Herland; Good Amount Read

Herland is a tale of three adventurous friends who decide to voyage into an unknown territory in search of a land that supposedly only contains women. Vandyck, Terry, and Jeff leave their search group and use Terry's airplane to find this mysterious place where it seems the women are evidently technologically advanced. When reading this book, I can't help but think of the "lost generation," an idea that frequents many of Earnest Hemingway's short stories. I am not sure if this book takes place during the same time, but the similarities are striking. The Lost Generation refers to "the generation of young people coming of age in the United States during and shortly after World War I" (Wikipedia.com). Prevalent mainly in Europe, these post war young men decided to roam and live a nomad like lifestyle. When I first read that these three men were going on this adventure into Herland, that is the first correlation I made. There is no discussion of women at home or any obligations for these men; they are just three friends who decide to act on their ambition and take this journey. Not one of the three men know what lies ahead, but as in the spirit of members from the Lost Generation,, they venture out anyway. Because I am a youth in current society, I relate most books I have to read to movies or some other aspect of pop culure. The connection that I made was to a movie called Without a Paddle. This tale also follows the journey of three men who explore deep in the back woods of America; in their case, they are searching for money. In both stories, a treasure is being searched for, whether it be a financial gain, as in Without a Paddle, or the discovery of a new culture unknown by man. This book has been interesting so far; I yearn to find out why they're are no men in the society because I am not buying the idea that the women can self-reproduce, as some claim. I look forward to finding out the answers to the questions I seek and until then, I will keep you all posted on what this book means to me.