This is topic What gender did you think the Oversoul was? (Homecoming) in forum Discussions About Orson Scott Card at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Nathan2006 (Member # 9387) on :
 
Just wondering... I always read the voice as a man's voice (I think it's because the oversoul just injected its thought's into Nafai, who was male)

But, in another thread, somebody referred to the Oversoul as 'she'.

It's a machine, so it technically doesn't have a gender, I know. But, for some reason I always heard his voice as a man's.

I know that the woman referred to the oversoul as she...

So, even though it doesn't matter, I'll ask anyway: Out of curiosity, how did you 'hear' the oversoul's voice? Man, or woman's?
 
Posted by KaliAngelKat (Member # 10765) on :
 
I don't think the Oversoul has a gender. Each person that hears it will hear it with a voice familliar to themselves.

I'd hear it as a female cause it would just be easier to associate it that way. [Smile]
 
Posted by vonk (Member # 9027) on :
 
I hear it as a male that's about halfway through hormone therapy to become a female. Best of both worlds!

Or maybe the voice of Satan in Passion of the Christ, an overlay of a male and female voice.

Although the Oversoul is obviously female, because the vast amount of space it occupies is empty, therefor very yonic. Ergo, female. Hmm, or the ships coming out of the ground could be metephoric. You know, pushing up out of the ground, thrusting through the seal in the atmospher, spreading the Oversoul's seed across the galaxy. I dunno. Now I'm torn. I'll have to think on it.

[ September 19, 2007, 01:18 PM: Message edited by: vonk ]
 
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
 
To be honest I did not hear it as a man or a women's voice. It was just a voice without any gender assignment.
 
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 
I tended to go with the female interpretation. I don't know if that was based on how it "acted" (in distress, meddling with people) or because I'm female.
 
Posted by grammargoddess (Member # 10828) on :
 
male for me. But I do also consider God to be male; not everyone else does.
 
Posted by DaisyMae (Member # 9722) on :
 
I heard female, I think because of the prompt from the woman in the story.
 
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
 
James Earl Jones
 
Posted by KaliAngelKat (Member # 10765) on :
 
lol. Steve I could so see him playing that role if Homecomming went movie!
 
Posted by Zevlag (Member # 1405) on :
 
I heard it as female.
 
Posted by Qaz (Member # 10298) on :
 
In the book, all the men referred to the Oversoul as "he," and all the women referred to it as "she." I refer to it as "it" because as a reader I knew it was just an machine.
 
Posted by Magus04 (Member # 9757) on :
 
I knew it was an 'it', obviously, but I kept thinking of it as more of a female, mostly because the image during Rasa's dream stuck with me, where the Oversoul was an old woman in the boat.
 
Posted by happysmiley (Member # 9703) on :
 
I heard it as she, mainly because when the women called it a her it stuck in my head more then the men's calling it a he. Even though later on it talked to Nafai most, which meant it was mainly reffered to as him. I guess it's kinda like if you had been reading someone's name incorrectly for a year and then you go back and see the correct pronunciation. It's really hard to change your way of thinking about it. I agree with pooka; the oversoul seemed to have a female personality.
 
Posted by The G-Bus Man (Member # 10911) on :
 
The only thing I'll say is keep in mind this is the exact conversation the characters themselves have had throughout the series.
 
Posted by Sibyl (Member # 10079) on :
 
I think the thing about "voice" is a sidetrack. Not only do I have a low-pitched voice for a woman, apparently I don't have many "feminine" mannerisms in my speech, either. People talking to me on the phone frequently think I'm a man. (I'm quite straight, btw).

But I didn't think of the Oversoul as having a gender.
 
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
 
I never thought of it as having a gender.
 
Posted by Nathan2006 (Member # 9387) on :
 
I never thought of it as anything but a machine either... But, whenever I read, I hear what the characters say and think in a voice, and the Oversoul was male for me. For whatever reason. I know it's totally irrelevent.

But it's interesting. For me, anyway. I often find things of little importance to other people quite interesting.

Do you think it's maybe because I associate machines and 'robots' with men? Hmmm. I mean, almost every robot I've read about in fiction has had a male's voice in my head(Jane being an exception, of course).

<sigh> I'm rambling again.
 
Posted by DDDaysh (Member # 9499) on :
 
I hear it as a "she" because she seemed to use women as mediaries more often..... or maybe just because I'm female, who knows. I think she seems distinctly female in Earthborn however. Her conversations with Shedemei just do not strike me as having a male persona in any way.
 


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