On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, Joel VanLaven wrote:
> And yet... I did not see it as very feminist.
NH: No, not very. But I do remember women scientists (specifically among
the Bene Gesserit) and women guards. The Fremen culture was quite
sexist, you're right. Polygyny but no polyandry, women basically
chattel. Same for the royal houses. Those last two at least felt
deliberately written that way, as did the Tleilaxu culture, which hated
women. The Dune novels comprised a complex agglomeration of cultures,
some of which were more progressive than others, but all of which were
imperfect. I didn't mean to imply that _Dune_ was a particularly
feminist book (didn't feel anti-feminist, just not written from a
feminist place). But I think we were talking about taking our role
models where we could best find them, and I found even the slimiest of
the Bene Gesserit wonderfully appealing.
I do remember being quite turned off at a point in, I think, _God-Emperor
of Dune,_ where there was a pretty homophobic statement. Damn, of course
I can't remember what it was, and I'm at work. Something about sgl
(same-gender loving) people having some kind of brain defect.
-nalo
"There are two kinds of dates; the kind that you go out with, and the
small fruit that you eat."
-my aunt
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:45 PDT