The Passion of New Eve: Difference between revisions

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The Passion of New Eve (1977) is a Dystopian novel by Angela Carter.

It's about a British man, Evelyn, who is, well, castrated by Militant Feminists and made into "a New Eve". It's a satire on Feminism in general, Freudianism, and all other sorts of things. Also features a Dystopic America in the process of caving in on itself.

Tropes in The Passion of New Eve:

All Psychology Is Freudian: Mother's reverse-Oedipal philosophizing
All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game"
Amazon Brigade
Angry Black Man: They rove in gangs through the Big Applesauce, in tanks. They just bombed Grand Central Station, and they're putting blockades up around Harlem...
Apocalypse How
Bait and Switch Lesbians: Actually, there's hardly any lesbianism in the book, but "Bait-and-Switch", there's plenty of
Big Applesauce: In all the worst ways. And then some.
Body Horror: A lot of it, but the blue ribbon goes to Mother--the self-created Fertility Goddess. Her army of Amazons have each sacrificed a breast to her, which she has grafted onto herself, so she has two giant rows of tits.
Brainwashed and Crazy
Closer to Earth
Does Not Like Men: Parodied
The End of the World as We Know It
Fan Disservice: So, so much.
Female Misogynist: Angela Carter, in writing this.
Gonk: Mother.
It Got Worse: It really, really does.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Just when the Evelyn/Eve joke has been made one too many time, the narrator (at this point, just post-castration, "turned into my own diminutive, Eve, the shortened form of Evelyn") says

"Perhaps, I thought, they had utilised my tender body because they couldn't resist the horrid pun of my name, with all its teasing connotations."

Marshmallow Hell: This trope is inadequate to encompass Carter's description of Evelyn being sMothered by Mother's gargantuan mammarian underworld.
Meaningful Name: Duh.
Moral Myopia
No Name Given: Mother.
Quintessential British Gentleman: Evelyn starts out as this. Sort of.
Rape Is Ok When It Is Female On Male: Not in ANY way.
Scary Black Man
Squick: The sex-scenes in this book are crimes against Nature. They're hysterical. Which is to say, they might drive someone into fits of hysteria.
Straw Feminist: Featured ohhhh so very prominently.
Too Dumb to Live: Evelyn. Seriously.
Transsexual: Evelyn --> Eve...
- The title-character even hangs a lampshade on how ridiculous it is that a man named Evelyn would be the subject of Mother's transsexual transformation.
Willing Suspension of Disbelief: The whole surgery, turning Evelyn into Eve in a couple months. Of course, this was written in 1977, so I think that might actually have been even more science-fiction then than it is now.

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 * [[It Got Worse]]: It really, ''[[Serial Escalation|really]]'' does.
 * [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]]: Just when the Evelyn/Eve joke has been made one too many time, the narrator (at this point, just post-castration, "turned into my own diminutive, Eve, the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|shortened]] form of Evelyn") says
-{{quote|  "Perhaps, I thought, they had utilised my tender body because they couldn't resist the horrid pun of my name, with all its teasing connotations."}}
+{{quote|"Perhaps, I thought, they had utilised my tender body because they couldn't resist the horrid pun of my name, with all its teasing connotations."}}
 * [[Marshmallow Hell]]: This trope is inadequate to encompass Carter's description of Evelyn being [[Incredibly Lame Pun|sMothered]] by Mother's gargantuan mammarian underworld.
 * [[Meaningful Name]]: Duh.