Commentary on Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy

A New World Is Possible Every generation has had a sub-culture within it that has suffered from feeling alienated by the cultural status quos. From the beat generation of the late 40s, the counter-culture of the 60s, to the Occupy Wall Street movement of today, the challenging of ideas, ethics and traditions has always been relevant. Many writers and novels have been popularized for exploring utopian ideas (such as Aldous Huxley’s The Island) and dystopian possibilities (as in George Orwell’s 1984), but there hasn’t been a novel that explores both of these ideas in a parallel manner quite like Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time. Using the concept of time travel, Piercy is able to place both worlds side by side creating a â€Å"grass is†¦show more content†¦Slightly before Connie’s admission, she meets Luciente in what she thinks is a dream, but later finds out she has befriended someone from the future. Luciente begins taking Connie to her home – the seemingly utopian community of Mattapoisett in the distant future of 2137. To Connie, Mattapoisett seems like heaven simply because it is the complete opposite of her present-day home back in New York – gender and their roles have been eliminated, childbearing now takes place in laboratories, and many other social problems (such as poverty and inequalities) that plague Connie have been fixed in some way. While technology seems much more advanced in the future, it also appears somewhat nonexistent. The people of Mattapoisett focus on expending their energy on things they’ve decided to be essential for basic survival. Connie exclaims of the future, â€Å"It’s not like I imagined.† – â€Å"Most buildings were small and randomly scattered among trees and shrubbery and gardens, put together of scavenged old wood, old bricks and stones and cement blocks†¦ She saw bicycles and people on foot. Clothes were hanging on lines near a long building †“ shirts flapping on wash lines!† (Piercy, 60-61) Piercy also puts emphasis on the names of the characters that make up Mattapoisett. Names like Luciente and Orion help give Mattapoisett a heavenly or cosmic tone, and even the narrator describes Luciente in this way – â€Å"Me llamo Luciente: shining, brilliant, full of light.† (Piercy, 28) While