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Title: Darkover Landfall
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley
Genre: Science fiction verging on fantasy
Thingummies: 1.5
Synopsis: A shipload of misogynists crash on a planet and then go crazy, but not in a particularly interesting way; series ensues.
Thoughts: I'm well aware of the scandal that's emerged since Marion Zimmer Bradley's death; but I loved this series when I was a kid, and so when I stumbled on an old paperback, I thought I'd revisit it.
...maybe the rest of the series was better? This book exists solely to explain how the society the series focuses on came about. Since I only dimly remember a lot of the details, I probably missed some subtle cues. But there's basically no plot. It starts post-crash. Then some stuff happens. But there's no real driving conflict, and the main characters barely have arcs. There's no book here.
But that's not the part that made me want to throw this across the room. I had vaguely remembered MZB as being a feminist writer. This was earlier in her career, I suppose, but...oh my god. I feel like most of her male contemporaries did not go as far out of their way to make sure we all knew that women are fragile, illogical, emotionally-driven morons. Seriously, barely two or three pages can pass without her making some kind of comment denigrating women. At first, I thought that the viewpoint character was going to get his comeuppance and learn an important lessons. But no, apparently he's right. Women really are fragile creatures who need to be protected and who annoyingly keep thinking they have a right to make their own (wrong) decisions.
I think the crowning moment is when the astrophysicist, who got pregnant while under the influence of hallucinatory sex pollen, wants to get an abortion and is refused on the grounds of needing the genetic diversity. Now, the conflict makes sense. But the completely unsympathetic doctor mansplains to her that she's being selfish and hysterical, including the jaw-dropping passage, "the first results of curcial social overcrowding was the failure of maternal behavior. It's a pathology. Man is a rationalizing animal, so sociologists called it "Women's Liberation" and things like that, but what it amounted to was a pathological reaction to overpopulation and overcrowding. Women who couldn't be allowed to have children had to be given some other work, for the sake of their mental health. But it wears off." I wish I could say this passage was ironic, or meant to indicate that the speaker is an asshole. But the rest of the book supports him as being right.
I don't even know what to do with that.
So yeah, I think I can safely write off revisiting any more of these.
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley
Genre: Science fiction verging on fantasy
Thingummies: 1.5
Synopsis: A shipload of misogynists crash on a planet and then go crazy, but not in a particularly interesting way; series ensues.
Thoughts: I'm well aware of the scandal that's emerged since Marion Zimmer Bradley's death; but I loved this series when I was a kid, and so when I stumbled on an old paperback, I thought I'd revisit it.
...maybe the rest of the series was better? This book exists solely to explain how the society the series focuses on came about. Since I only dimly remember a lot of the details, I probably missed some subtle cues. But there's basically no plot. It starts post-crash. Then some stuff happens. But there's no real driving conflict, and the main characters barely have arcs. There's no book here.
But that's not the part that made me want to throw this across the room. I had vaguely remembered MZB as being a feminist writer. This was earlier in her career, I suppose, but...oh my god. I feel like most of her male contemporaries did not go as far out of their way to make sure we all knew that women are fragile, illogical, emotionally-driven morons. Seriously, barely two or three pages can pass without her making some kind of comment denigrating women. At first, I thought that the viewpoint character was going to get his comeuppance and learn an important lessons. But no, apparently he's right. Women really are fragile creatures who need to be protected and who annoyingly keep thinking they have a right to make their own (wrong) decisions.
I think the crowning moment is when the astrophysicist, who got pregnant while under the influence of hallucinatory sex pollen, wants to get an abortion and is refused on the grounds of needing the genetic diversity. Now, the conflict makes sense. But the completely unsympathetic doctor mansplains to her that she's being selfish and hysterical, including the jaw-dropping passage, "the first results of curcial social overcrowding was the failure of maternal behavior. It's a pathology. Man is a rationalizing animal, so sociologists called it "Women's Liberation" and things like that, but what it amounted to was a pathological reaction to overpopulation and overcrowding. Women who couldn't be allowed to have children had to be given some other work, for the sake of their mental health. But it wears off." I wish I could say this passage was ironic, or meant to indicate that the speaker is an asshole. But the rest of the book supports him as being right.
I don't even know what to do with that.
So yeah, I think I can safely write off revisiting any more of these.
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Date: 2015-11-10 11:35 pm (UTC)From:This ... does not sound like what I remember of MZB at all. Damn.The only Darkover books I read were Stormqueen! and Hawkmistress! (yes, the titles had exclamation points). Stormqueen! was the better novel, about a preteen girl with a nasty temper and lightning powers. The point of view character was a male precog. I recall gender issues, but not as awful as what you described.
Now I wonder how the Mists of Avalon will hold up.
Btw, series that does NOT hold up well - Anne McAffrey's The Dragonriders of Pern. Middle School Me totally missed certain implications concerning dragon reproduction and how this impacts their riders. Middle School Me was pissed that gold dragons couldn't breathe fire due to their fertility - adult me still feels this way. However, Dragonsong remains beautifully written, probably because Mennolly's story is separate from dragon politics.
More btw - I was meaning to ask you and Jen at the play - which King books did you find misogynistic? He has a huge body of work, I've read a chunk of his early to middle work, and overall I didn't find them especially misogynistic or patronizing toward women. If anything, King comes across as more critical of men. Granted, many of his books have a dearth of female characters, but that is a different and sadly common problem ...
no subject
Date: 2015-11-10 11:44 pm (UTC)From:Most of them are not necessarily objectionable by themselves, until you start seeing patterns.
But I think ivy03 was the one who was more loudly complaining. Or possibly Mithrigil. I actually like King quite a bit despite the issues. My bigger problem is with Clive Barker.
On Pern--I will admit, I kind of wonder how much of McCaffery's writing is revealing her own kinks rather than just the general mores of the day. But I agree, I liked the Harper's Hall books better. (The first two. Didn't actually care much about Dragon Drums.)
no subject
Date: 2015-11-18 02:15 pm (UTC)From:I would say King post, say, the mid-80's is no more misogynistic than the average writer. Which is still somewhat misogynistic, but not particularly so. Bachman books (which I just learned Misery was supposed to be while writing this comment) seem particularly misogynistic, for example.