He, She And It

He, She and It is a feminist science fiction novel by Marge Piercy, published in 1991.

Plot summary

The main story of He, She and It is situated in North America in the near future of the year 2056. At that time, the economic and political power is held by few multis -- huge multi-national enterprises with their own social hierarchy that have produced an affluent society. The main part of the population, however, lives in the glop outside of the multis' enclaves within an environment that has mainly been destroyed. Here, the life is dominated by poverty, gangs and the law of the stronger man. An exception from this are the so called free cities that are able to sell their technologies to the multis but remain autonomous. Communication is handled via a network which allows the participants to project themselves into it (Cyberspace).

When the protagonist Shira loses custody of her son Ari to her ex-husband Josh she returns from her multi Yakamura-Stichen (Y-S) to her hometown Tikva (Hope in Hebrew) - a Jewish freetown. There, she starts working on the socialization of the cyborg Yod (the tenth letter in Hebrew and a symbol for God in Kabbala), who has been created illegally by Avram to protect the city. Yod is the tenth cyborg in a row of previously failured experiments whose programming has partially been completed by Malkah, Shira's grandmother. While Shira and Yod build up a (sexual) relationship, Shira's childhood sweetheart Gadi, Avram's son also comes back to Tikva. When Malkah is working on a chimera (security software) to protect the city from online attack, she is attacked by Y-S. Yod, however, is able to prevent the attack. Eventually, Y-S invites Shira to a new hearing concerning the custody of her son. Shira is accompanied by Yod, her mother Riva, and the data pirate Nili, a biotechnologically enhanced woman when the situation escalates. The Y-S delegation and Riva die in the fight. Thereupon Shira, Malkah and Yod decide to get into the Y-S base. They manage to get hold of personnel files revealing the conspiracy against Shira and Tikva.

As next step, Shira and Yod are accompanied by Nili and Gadi into the Glop. Here, they get in contact with an organized underground group from which they travel into the Y-S enclave in Nebraska to kidnap Ari. There, Josh is killed by Yod. Back to Tikva, Shira's family spends some quiet time until Y-S invites them to a further meeting in the net. Y-S asks for Yod to be handed over in order to use its technology for military reasons or to attack Tikva. Avram agrees to the deal with the hope to create a new cyborg. So, Yod is programmed to destroy itself when sent to the enclave. When it explodes, Avram's lab is destroyed at the same time, as planned by Yod. As Avram dies in this accident and all his notes are destroyed the creation of a further cyborg becomes impossible.

Finally, Malkah leaves Tikva with Nili to visit to a secret town in post-nuclear holocaust Israel and to profit from the possible biotechnological enhancements. Shira is integrated into Tikva's society further. When she discovers copies of the notes concerning Yod, she destroys them.

The main plot is continuously broken by a story Malkah tells Yod. This story deals with Rabbi Judah Loew who Malkah depicts as her ancestor living in the ghetto of Prague around 1600. To protect the Jewish community from the Christian mob, Loew uses the knowledge of Kabbala to create the golem Joseph from clay. His granddaughter Chava, a very educated woman, teaches Joseph to read and to write. Joseph successfully protects the ghetto and when the situation calms down, Loew takes life from Joseph. Generally, this story reflects Yod's situation.