tbh, Pierce is pretty weak when it comes to writing about race and other cultures.
I quite like the Wild Magic quartet but The Emperor Mage takes it to Not Egypt and while she does do reasonably good things with the university and centre of learning bit, it's still something I wince at. Also another relationship with a big age difference, hurrah.
The Protector of the Small quartet does much more interesting things about the process of rebuilding a kingdom, the various alliances that have to be built and maintained and the main character is a girl training to be a knight as a girl, so experiences much more sexism. However, it's also the quartet where Pierce Discovers Japan and...yeah. Not good.
I tend to read Alanna as a straightforward, pragmatic character not really given to introspection. She wants to be a knight and the only way to do that is to be a boy, so she'll live as a boy then. She's not doing it as a meditation on gender - it's because she wants something and it's the only way she can get it.
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regna
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Date: 2012-10-21 01:09 am (UTC)I quite like the Wild Magic quartet but The Emperor Mage takes it to Not Egypt and while she does do reasonably good things with the university and centre of learning bit, it's still something I wince at. Also another relationship with a big age difference, hurrah.
The Protector of the Small quartet does much more interesting things about the process of rebuilding a kingdom, the various alliances that have to be built and maintained and the main character is a girl training to be a knight as a girl, so experiences much more sexism. However, it's also the quartet where Pierce Discovers Japan and...yeah. Not good.
I tend to read Alanna as a straightforward, pragmatic character not really given to introspection. She wants to be a knight and the only way to do that is to be a boy, so she'll live as a boy then. She's not doing it as a meditation on gender - it's because she wants something and it's the only way she can get it.