This is really an extraordinary little book. Distinctly a product of its time - and Gilman a product of hers - there are definitely some strange gaps here, primarily the total lack of sex. It doesn't seem reasonable to me that, in the absence of one gender, the other would totally eschew homosexuality, but there it is. Whether it just didn't cross Gilman's mind, or whether she thought about it but considered the existing subject matter an uphill struggle enough already, given the times she lived in, is something I just don't know.

So it's not a perfect book. There are substantial flaws, but even taking these into account, as a thought experiment Herland is sustained and original. It's also short, and I appreciate concision in my speculative fiction. In many ways, Herland is as much science fiction as anything else. The two populations are so different, have diverged so wildly, that it's almost as if cultures from two different planets are meeting for the first time, and trying to understand each other - and themselves. Accurately enough, it's the understanding of self in the face of the perceived abnormal that is the most difficult. Not everyone succeeds, and I think that's a painfully accurate observation that Gilman does an excellent job of highlighting.