I was, of course, delighted with Phyllis Chesler’s review of my novels, The Throne in the Heart of the Sea and The Stars in their Courses. However, I can’t resist writing a response. After all, as Phyllis indicates in her last line, we may disagree.

First, a minor nit to pick: I don’t see my work as lesbian science fiction but as historical fiction. There are no science fiction elements in it, and although there are major lesbian characters, Jezebel herself is basically heterosexual.

Second, Phyllis sees my version of Elijah, whom she calls the Messiah, as “an angry ‘loser,’ a thief, a scoundrel, a rough customer—and only eventually, as a man of God.” Poet Judy Grahn read the first book in manuscript and encouraged me to rewrite it, to show Elijah as “the true and absolutely loyal…prophet of Judaism to come. He is not going to be tolerant of the goddess people, not even if one is a cousin.” He must be a man of “steely resolve…entirely fixed on his mission.” My Elijah, however, is neither a savior nor a fanatic.

The Biblical Elijah springs up full-blown, a prophet and miracle worker. He has no flaws and no self-doubt. What can a writer do with an already perfect hero (albeit one who engineers a mass murder)? You can’t develop a cardboard character. My Elijah is a human being, and I’m very fond of him. I watched him mature from a troubled adolescent into a mensch, a man who does his best to help the needy and oppressed, and to atone for the crimes of his youth.

As the author, I inhabit my characters. All of them are parts of me, to the extent that I can imagine myself into another person’s life, another age, another country. And under the right circumstances, all of us are capable of theft and murder, of great cruelty—and great love.

Prominent Second Wave feminist Phyllis Chesler has published a review of my novels. See below. I am delighted! I will post a comment on her review tomorrow.

Jezebel and Ancient Times Come to Life in Martha Shelley’s Fiction
–Phyllis Chesler

Shelley has written a work of lesbian science fiction but has, amazingly, set it in the ancient world, in the 9^th century BCE. Her research of the Middle East and of these distant times is deep and wondrous. I could not stop reading this work as the dramatic narrative moved from splendid palaces to wretched caves, from the high-born to the poor-born. Jezebel is one of the most haunting and maligned of figures and Shelley introduces us to her in her fictionalized girlhood, humanizes her, and brings us close to the always dangerous lives of those who wear crowns or of their queens who must live in harems.

Shelley also imagines an all-female harem guard and female bodyguards; she also imagines a child of poverty who becomes Jezebel’s intimate and her chief scribe and physician. Talk about quantum lucky leaps!  Ancient herbal medicine and surgical techniques are carefully described as are the many trades that women had including that of jewelry-maker, cook, gardener, designer—and ruler. Shelley’s ancient world is a multi-cultural one, teeming with female heroes of every skin color imaginable.

Her work is also scandalously heretical in that she presents the prophet and Messiah, Eliahu, (Elijah), as an angry “loser,” a thief, a scoundrel, a rough customer–and only eventually, as a man of God. Shelley presents her negative portrait of monotheistic Judaism in an unexpected way. We come to know Elijah and come to dislike him, up close, but long before we understand who he really is. Clearly, Shelley prefers the paganism of the ancient world—it’s many pleasures, festivals, carnivals–to the moral and intellectual treasure that Judaism also represents. About this we may disagree but I strongly recommend her work for sheer reading pleasure.