More on Multiple Women in Fantasy

[cassiphone]

Originally published at tansyrr.com. You can comment here or there.

For the record, I didn’t intend for yesterday’s post to be particularly negative! I was hoping for more evidence that there were in fact whole slews of fantasy fiction which centres around more than one female character, and their interactions. Thanks to comments here and on LJ, I

Comments

[jo1967]

Charles De Lint. Particularly his Newford stories. They have such a wide range of characters both male and female and the relationships between women are very realistic. They often spend time without men, and even spend a lot of time NOT talking about men. Vice versa, he is good at depicting relationships between men as well.

Many of his short stories are written from the first person POV and sometimes it can take a while to work out details, especially because even though the first person character might be talking about being attracted to a woman, doesn't make them a man!

[benpayne]

Yeah, De Lint writes great characters.

[anghara]

Would "The Secrets of Jin Shei" do...? [limpid grin]

[cassiphone]

Ha, I'm sure it does, but that means I have to admit it is still on my 'to read' pile...

Glad to hear it, though!

[anonymous]

OK, so Juliet Marillier redid the fairy tale about the seven dancing sisters. I am having bad BAD mental block, but it is awesome and the main relationships are those between the sisters.

*gooogelly gooogelly*

Wildwood Dancing.

ALSO, I am guessing you hate Robert Jordan's books, because they can be (accidentally, I really believe it is accidental) a bit patriarchal.

BUT you can't deny that there are hordes of strong and vital female characters with fascinating, mutating relationships.

I mean, the White Tower, Egwene and Nynaeve, the relationships between three women who share the same husband - you might hate it, but Jordan didn't ignore the problem and show it only from the perspective of the men, he waded in and gave it a go, even though it was outside his own experience.

I call that brave.

I wouldn't even contemplate writing a dynamic like that between three men. What would they be thinking? What would they say to one another? I have no idea beyond stereotypes and so I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

Thoraiya

[cassiphone]

Ooh yes, Wildwood Dancing was brilliant, and 12 Dancing Princesses is another rare fairy tale which is about good sisters rather than a lone heroine.

Robert Jordan bored me in my teens and I never got beyond the 3rd book - I don't remember a single thing about any of the characters. The parts about the 3 women sound interesting, though. I find Big Love (the HBO series about a man with 3 wives) absolutely fascinating from an anthropological point of view.

[anonymous]

Fair enough!

Coincidentally, I started reading Margaret Atwood's "Robber Bride" this morning.

Talk about relationships between women.

I'm about a hundred pages in.

"It's complicated, being a woman boss. Women don't look at you and think Boss. They look at you and think Woman, as in Just another one, like me, and where does she get off? None of their sexy little tricks work on you, and none of yours work on them; big blue eyes are no advantage. If you forget their birthdays your name is mud, if you bawl them out they cry, they don't even do it in the washroom the way they would for a man but right out where you can see them, they hang their hard luck stories on you and expect sympathy, and just try getting a cup of coffee out of them. Lick your own stamps, lady. They'll bring it all right, but it'll be cold and also they'll hate you forever."

I'm supposed to be working on my own manuscript while the Small one is sleeping...but I just can't stop! This book is delicious, not like chocolate, but like a spicy smorgasbord.

Thoraiya

[cassiphone]

I have never read any Margaret Atwood apart from The Penelopiad which was amazing, but short. One of those things i've been meaning to get to...