox field (1980). Like her other novels, it has been praised by critics for the accuracy of its science, the completeness of its alternate cultures, and its characterization. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award as best science-fiction novel of 1986.

As a work of science fiction, the novel offers the situation of the alien encounter. Shifting the scene from one planet to another, it explores the situation of alien encounter from the perspectives of both worlds opening with the visit of the Sharers to Valedon. As in other science-fiction novels describing encounters with aliens, the story raises and examines the issue of the nature of humanity. When Valans turn purple like the Shorans they fear the loss of their humanity. When Merwen considers the possibility that some of the Shorans are willing to hasten the death of the invaders, she worries that Sharers will lose their identity (McLanahan and Sandfeur, 45).

This novel has been discussed in the context of women as writers of science fiction and as a work of feminist science fiction. The portrayal of the world of Shora, with its highly advanced life-shaping science, its openness to all learning, and its egalitarian politics help to values those matters that have been seen as feminist areas of concern. This emphasis critiques the patriarchal culture of Valedon as it also critiques the dominance of science itself, since the outcome of human action always remains unpredictable and uncontrollable. As Merwen knows in the final series of conversations with Realgar, it is word weaving, the uncertain art of persuasive language ...