The Wheel of Time

Dec 13, 2010 16:36

Because I got them for about 50% off on Cyber Monday, I ordered the most recent WoT books and when they arrived I realized it had been about 5 years since I read The Knife of Dreams and that I really did need to re-read that to refresh my memories.

Now, I realize it's quite fashionable to bash Robert Jordan. Yes, I realize his books have several many shortcomings and cliches, and y'know what?

I still enjoy these books and they will always carry a special place in my heart.

Back in 1990, when I picked up The Eye of the World, it was the first time I'd ever picked up an epic, high fantasy book where the woman were as powerful, important, and interesting as the men. (In fact, several of the women were more powerful than the men.)

In fact, the whole setting of WoT, a world where, for the last 3k years, women had been the dominant force (and it wasn't a bad thing), where the most powerful, stable, and organized nation was a hereditary Queendom, was an eye opener. And then there's the constant theme of mutuality -- the best is when men and women work together as equals. Also, "equal" in WoT did not mean "the same as for a man", Jordan constantly explored how men and women could be different and equal.

So, go ahead and tell me that "Jordan's women are all the same" or "Jordan's not a feminist writer because [laundry list of reasons]" And I simply say that in 1990, as a girl in high school, constantly (overtly or covertly) getting told that I couldn't do/have/be because I was female -- Nynaeve al'Meara* was a revelation.

Nynaeve al'Meara called men on their shit, told them to sit down and shut up, and they did. She could hunt and track. She's immensely powerful. She's discovered new things that not even the ancients knew. Oh, and she's a little woman who'll stroll down a dangerous, crowded street in city on the verge of anarchy armed with nothing more than a barrel stave over her shoulder and nobody dares to accost her because she exudes an aura of "do it and I'll break your face."
(I still want to be her when I grow up.)

The Aes Sedai were a revelation -- They were the Justice League and the Avengers and the X-Men and only women could be one. (And then there's those ladies of the Green Ajah with their multiple warders. {wink})

The Far Dareis Mai were a revelation -- an elite warrior society of women who fought just as hard and as well as men. (Oh, and that whole, of course they take lovers and if they become pregnant, no big deal.)

The Sea Folk were a revelation -- women in charge of the day to day operation of the ships.

What else? Positive depictions of polyamory (Green Ajah, Aiel Sister-Wives), the whole Aiel custom of the woman asks the man's hand in marriage, Berelain sur Paendrag (barely 19 and so skilled in statecraft), the Women's Circle, etc.

But above all, I'll go back to that theme of different but equal, mutuality: women do important things and their input matters.

There wasn't a whole heck of a lot of any of that in Epic High Fantasy 20 years ago.

(*And if you think the story of her and Lan is that Lan "tamed" her, and what a pity it is she got married, blah blah heteropatriarchal normcakes, we're reading very different books.)

books, feminism

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