“Houston, Houston Do You Read?” was published as by “Raccoona Sheldon” (another of Alice B. Sheldon’s pseudonyms) in a paperback original SF anthology, Aurora: Beyond Equality edited by Vonda N. McIntyre and Susan J. Anderson. This was 1976 and feminism in Science Fiction was on the rise. “Houston, Houston Do You Read?” went on to win a Nebula Award in 1976 and a Hugo Award in 1977.
A spacecraft with a three man crew on a mission to study the Sun, returns to Earth…but Earth isn’t where it’s supposed to be. The men get radio messages from Luna Central warning that their course is wrong. The men first think this is a joke. Then they realize if their course is wrong, they could run out of fuel, food, and water. The men consider the possibility they’re being contacted by aliens. But, the truth is much stranger than that.
I was a huge “James Tiptree, Jr.” fan. I found those stories artful and original. Later, James Triptree, Jr. was revealed to be a woman and that generated shock waves throughout the SF field. I bought and read everything Alice B. Sheldon published until her tragic death in 1987. “Houston, Houston Do you Read?” is one of her masterpieces. GRADE: A
One of my favourite authors too!
Totally different from the space opera of those times (which I also liked) and really refreshing for a “young” reader like me in his last phase of university studies in the late 60s.
Just to think that she was over 50 years old already when she wrote those fabulous stories! A kind of late bloomer?
Wolf, SF was a male-dominated field despite a cadre of excellent women writers. Tiptree stories were incredible for that time.
I’m a fan of Tiptree’s. I have most of her short stories and have meant to reread them but keep putting it off. This is one of her best.
Steve, HOUSTON, HOUSTON DO YOU READ? shocked a lot of people in the mid-1970s!
When Sheldon appeared in the Seventies my interest in SF was very much on the wane. But just when I thought I was out Sheldon pulled me back in. She probably extended my time as an SF reader by several years.
Michael, Sheldon and Varley lit up the SF scene in the Seventies for me, too!
Good choice. This is one of the few stories of hers that I’ve read.
Jeff, you’ll find plenty of great stories in other Tiptree collections!
Well, this one appeals to me and I have always meant to read her. Thanks.
Patti, I think you’ll find the Tiptree stories compelling. My favorite story of hers is “The Screwfly Solution” written under her “Raccoona Sheldon” pseudonym.
Testing.
I have one awaiting approval, George.
Todd, no comments are pending or need approval.
Todd, you passed the Test!
Weird. Ah, well. Thanks. It’s been et!
Alice Sheldon actually bylined this one “James Tiptree, Jr.”–it was her other contribution to AURORA: BEYOND EQUALITY that was published under her daily-life nickname Racoona Shildon, “Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Full of Light!”–both often criticized at the time for misandry. Perhaps unfairly. But the universality of men as creeps is certainly implied by both stories. With, alas, too much evidence for too many of us weighing in that direction.
Todd, glad to have your comment! Yes, many of the Tiptree stories bashed men…but many deserve it!
And many of her best stories kept her misanthropy in check…as with Anne Sexton, Hemingway and some others, her suicide capped a life not necessarily filled with kindness in either direction…
Todd, I remember being shocked when I heard of Sheldon’s suicide. But, considering the oeuvre of her work, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
Sheldon. My typing devolves ever more.
Thanks for sparking this discussion, George; as a friend of Tiptree/Sheldon’s, I’ve enjoyed reading it. My own interpretation of her world-view would be disappointment that humanity is not living up to its potential; some of her characters represent that failure, and others struggle against it. The society in “Houston, Houston” is more nuanced than some people realize — they’ve tried to make the world better than it was, but it’s not a utopia, and the choices they make in the story are not to be considered by the reader as automatically “right.”
Jeff, I marvel at the relationship you had with Alice Sheldon! And you did a masterful job with the awards and anthologies, too! I was a Tiptree fan from the get-go loving the innovative writing and the feminism infused in the story-telling. I was shocked and heart-broken when I hear news of her death.