> However, she seems harsh and angry. She repeatedly comes back
>to religion as an all-encompassing evil. I'm not much of a supporter of
>most organized religions, but I feel like she takes it a bit too far. I
>had noticed mostly a distinct lack of homosexuality in her work. (though
>_Gibbon's_Decline_and_Fall_ has a little bit). I suppose we must read her
>writing with salt and wariness as we should everything.
Yes, sometimes she's not very subtle. And I think her work varies in quality. I was, for instance, very disappointed in SHADOW'S END and A PLAGUE OF ANGELS. But really enjoyed BEAUTY, GRASS, GATE, some of the True Games books, and some of the Marianne books. Also I thought GIBBON'S DECLINE AND FALL was better in comparison to the SHADOW'S END and A PLAGUE OF ANGELS, but parts of it were forced. Just finished THE FAMILY TREE which I think I like better than anything since BEAUTY.
Yes, she is very *anti* to some types of religions - she really seems to have it in for fundamentalist patriarchal religions, like Xtianity and Islam. Can't say I blame her. THE FAMILY TREE, however, has a Gaea/pagan religion in it, and it's treated *very* positively.
Re: "we must read her writing with salt and wariness as we should everything" -- I wish I could bottle that idea and give it away to people for free! Critical thinking -- if all of my fellow librarians would embrace that concept I wouldn't have to spend so much time arguing against censorware, etc. Arrggh. Sorry for the off-topic rant.
> On a side note, has anyone else read much David Brin? I love his books.
>In many ways they seem feminist/queer. (Though perhaps not with as much of
>a focus on that aspect as other writers). In particular, _Glory_Season_
>is an interesting look into feminist issues without being overly utopian
>or overly critical. (In my opinion). In some of his other books he refers
>to humans as "fems" and "mels" (women and men). This breaks the male
>domination of the general term for human (can't remember what he used for
>that). I thought that was neat.
I like Brin as a story-teller and think he's equitable in his treatments of men and women, for the most part. But a lot of people seem to find him anti-feminist, and had problems with GLORY SEASON, finding parts of it even sexist. In my opinion, he probably is more-or-less a feminist by the same terms that most people are: they think people should be treated equally. But he may not consider himself a feminist, and I don't think he regards gender & gender issues as a serious issue, or considers them very much in his work. I think GLORY SEASON was an exercise in world-building more than a creation of a feminist utopia, but he certainly drew some of his ideas from utopian works that were consciously feminist.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:05:59 PDT