The Stone Gods (novel)

The Stone Gods
First edition
Author Jeanette Winterson
Publisher Hamish Hamilton
Publication date
 2007
Pages 224
ISBN 0-241-14395-0

The Stone Gods is a 2007 novel by Jeanette Winterson.[1][2] It is mainly a post apocalyptic love story concerned with corporate control of government, the harshness of war, and the dehumanization that technology brings, among other themes. The novel is self-referential, where later characters in the story find and read earlier sections of the book itself, and where certain sets of characters’ story arcs repeat, particularly those of a Robo sapiens named Spike and her reluctant human companion, Billie. This technique sets the book in the postmodernist genre, though it is mainly used to warn against history’s tendency to repeat itself, as well as humanity’s inability to learn from past mistakes, even when these mistakes repeat across history, planets, and their respective evolutionary timelines.

Ursula Le Guin, while criticizing exposition and sentimentality, thought the novel a worthwhile and cautionary tale.[3]

A novel in four parts

  • "Planet Blue"- set in a futuristic past, where humanity's problematic destruction of its own home-world, Orbus, seems to be fixed when they come across and "terraform" another viable world in outer space.
  • "Easter Island"- set in the 18th century, a time when Easter Island's inhabitants destroyed many of the moai statues (and the last tree) on their island.
  • "Post-3War"- set in "Tech City" after World War Three, with Billie educating Spike, the Robo sapiens.
  • "Wreck City"- set in the same time-space, though moving to a derelict trash city where those abandoned by the corporate-controlled society struggle to live.

References

  1. ↑ Cokal, Susann. "She, Robot". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
  2. ↑ "The Stone Gods Book Review". Retrieved 13 July 2016.
  3. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/sep/22/sciencefictionfantasyandhorror.fiction


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