There's a Little Black Spot on the Sun Today....

[theladyfeylene]

Is it really bad that I want to write an essay comparing and contrasting Mercedes Lackey's writing and Stephanie Meyers

Comments

[mnschoen]

I...um...suddenly just got an ENORMOUS internet crush on you for talking about the racism and bs pseudo-feminism in Lackey's writing. Not that I don't still love HBC, but you know.

Seriously, I'm in love with you right now.

[theladyfeylene]

Aw! Yeah, there are some serious issues that a lot of people...gloss over. I feel like her books are often given a 'pass' so to speak, because they're so seemingly light and fluffy and 'non-serious'. But what bugs me is...that's all just on the surface. Especially in HBC. The amount of problematic female victimization is insane. I think the only thing that keeps it from being too blatant and overbearing is the fact that in the first book, Shadow suffers essentially the same sort of victimization. The threats made against him are essentially of sexual violence - with the whole giving him to Pelenor, who gets off on raping and beating pretty teenage boys. But between elven society, concubines, and the very casual treatment of sexual violence and rape...uh....HI PROBLEMS!

I'm not even touching on the butchered appropriation of African tribalism in the second book.

if I propose will you move to Vermont and marry me?

[mnschoen]

I haven't even run into anyone who will even acknowledge the glaring *isms in Lackey's books (and her weird heterosexism and appropriation of queer experience despite the...overabundance of queer characters, all/most of whom pair off and become either the "man" or the "woman" in the relationship).

I actually don't read any of Lackey's other books because by the time I started reading them I was fairly grown up, and the Rape As A Plot Device seriously, seriously disturbs and infuriates me. And the Native American/First Nations stuff in the Valdemar books and the Iron People in HBC...it makes me squirm. Sometimes it boggles me that people never even see this stuff.

Re: if I propose will you move to Vermont and marry me?

[theladyfeylene]

Sadly, I can't live on the east coast due to the dampness. :(

Argh, how can you not see all the glaring problems in so many of her works? ONE WORD! CONCUBINES! GAH! Oh man, don't start me on her feminization of homosexual males. I was actually really, really glad that despite the heavy handed undertones of Valyn/Shadow in HBC, she didn't feminize either one of them. I think we have Norton to thank for that, though, otherwise I'm sure poor Mero would have been regulated to the 'woman' role. Which...argh. Mero is kick ass and completely in control of his sexuality and so tops from the bottom.

But I guess half of that would be that Shana was stuck between them, in that...fucked up, pathetic attempt at a love triangle. She couldn't just do what she did in Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, and just have a happy threesome.

Oh man, the Rape As A Plot Device keeps rearing its ugly head in the Bardic Voices books. It makes me cringe. And she just doesn't handle it well. It's glossed over, and not even...not even a fantasized

[dementedsiren]

I would read that essay, and be really, really interested in the resulting discussion. I grew up on Merecedes Lackey books - there was a time when I horded all of my money to buy up the entire series (which I still have stashed away at my mother's house, I think).

[theladyfeylene]

Yeah, same here. I've got so many of her books. And as a teenager, I didn't see the glaring issues with them. As an adult, going back, I can read them critically and while I still enjoy her work, it's nice to be able to pick them apart and look at the various pieces and how they fit together.

[pyramidhead316]

What are the issues with women in the Silent Hill series? You should really make a post so we could discuss them specifically (if you want). I made that post about Ashley and Eileen a while back, but come on, that was ages ago.

[theladyfeylene]

Just the constant, overbearing victimization. Which is nothing at all new in the world of video games, and nothing I'm going to launch a campaign over or anything, just something I don't feel comfortable completely ignoring. I actually wrote and posted a whole big thing on it going game by game (this was back when there were just the four, though) and breaking down the examples of female victimization as opposed to male victimization (SH2 is the winner in the 'feminism fail' category).

I have the same issues with Stephen King's early works, to the point where some of his first couple of novels make me froth at the mouth with rage. And this is the man who is my idol and hero.

Feminism and women's issues is my big Hot Button Issue in fandom - and, well life, really.

[chaoticchicken]

I'm sort of glad I never strayed from Mercedes Lackey's The Black Gryphon series. They're the only ones I've read by her (besides Firebird) and I love them very much, so I'd rather not sully my love of them. :(

[theladyfeylene]

She does have some other good books. Yes, there are issues, but... Uh, I really like (outside of The Halfblood Chronicles) the Bardic Voices series, and I've heard her fairy tale reinventions are very well done. I haven't actually read any of them, though.

I would say to stay away from the Herald's Mage series. Not only do we encounter feminist fail, inappropriate racial apropriation, but we get into queer theory and Why Mercedes Lackey Does More Harm to the Gay Rights Movement Than Good!

[redbrunja]

I'd love to hear more on how you think Lackey fails at feminism - because one of the reasons I loved her Valdamar books (the early ones, and read when I was a young teen) were the strong heroines.

[theladyfeylene]

With the Valdamar books, my issue is more Lackey failing at queer issues. I'll be honest, I've only read the Herald Mage trilogy, but it really bothered me, how terribly stereotypical and black and white the sexuality issues were in those books. Either being gay was the worst, most horrible, zomg evil thing ever, or it was super special and sparkly. And the homosexual male characters were...caricatures, essentially

[redbrunja]

This was very interesting to read, thank you.

[theladyfeylene]

Yeah, Merdeces Lackey...I think what really bugs me is that she can write really good, strong heroines. But then, in a good number of her books, that gets outweighed by how so many issues are treated