The Case of the Haploid Heart

Alice Sheldon’s SF stories exhibit a psychological pattern in which images of symbiosis are juxtaposed with images of extreme separation and estrangement. This pattern is, in part, projective, linked to the unresolved gender conflicts in Sheldon’s childhood—and especially to her ambivalent relationship with her mother, against whom she defined herself. The violent tensions in Sheldon’s SF plots thus express not only her overt sexual politics, but also a psychomachical struggle—the ongoing drama of a personality at war with itself. Sheldon’s yearning for integration, intimacy, and surcease is evident throughout her work; but that wish is often defeated by an equal and opposite fear of closeness, dependency, and helplessness...a fear of the loss of Self in the Other. Whatever their initial trajectories, her stories tend to become vicious circles which serve to validate an elemental self-division—the no-win war of Me against Her. Sheldon’s feminism is thus subtly limited. Although she empathetically represents women as alienated, “toothless” victims, she is far less able to imagine characters who are free and whole female selves. Nevertheless, her work constitutes a precious achievement. She was never able to transcend her private pain and inner conflicts; but she was able to express that pain and conflict in precise and memorable terms. And in that emotional authenticity lies her enduring power. (NS-F)

Alice (programming language) · Art · Art history · Psychoanalysis · Contemporary Literature and Criticism · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction