(no subject)
Oct. 5th, 2014 07:48 pm(x-posted from tumblr)
so i've been reading a bunch because my weird muscle thing makes books the most easily held form of media for me at the moment, and when I was doing a, well, honestly, semi-random above-the-waist draw from my shelves, I pulled out a book that I remembered as being id candy but i wasn't sure it was actually good, called Shadow by Anne Logston.
Shadow is a 500+ yr old elf, an extremely experienced thief, and cheerfully promiscuous. She sleeps with three different men in the first book, and also related the time she got her and her best friend Lady Donya out of a pickle with a band of highway robbers by... having an orgy with all of them, basically. Elven culture in general seems to be wired this way; most of her sexual encounters start off with her asking, "Well, aren't you going to greet me properly?" In addition, elves have sufficient difficulty conceiving that whenever an elf woman is fertile, it's tradition to grab as many elf dudes as she can find and "dance the high circle." Shadow herself was a high circle baby.
Most of the important characters in the book are women - Shadow's best friend, Donya, human warrior hero type; the mysterious assassin Blade; Celene, Donya's mother and one of the city leaders, and a magic worker who helps Shadow with some key plot points. The world is set up... not without misogyny? For instance, Shadow has to escape a rape attempt at one point, from men whose justification that "all elves are slutty" sounds a lot like real world "she was asking for it" bullshit. But it's set up so that women can take on these different societal roles - city leader, shopkeeper, assassin, guildmistress, warrior - and it's not remarkable, or unheard of. Also, it passes Bechdel like, every 5 minutes.
My conclusion upon finishing my reread was it was trashy in all the best ways, and I adored it.
I followed up by rereading another book that I recalled to be similar in terms of fantasy faux medieval setting and plot (female protagonist received a piece of jewelry that everyone and their uncle wants to kill her over; she uncovers plottiness in trying to survive and figure out WHY), The Raven Ring by Patricia C Wrede. (The other reason these books remind me of each other is another piece of id candy for me: hair. Shadow has a pile of hair on her head equal to her five centuries, which she has to keep talking people out of calling her Matriarch for, and styles of braids are likewise signifiers in Raven Ring, with Eleret asking a friend to give her a battle braid when matters escalate.)
Wrede is a better known, better recognized author than Logston (Wrede's gotten some ALA awards). She writes good prose, better prose, better dialogue I think - there are a couple of exchanges I have dogeared in my copy of this book, that I remain really fond of - but I actually came away disappointed on the feminism front. Yes, the book has a female protagonist, Eleret, but the next two characters in the line-up are male - Lord Daner, and Karvonnen the rogue - and worse, as a B-plot they're competing for her affections, and at the end of the novel she chooses one to take home with her (a fairly serious commitment, especially since she hadn't realized they were both romantically interested in her until late in the game). (Compare, Shadow gets laid a lot, but none of her partners think they're gonna go steady or whatever; one gets as far as asking if she's going to be staying long in the city where the story's set and she's like "ahahahah no i don't stick around long enough to see my human buddies get old, it's depressing." There's also, then, no competition between Shadow's partners; in the final scene, where they are sorting out what all happened and drinking together, two of them are there as her friends.)
The supplementary characters (characters whose purpose is additional info/plot propeller) in Raven Ring tend to be male more often, too. Eleret's going to claim the belongings of her dead mother from the military; the military commander is male. So is the magical Adept she seeks advice from. There's a junior magical apprentice, Prill, who is female, but she seems mostly there for flavor; there's one or two female magical experts who are mentioned but remain entirely offscreen. While Shadow passes Bechdel fairly damn often, I had to think pretty hard to come up with scenes where Raven Ring did. Do Prill and Eleret talk about anything but Lord Daner or Adept Climeral? Still not sure. Prill is basically the only positively portrayed female character besides Eleret (her mom doesn't count since she's dead). I finally recalled that Eleret does pass Bechdel with an antagonist, who wants to talk to her about the ring, and with Daner's aunt, who Eleret asks for advice regarding her card reading. Daner's aunt - all of Daner's female relations - are treated somewhat dismissively, as if they are all silly and annoying because they are feminine.
And they are traditionally feminine, in the societally prescribed roles and dresses that seem a lot more like standard fantasy medieval. Sure, Eleret can fight and would prefer to be in leggings instead of skirts, and her mother was in the army - but that's only HER people's culture, the Cilhar aren't like everyone else, the Cilhar are odd, Daner keeps getting in her way because he thinks he's protecting a helpless maiden, his sisters are aghast that she doesn't wear a fancy dress down to dinner.
so overall i found the quality YA novel to be one that elevated a female protagonist by setting her against other women, one step forward two steps back; while the trashy women's adventure book had women with women friends helping each other; and also honestly having healthier relationships with men in terms of openness and respect vs "good" men who belittled and underestimated the female protagonist and had to learn to see her true capabilities.
these were both important books to me growing up but the direct comparison astonished me.
so i've been reading a bunch because my weird muscle thing makes books the most easily held form of media for me at the moment, and when I was doing a, well, honestly, semi-random above-the-waist draw from my shelves, I pulled out a book that I remembered as being id candy but i wasn't sure it was actually good, called Shadow by Anne Logston.
