C. L. Moore’s “No Woman Born.” On Beyond Cisgender X
by Jeff Baker
NOTE: This occasional series was inspired in 2019 by a suggestion from A. M. Leibowitz about a reading list for High School beyond the straight, white, male paradigm. In this edition, we won’t talk about a book, but rather about one story.
We’ve met C. L. (Catherine Lucille) Moore several times in this column and in this feature. Moore (1911-1987)is the science-fiction and fantasy writer for the pulps from the 30s through the 50s in an era where women writing in that field were seemingly rare or concealed; whose use of initials was not meant to hide her femininity but to hide that she had another source of income from her boss at the bank. Moore met and married fellow writer Henry Kuttner and by 1940 almost everything they wrote was some sort of collaborative effort.
It is one thing to be a part of one of the best, most influential sci-fi/fantasy stories ever but Moore was behind a good many of them. “Mimsy Were The Borogoves.” “The Dark World.” “Doomsday Morning.” “Vintage Season,” and a host of others.
We’re going to talk about a story she wrote as a solo effort; “No Woman Born.”
“No Woman Born” first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction’s December 1944 issue. Its basic setup is all but a cliché now; someones body is nearly destroyed in an accident and they are rebuilt with artificial parts making them, well, better than they were. But Moore’s story predates many such stories and the plot and style of the story are what makes it compelling.
In the near-future, Deirdre is a noted actress, singer and dancer. When she is nearly killed in a fire her brain is salvaged from the ruined body and put in, not just a robot body but a body made of concentric metal rings which are held together by her will. The body is in a female form but she has no face, just a golden mask with the hint of cheekbones and a visor through which she sees. She is able to move, indeed to glide seemingly effortlessly and she wants to resume her performing career. She can still dance and her voice has been replicated as much the same as before albeit with much greater range.
Her manager, John Harris, has been called over by Maltzer, the physician and scientist who designed Deirdre’s new body and worked with her for over a year to help re-train her to move and speak and Maltzer doesn’t want her to appear before an audience for fear of their reaction.
As the plot progresses what captivates in the story is the sheer beauty of Moore’s prose, such as when Harris first sees Deirdre:
She was golden still. They had kept that much of her, the first impression of warmth and color which had once belonged to her sleek hair and the apricot tints of her skin. But they had had the good sense to go no further. They had not tried to make a wax image of the lost Deirdre.
Or this moment
He had never seen her stand perfectly still, and she was not doing it now. She swayed just a bit, vitality burning inextinguishably in her brain as once it had burned in her body, and stolid immobility was as impossible to her as it always had been.
Moore is an excellent prose stylist whose words verge on poetry like the works of Zenna Henderson, Ray Bradbury or Clark Ashton Smith. But she does not sacrifice artistry for plot in the story. There are a few plot twists and even some suspense that will hold a reader’s attention and maybe confirm the belief that this is one of the great science-fiction short stories ever. A story which should be taught in writing classes, for all of the above reasons.
As is fitting for a classic pulp writer “No Woman Born” contains a couple of literary references, and, for a story first published during World War Two, the future depicted is a future with television a prominent part of everyday life, especially the variety show format which would come about a few years after the war.
We can close this with the poem “Deirdre” by James Stephens, as it is quoted in Moore’s story with Moore’s slight alteration which gives the story its title:
The time comes when our hearts sink utterly
When we remember Deirdre and her tale,
And that her lips are dust…
There has been again no woman born
Who was so beautiful; not one so beautiful
Of all the women born—
A genuine classic, “No Woman Born” is available many places, especially in “The Best Of C. L. Moore” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/650750.The_Best_of_C_L_Moore and the harder to find Moore/Kuttner collection “Two-Handed Engine.” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61413861-two-handed-engine
Jeff Baker writes about reading and writing sci-fi, fantasy and horror and other sundry matters on or around the thirteenth of every month. He lives and writes in Wichita, Kansas where he has plenty of books by Moore (and Kuttner) to read. He has (as Mike Mayak) a story in the upcoming anthology “Five Seconds Of Power.” He posts weekly fiction on his blog https://authorjeffbaker.com/ and wastes time on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=679510827 and Blue Sky https://bsky.app/profile/jeffbakerauthor.bsky.social as well as Mastodon (as “Mike Mayak”) https://mastodon.otherworldsink.com/@MikeMayak