Better! Sorta...
Sep. 23rd, 2007 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethFinished reading Polgara the Sorceress.
Much better than the Belgarath book. Things make sense! People grow and change and stuff! And also Polgara is clearly Better, because she invents a kingdom, and it is the one that all the other books says is best. Win!
Except...
Well, there's women in the story. Her sister, her mother, a midwife who taught her stuff, a woman who helped conquer Arendia, and some random ladies with no names, as well as a lot of people who married the boys she was looking after. But... well, it's like, when there's a new boy in the family, we usually get to know his name, accomplishments, marriage, and eventual fate. But when there's girls? We just hear sometimes there are sisters. We don't know what happened to them. Because apparently sisters aren't important. She was there to look after the boys.
And then there's the thing where she's the absolute ruler of an entire kingdom for hundreds of years, introduces a bunch of reforms, and yet there is no gender equality. There's not even any sense she's aiming for gender equality. Her idea of women's power is that they manipulate men. That's her definition of politics - how women can get men to do things.
Gah!
I mean I know the alternative wouldn't fit with the already established background so very well, but really. She's powerful, but she's the exception. What all the other women really want is to settle down and get their husbands wrapped around their little fingers. And oh look, what Pol really wants is children of her very own and a husband too.
And her making a kingdom is all set out in terms of her being a mother. None of the Kings get written about as being fathers.
Also there's the thing where all her more spectacular accomplishments sort of get booted along to being her mother's. She didn't learn fast, she was secretly taught by her mother. And they kept it a secret, because then her mother could make sure she didn't marry Torak. And then they kept it a secret some more, because... they felt like it. And her mother has all the smart ideas and stuff. And, okay, her mother is still a female character, but her mother is a wolf and an owl and a goat and Pol thinks of all her decisions in terms of instinct. It's like, sometimes Pol does book learning and thinking and logic and stuff, but whenever it's big and important to the plot it's instinctive, because she's a woman and part wolf.
... that's not actually flattering. At all. Women do a lot of thinking.
Pol's studies as a healer are highlighted more in some ways, but in other ways they're kind of shunted aside. It's like, she studies, she learns, she gets to be the best, she sets up a school to teach others, and then... she spends a few hundred years raising other people's children.
And healing them, yes. Still being a healer. Just... She ran a kingdom, then set it up so it wouldn't need her any more, and then... went away to raise kids. She ran a medical school, then went to raise kids. Raising kids is what she's about.
It's kind of annoying.
But at least it adds the kingdom and the medical school and all to what was a ten book series about how she raised kids. So, you know, progress.
Now I can stop reading books that annoy me.
Well, at least until I get the books for college, which have a pretty good chance of also annoying me. But in a constructive way.
Much better than the Belgarath book. Things make sense! People grow and change and stuff! And also Polgara is clearly Better, because she invents a kingdom, and it is the one that all the other books says is best. Win!
Except...
Well, there's women in the story. Her sister, her mother, a midwife who taught her stuff, a woman who helped conquer Arendia, and some random ladies with no names, as well as a lot of people who married the boys she was looking after. But... well, it's like, when there's a new boy in the family, we usually get to know his name, accomplishments, marriage, and eventual fate. But when there's girls? We just hear sometimes there are sisters. We don't know what happened to them. Because apparently sisters aren't important. She was there to look after the boys.
And then there's the thing where she's the absolute ruler of an entire kingdom for hundreds of years, introduces a bunch of reforms, and yet there is no gender equality. There's not even any sense she's aiming for gender equality. Her idea of women's power is that they manipulate men. That's her definition of politics - how women can get men to do things.
Gah!
I mean I know the alternative wouldn't fit with the already established background so very well, but really. She's powerful, but she's the exception. What all the other women really want is to settle down and get their husbands wrapped around their little fingers. And oh look, what Pol really wants is children of her very own and a husband too.
And her making a kingdom is all set out in terms of her being a mother. None of the Kings get written about as being fathers.
Also there's the thing where all her more spectacular accomplishments sort of get booted along to being her mother's. She didn't learn fast, she was secretly taught by her mother. And they kept it a secret, because then her mother could make sure she didn't marry Torak. And then they kept it a secret some more, because... they felt like it. And her mother has all the smart ideas and stuff. And, okay, her mother is still a female character, but her mother is a wolf and an owl and a goat and Pol thinks of all her decisions in terms of instinct. It's like, sometimes Pol does book learning and thinking and logic and stuff, but whenever it's big and important to the plot it's instinctive, because she's a woman and part wolf.
... that's not actually flattering. At all. Women do a lot of thinking.
Pol's studies as a healer are highlighted more in some ways, but in other ways they're kind of shunted aside. It's like, she studies, she learns, she gets to be the best, she sets up a school to teach others, and then... she spends a few hundred years raising other people's children.
And healing them, yes. Still being a healer. Just... She ran a kingdom, then set it up so it wouldn't need her any more, and then... went away to raise kids. She ran a medical school, then went to raise kids. Raising kids is what she's about.
It's kind of annoying.
But at least it adds the kingdom and the medical school and all to what was a ten book series about how she raised kids. So, you know, progress.
Now I can stop reading books that annoy me.
Well, at least until I get the books for college, which have a pretty good chance of also annoying me. But in a constructive way.