TIME & SPACE |
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From what we
know from the hypertext, "Cutting Edges"
is a hyperfiction based on a true story set in the Northwest of the
Pacific in Portland, Oregon. "Not too long ago", we are not told
exactly when but sometime soon after the Cernobyl nuclear
disaster, there was a revolution , a protest movement in which
all the participants were women. The revolution was led by a woman, in
the hypertext under the name of Lyssa Strutter
whose bigest ambition was to change the world. Women got involved in
the movement with great enthusiasm and it soon spread to other
major cities on the West Coast. The most important issues they were
protesting against were sex discrimination and rape and the first
weapon they used was complete abstinence from sex with their
husbands, lovers or boyfriends. But after one month of strike, when
women started to give up, all the excitement and ideals were
quickly forgotten.
"Cutting Edges" is the chronicle of women's struggle to end the war between the sexes and it was written in the hope of reminding those women's attempt to put an end to sexual violence and bad treatment even if it was not successful and it was written in order to refresh the memory of those who forgot that violence of all kinds is out there making new victims everyday. The auther ascribed herself the task to refresh memories and create what she calls new myths because time goes on, it never stops and while the time goes on the world keeps moving and we have to keep it this way. The names of
the characters have been changed but names are not the important thing
here, it is the actions of the characters that mustn't let us forget
that the war between the sexes still exists and that just like any
other war it must be stopped.
Unless things begin to change, "Cutting Edges" will always be a hyperfiction of actual importance. Even if the action of this hyperfiction is set in Portland, Oregon the universalism of its subject becomes obvious from the very beginning. Women are being raped and abused all over the world, even in the smallest village. Women are raped and abused in time of peace and in time of war but rape is a crime both in war as in peace, there is no exception. Throughout history women generally have had a hard life and they had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men their most significant professions being the wifehood and the motherhood. In the past century though, women from almost all over the world won the right to vote and by doing so they achieved a reevaluation of the role they play in society. |