Bujold conference
Interesting to come to this as an outsider having read no lit crit on LMB's work (of which, apparently, there is surprisingly little). Some of the presentations seemed rather to be labouring the obvious about the works, others were completely opaque to me. (I read the opening novel of The Sharing Knife sequence on the train on the way there -- it reads a lot like a cross between Aragorn & Legolas with a hobbit Mary-Sue -- and appalled the poor keynote speaker by asserting that his proposition that TSK is sf not fantasy is blindingly obvious on first read; I'm told there's a gulf between sf & fantasy in critical commentary that I've simply blundered through being a naive reader in both.)
I'd been expecting the presentations to be biased towards Vorkosigan, but actually there was more on Chalion & TSK. There was a lot of emphasis on LMB's intent; so much for the death of the author! I realised why I like the Vorkosigan series -- it's drawing on the 1950s sf I read avidly as a child, rather than the later sf I've lost touch with as an adult. Other highlights for me...
*Ekaterin as Fanny Price. (I've seen ACC compared with P&P before, and while I can see Miles as Darcy, Ekaterin is no Elizabeth.) Both often disliked by readers. Both given tainted necklaces. Portsmouth & Komarr -- exile to a gateway to the rest of the world that neither heroine can access. Fanny escaping a future of Ekaterin's past by rejecting Crawford.
*Male & female archetypes in fantasy. Minerva McGonagall as good priestess: celibate, non-maternal, cf Learned Hallana, a positive authority figure who is female with children. Importance of developing lots of different women, otherwise even a female protagonist tends to end up just a man in drag. Bujold often also downplays the heroic role to leave space for women, and transfers expected social roles between genders eg Cordelia's shopping expedition, reverse Sleeping Beauty with Ista & Illvin. Ista smashes all the female fantasty archetypes. 4th age of women, children grown but not a crone. Weakening of men in Chalion in particular allows male & female characters to operate as equals. Lots of problems with this approach!
*Lots of discussion around feminisation/female coding of male characters. Male 'pregnancy' (Cazaril), 'menstruation' (Hallowed Hunt), penetration/violation by gods. Also disablement, injury, torture. Links with hurt/comfort in fanfiction sphere?
*Lots of discussion around Sharing Knife as a critique of LotR, which I find fascinating as I see similar elements in Earthsea. Evil is everywhere & can't be defeated vs Dark Lord & eucatastrophic battle. Magic swords forged in an earlier age by technology now lost vs sharing knives are personal, technology explored in detail... [Must read the rest of TSK!]
*Detective fiction as the mode of a surprising proportion of the Vorkosigan series, especially its value in sf&f as a vehicle for world-building. Unlike conventional detective fic, murder is not usually the primary crime under investigation, and the status quo is often not restored at the end -- and is sometimes completely shattered (eg Ethan of Athos, Cetaganda). Genre blending as LMB's speciality
*LMB's books not military sf -- all about waging (post-war) peace.
*LMB not a mainstream contemporary feminist; elements of 19th C separate spheres feminism (eg Cetagandan society) with 1960s radical feminism (uterine replicators).
*'Every gay man can be redeemed by the love of a good woman!' -- or is evil and/or dies horribly. The only lesbian dies offscreen. The Donna/Dono problem; the notion that some people don't have a strongly gendered self.
*Sadly there was no paper on fanfiction; the presenter who was signed up for this had to drop out at the last minute. It was a shame because one of the academic presenters turned out to have written one of the better-known mega-AUs of Vorkosiverse fanfiction. I almost wish I'd signed up to present -- maybe next time.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth (with
replies). Reply wherever you prefer
I'd been expecting the presentations to be biased towards Vorkosigan, but actually there was more on Chalion & TSK. There was a lot of emphasis on LMB's intent; so much for the death of the author! I realised why I like the Vorkosigan series -- it's drawing on the 1950s sf I read avidly as a child, rather than the later sf I've lost touch with as an adult. Other highlights for me...
*Ekaterin as Fanny Price. (I've seen ACC compared with P&P before, and while I can see Miles as Darcy, Ekaterin is no Elizabeth.) Both often disliked by readers. Both given tainted necklaces. Portsmouth & Komarr -- exile to a gateway to the rest of the world that neither heroine can access. Fanny escaping a future of Ekaterin's past by rejecting Crawford.
*Male & female archetypes in fantasy. Minerva McGonagall as good priestess: celibate, non-maternal, cf Learned Hallana, a positive authority figure who is female with children. Importance of developing lots of different women, otherwise even a female protagonist tends to end up just a man in drag. Bujold often also downplays the heroic role to leave space for women, and transfers expected social roles between genders eg Cordelia's shopping expedition, reverse Sleeping Beauty with Ista & Illvin. Ista smashes all the female fantasty archetypes. 4th age of women, children grown but not a crone. Weakening of men in Chalion in particular allows male & female characters to operate as equals. Lots of problems with this approach!
*Lots of discussion around feminisation/female coding of male characters. Male 'pregnancy' (Cazaril), 'menstruation' (Hallowed Hunt), penetration/violation by gods. Also disablement, injury, torture. Links with hurt/comfort in fanfiction sphere?
*Lots of discussion around Sharing Knife as a critique of LotR, which I find fascinating as I see similar elements in Earthsea. Evil is everywhere & can't be defeated vs Dark Lord & eucatastrophic battle. Magic swords forged in an earlier age by technology now lost vs sharing knives are personal, technology explored in detail... [Must read the rest of TSK!]
*Detective fiction as the mode of a surprising proportion of the Vorkosigan series, especially its value in sf&f as a vehicle for world-building. Unlike conventional detective fic, murder is not usually the primary crime under investigation, and the status quo is often not restored at the end -- and is sometimes completely shattered (eg Ethan of Athos, Cetaganda). Genre blending as LMB's speciality
*LMB's books not military sf -- all about waging (post-war) peace.
*LMB not a mainstream contemporary feminist; elements of 19th C separate spheres feminism (eg Cetagandan society) with 1960s radical feminism (uterine replicators).
*'Every gay man can be redeemed by the love of a good woman!' -- or is evil and/or dies horribly. The only lesbian dies offscreen. The Donna/Dono problem; the notion that some people don't have a strongly gendered self.
*Sadly there was no paper on fanfiction; the presenter who was signed up for this had to drop out at the last minute. It was a shame because one of the academic presenters turned out to have written one of the better-known mega-AUs of Vorkosiverse fanfiction. I almost wish I'd signed up to present -- maybe next time.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth (with
replies). Reply wherever you prefer