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Book ClubsChapter 1: Ova | "Woman: An Intimate Geography" by N. Angier
Hi Everyone! And thanks for your interest in reading "Woman: An Intimate Geography"! Since each topic is has so much information and is perfectly contained in one chapter, I will be making weekly threads per chapter to discuss each aspect of female biology described in this book. Note that there is a 1999 version, as well as a 2014 refresh with updated/additional information. I am using the 2014 version.
These threads will primarily focus on one book, and I ask that the discussion generally limit to the book itself. If after reading, you went off to do additional research, I encourage you to share how that has supplemented your engagement with the book. And of course, if anyone decides to pick up this book at a later date, you're welcome (and encouraged) to continue the conversation!
Our first chapter begins with ova, or the female egg cells.
Pre-reading Exercise
Think about/write down (no need to share - this is a self exercise) what you know about this topic. What were you taught in school? What have you learned on your own? What "common knowledge" tidbits are passed on about this topic in your culture, community, other background? How do you feel about your own ova?
Post-reading Discussion
Share your thoughts and questions! If you're having trouble thinking about where to start, I've listed some basic questions and things that stood out to me below:
Edit: Link to next chapter
Hello! Just finished the Introduction. Thanks for the discussion prompts for Ova. Thank you for introducing me to this book. So glad that she had a time to publish a new editing with her later writings.
Ok, finished Ova. I'll write more later, but my first take is that I want to tweet out the more witty sentences until I get banned.
Here are a few sentences that stood out for me:
"My daughter's eggs are silver points of potential energy, the light at the beginning of the tunnel, a near-life experience."
"Life is profligate; life is a spendthrift; life can persist only by living beyond its means."
"We are all yeses. We are worthy enough, we passed the inspection, we survived the great fetal oocyte extinctions. [W]e are meant to be. We are good eggs, every one of us."
"A woman’s egg resembles nothing so much as the sun at its most electrically alive: the perfect orb, speaking in tongues of fire."
After reading this chapter, I appreciate my ova and the ova of all women, each formed inside her grandmother's body, a chain of being, perfect and whole.
I'm happy to hear you're enjoying it so far! Those are great lines, I especially liked the third one as well. I don't think we (definitely not I) give much credit to the actual process of how a person is created. I think the common analogy is we were like clay that was molded into shape, but we're really more like carved out sculptures.
That third one reflects a theme I've thought about my whole life, as I am a gardener. Anyone with a garden should have no problem with abortion. Sure it's "alive." Sure, if you want to make yourself miserable, tell yourself that abortion stills a beating heart, or kills a person. If you want a good, strong apple crop, you need to cull 60-80% of the budding apples. If a woman wants a good, strong family, she needs to decide when her family increases, and when it doesn't. How many times she gets pregnant has nothing to do with it. I realize this is an unpopular opinion, but the women's movement made a grave error when it focused on "a woman's choice," instead of "a woman's power."