American Literature of the Sea and Great Lakes

A DOOR INTO OCEAN (1986). Joan Slonczewski (1956- ) brings an ecofeminist perspective to her science fiction novel set on Shora, a moon comprised of ocean and peopled by women wholly adapted to living in this watery realm. Committed to sustaining and understanding life, the women of Shora exist in harmony, acknowledging individual differences within their community and appreciating the diverse fantastic sea creatures and oceanic forces of their moon. Outside galactic powers, however, seek to colonize Shora and to exploit its human and natural resources, and when the women, in their desire to acknowledge and to learn from all life, permit interaction, Slonczewski’s narrative becomes a melodrama, with Shora’s community, represented by the organic and fluid sea, set in opposition to a technological and hierarchical patriarchy, represented by dead stone.

Elizabeth Schultz