thread: 2005-08-30 : Coming-of-age Fantasy for Adults
On 2005-09-02, Lisa Padol wrote:
Blast, I think I got rid of my copy of Song for a Dark Queen. If it turns up, I'll let folks know. It struck me as okay, but not one I'd reread.
Have you read The Lantern Bearers? Some very interesting gender stuff, and a very interesting relationship between a brother and a sister that is perhaps almost too carefully non-incestuous.
Have you read Patricia McKillip? I'm thinking of Winter Rose and a very odd turn it takes midway through, and of Ombria in Shadow.
I liked The Dreamstone, but found the sequel, The Tree of Swords and Jewels to be too much marking time.
Have you read Parke Godwin's Firelord or Gillain Bradshaw's trilogy about Gwalchmai / Gawain? How about Fay Sampson's Daughter of Tintagel sequence?
Vincent, talk to people who were raped or otherwise abused. Seriously. This is advice that makes me feel really weird to give and would be very hard for me to take, but I think it's sound. I remember a couple of ljs where there was a meme—ghads, it's been a while. I think it was people who survived abuse saying "I am a survivor. I am not a victim. Yes, bad stuff happens, but, you know what? It's okay to admit that you've put that behind you or otherwise come to whatever terms you're going to come to with it, and to get on with your life."
Talk to R. Sean Borgstrom, and read her astonishing series of—of—there's just nothing like it out there. rebecca.hitherby.com
But yes, a lot of good fiction is about "What does it mean to be what you are?"
I did my dissertation on modern Arthurian fiction, and at the time, THE issue that authors were studying through the lense of the story of Arthur was feminism. What does it mean to be a woman in this ultimate male epic?
Arthur's story looks at outsiders a lot. Arthur starts off as an outsider, a nobody who becomes king. Guinevere is one of the most powerful women in the kingdom, but she is an outsider. Morgan le Fay is an outsider as well. Gillian Bradshaw's trilogy is about outsiders—Gwalchmai before he becomes one of Arthur's warriors, the man who becomes Gwalchmai's servant, and Arthur's childless queen.
Childlessness becomes a serious issue in this setting. Oversimplifying, if you're poor, without kids, you're screwed when you're too old to work. You may still be screwed if you have kids, but you've got a chance that they'll help out. Oh, and be aware that aging parents is a hot button today. I've got a mother with dementia and a father with diabetes and vision problems, and if I am not the norm, I am rapidly becoming the norm. What happens to women too old to bear children or to work? What happens to crippled warriors or farmers?
If you're rich without kids, well, things get interesting. A royal couple without kids? Kings may put Queens aside in more or less pleasant ways. Or, if you prefer, you can have people demand the King be sacrificed for the good of the land. It all depends on whose fault people decide the lack of children is.
Too many children, especially for a royal family, can be a disaster as well.
Oh, and raiding. Grabbing animals and people. Whatever name you'll want to use, we're talking slavery here. And we're talking examining what that means, because it's different in Roman times, in tenth century Iceland, in sixth century Britain, in nineteenth century USA, and in the twentieth century.
Oh, right, read Sea of Trolls by, um, Nancy Farmer, I think. Yep. This was the Year of the Norse, I think. Josh and I read for the Mythopoeic Society, to judge who should get the award in Adult Fiction. Josh reads for the Childrens' Fiction as well. The Farmer book is YA, and quite good.
On the adult list, also Year of the Norse, also quite good, and also thematically appropriate, are The Knight and The Wizard, a duology by Gene Wolfe.
It's more Renaissance in feel, but do read Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint and The Fall of the Kings, and, when it comes out, Privilege of the Sword.
And read her Thomas the Rhymer. It's about men, women, and fairies, and set not too much later than your ideal time period. And it's damned good.
Hm, I'd better stop before I make the list of books even longer.
-Lisa
This makes SDM go "Gillian Bradshaw's trilogy"
was one I really enjoyed.
