> Petra Mayerhofer <pm@IER.UNI-STUTTGART.DE> wrote:
>
> >Naismith marries somebody from the militaristic, patriarchal
> >Barrayar and moves there. They want a child immediately. It is
> >extensively discussed how strange an in vivo pregnancy feels for
> >Naismith. Furthermore, briefly a fantasy of her is described to get
> >as many children as possible, now that there are no restrictions. One
> >gets the impression that Bujold thinks that without outer pressure
> >(no money or space restrictions) women like to get children by the
> >dozen.
>
Perhaps it's because Lois is a friend of mine, but I can't help feeling
that this is a very unfair characterization of her.
Lois is divorced and has two kids. Although she has plenty of money now,
she and her children went through some very lean years (her husband was
something of a ne'er do well). She does love kids and maybe she wishes
she'd had more, I don't know, but that isn't really relevant. What is
relevant is that she's writing about a specific, individual character who
happens to love kids, as many women (and men) do, and who happens to
fantasize about having lots of kids, as some women (and some men) do.
To imply that she would unilaterally extend that characterization to
women in general like some right-wing family values crazy is entirely
off-base.
Mike Levy (who occasionally gets huffy)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:25 PDT