A Cyborg Manifesto. Science, technology and socialist feminism in the late twentieth century by Donna Haraway

Cyborg Manifesto is an essay on feminism, part of Simians, cyborgs and women. A book of essays on feminist theory.

I can't say I enjoyed this read. Its dense academic writing isn't easy to read. Add to that my ignorance of historical and theoretical context. Add to that, that after reading the introduction to the book (which I kind of enjoyed) I went on reading the first 3 essays (the plan was to read Cyborg Manifesto only) which discuss work on natural sciences in the late 19 century and early 20 century. Haraway explains how some reputed scientific work of the time was biased against women. Scientists applied socially constructed ideas on violence and dominance in their studies acknowledging them as natural. Can't say more because, not my thing...
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Skip to the Cyborg Manifesto,... I realised this essay doesn't discuss much (not as much as I had wished) the concept of cyborg. What it does (in my limited understanding) is to use, the concept of "cyborg", first to acknowledg the humanity of cyborgs (they are humans!), and second to emphasise the non-natural  aspects of their construction to use them as theoretical tools to improve modern world feminism. Ideas like "women should stay at home" or "women should be mothers" would not apply if we thought of ourselves as cyborgs. Why? Because cyborgs are not natural but constructed. Cyborgs can reconstruct themselves the way they want given the tools available in our time. (I wish I could develop this idea more but I can't ) Anyway I guess theorists such as Haraway used the concept of cyborg to dispute structures such as men dominance over women which are, I think, not natural.

I downloaded a pdf version of the book from my university library.
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Fun bit, Haraway, mentions science fiction authors such as Octavia Butler, Joanna Russ and Samuel R. Delany. .

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem (4🌟)

Solaris is a science fiction novel. It is considered a classic of its genre. Originally published in Polish in 1961. It was translated to English by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox.

The story follows Kelvin, a psychologist who arrives at a space station orbiting Solaris. He finds the crew suffering from hallucinations or so he thinks. After one day or so Kelvin is visited by a a woman who resembles his wife. Only his wife has been dead for over a decade.

Throughout the story we see Kelvin's state of mind deteriorate while at the same time he does some research to understand what's going on on the planet. However I do not consider this novel a character study but an exploration of ideas.

This novel not only explores the emotional and psychological effects planet Solaris has on humans but also the strange ocean-like organism which seems to be the only inhabitant of the planet. There is also a fair amount of historical scientific accounts of in situ exploration and theories about the nature of the Solarian ocean. Is it sentient? Is it alive?

My edition is a paperback published by Faber and Faber in 2016. 214 pages.

The Walking Man by Jiro Taniguchi (4🌟)

Stories about a man who walks. Very little dialogue. This book is more about sensations than action. Beautiful city views and natural landscapes. The man goes out with his wife, dog or by himself to enjoy those little things in life most of us tend to ignore.

Not sure which story I liked the most. I liked all of them but I certainly liked some scenes more than others. For example where the walking man relaxes on a tree or when he helps an old lady or many in which he just wanders the streets with no clear purpose but to enjoy the walk.