Short Story Review: "The Catgirl Manifesto" by Richard Calder

[rax]

You can read "The Catgirl Manifesto" online in its entirety through Google Books just by clicking this link. As I will explain, for many of you, there is no excuse not to do this. This is a short story that opens with an extended quote from Foucault, for God's sake. It's a fictional theoretical introduction to a fictional manifesto about a mutant race of highly sexualized females calling themselves catgirls and engaging with critical theory. No, actually. Yes, really. It falls under the "experimental fiction" heading --- there isn't really a plot per se, and the character is the impenetrable narrator of an academic paper, so there's no growth --- but it's still a fascinating exploration of how people might respond in such a situation and puts real authors in conversation with the fantastic through the subversion of academic discourse. Can you say: SQUEE!!!? The story is a Tiptree Award winner, and volume 1 of the Tiptree Award anthology is available really, really cheap used if you'd like to own a copy in print. Seriously, it will take you like fifteen minutes and it's sitting right there for free on the Internet. If any of that pushed any of your buttons, go read it.

Comments

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

I'm certain I've suffered from nymphic autism at certain periods in my life for weeks at a time. Thank you for sharing. Essentially the exposition for a story about women embracing the lady/whore dichotomy but told so interestingly it's actually fairly erotic. Disappointing that there was a Felis Femalia, but no Felis Malia. I suppose in classic sadomasochistic style WIDOW was supposed to be the male part of the equation. Ho hum. Even if I kind of like like the idea of a studded codpiece and a rapier at my hip I'd rather be a barely sentient mutant sex machine than a member of any moralistic sex police. Catboys get no love.

[rax.livejournal.com]

It's holding a mirror to the problems with extant texts on the subject, I think, though I agree he could have done differently and it might have been better.