Shadow is a 500+ yr old elf, an extremely experienced thief, and cheerfully promiscuous. She sleeps with three different men in the first book, and also related the time she got her and her best friend Lady Donya out of a pickle with a band of highway robbers by... having an orgy with all of them, basically. Elven culture in general seems to be wired this way; most of her sexual encounters start off with her asking, "Well, aren't you going to greet me properly?" In addition, elves have sufficient difficulty conceiving that whenever an elf woman is fertile, it's tradition to grab as many elf dudes as she can find and "dance the high circle." Shadow herself was a high circle baby.
Most of the important characters in the book are women - Shadow's best friend, Donya, human warrior hero type; the mysterious assassin Blade; Celene, Donya's mother and one of the city leaders, and a magic worker who helps Shadow with some key plot points. The world is set up... not without misogyny? For instance, Shadow has to escape a rape attempt at one point, from men whose justification that "all elves are slutty" sounds a lot like real world "she was asking for it" bullshit. But it's set up so that women can take on these different societal roles - city leader, shopkeeper, assassin, guildmistress, warrior - and it's not remarkable, or unheard of. Also, it passes Bechdel like, every 5 minutes.
My conclusion upon finishing my reread was it was trashy in all the best ways, and I adored it.
I followed up by rereading another book that I recalled to be similar in terms of fantasy faux medieval setting and plot (female protagonist received a piece of jewelry that everyone and their uncle wants to kill her over; she uncovers plottiness in trying to survive and figure out WHY), The Raven Ring by Patricia C Wrede. (The other reason these books remind me of each other is another piece of id candy for me: hair. Shadow has a pile of hair on her head equal to her five centuries, which she has to keep talking people out of calling her Matriarch for, and styles of braids are likewise signifiers in Raven Ring, with Eleret asking a friend to give her a battle braid when matters escalate.)
Wrede is a better known, better recognized author than Logston (Wrede's gotten some ALA awards). She writes good prose, better prose, better dialogue I think - there are a couple of exchanges I have dogeared in my copy of this book, that I remain really fond of - but I actually came away disappointed on the feminism front. Yes, the book has a female protagonist, Eleret, but the next two characters in the line-up are male - Lord Daner, and Karvonnen the rogue - and worse, as a B-plot they're competing for her affections, and at the end of the novel she chooses one to take home with her (a fairly serious commitment, especially since she hadn't realized they were both romantically interested in her until late in the game). (Compare, Shadow gets laid a lot, but none of her partners think they're gonna go steady or whatever; one gets as far as asking if she's going to be staying long in the city where the story's set and she's like "ahahahah no i don't stick around long enough to see my human buddies get old, it's depressing." There's also, then, no competition between Shadow's partners; in the final scene, where they are sorting out what all happened and drinking together, two of them are there as her friends.)
The supplementary characters (characters whose purpose is additional info/plot propeller) in Raven Ring tend to be male more often, too. Eleret's going to claim the belongings of her dead mother from the military; the military commander is male. So is the magical Adept she seeks advice from. There's a junior magical apprentice, Prill, who is female, but she seems mostly there for flavor; there's one or two female magical experts who are mentioned but remain entirely offscreen. While Shadow passes Bechdel fairly damn often, I had to think pretty hard to come up with scenes where Raven Ring did. Do Prill and Eleret talk about anything but Lord Daner or Adept Climeral? Still not sure. Prill is basically the only positively portrayed female character besides Eleret (her mom doesn't count since she's dead). I finally recalled that Eleret does pass Bechdel with an antagonist, who wants to talk to her about the ring, and with Daner's aunt, who Eleret asks for advice regarding her card reading. Daner's aunt - all of Daner's female relations - are treated somewhat dismissively, as if they are all silly and annoying because they are feminine.
And they are traditionally feminine, in the societally prescribed roles and dresses that seem a lot more like standard fantasy medieval. Sure, Eleret can fight and would prefer to be in leggings instead of skirts, and her mother was in the army - but that's only HER people's culture, the Cilhar aren't like everyone else, the Cilhar are odd, Daner keeps getting in her way because he thinks he's protecting a helpless maiden, his sisters are aghast that she doesn't wear a fancy dress down to dinner.
so overall i found the quality YA novel to be one that elevated a female protagonist by setting her against other women, one step forward two steps back; while the trashy women's adventure book had women with women friends helping each other; and also honestly having healthier relationships with men in terms of openness and respect vs "good" men who belittled and underestimated the female protagonist and had to learn to see her true capabilities.
these were both important books to me growing up but the direct comparison astonished me.