On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, Nalo Hopkinson wrote:
> On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, Joel VanLaven wrote:
>
> >
> > About the role-model thing. Do people really identify with their sex so
> > much?
>
> NH: Yeah, sometimes. Though mind you, I also identified with Marvel
> Comics' Thor...'nuff said. Being a woman is only one facet of my
> identity, and it's less of a problem nowadays finding
> affirming images of women, but when you see yourself reflected so little
> in the outside world, it's healing when you do find those images. I've
> spoken before on this listserve about how much of a kick I got out of a
> Black, mouthy, be-dreadlocked, eccentric woman as the lead (Whoopi Goldberg)
> in Jumping Jack Flash.
But shouldn't everyone get that same kick? regardless of their actual
physical configuration? Subversive, attitude correcting, slap-me awake
casting choices are some of my favorites. (though I like to believe that I
AM awake and it is the others who need to be woken up.. :)
Do you root for an oppressed person because they are oppressed, or
because you share one of their oppression-inducing traits?
And if it is because they are oppressed, is it because you were/are
oppressed (or something similar, like you attended junior high school and
weren't completely normal)?
Or, is it a deep-seeded social upbringing of love of the outsider, the
"little guy", and so on (however slanted normal society is towards only
seeing white hetero-sexual men as said underdogs)
I think I can see all three in myself.
> > On the topic of Dune, who would you rather have been, Paul or his mother?
>
> NH: :) Thank you for this question. I immediately answered, "Jessica,"
> then had to figure out why. I think it's because she determinedly carved
> out a life for herself, despite whole worlds of people trying to tell her
> what to do, and she *lived.* Paul's character was attractive, because he
> had all those powers that made him even a super-being; all man, and even
> more woman than the women, but ultimately, he wasn't able to maintain human
> connections. He became a larger-than-life figure who spawned an
> intergalactic jihad, and when he couldn't deal any longer, he turned
> hermit. Jessica kept dealing, kept her human connections. Joel,
> answering this question told me a lot about what's important to me.
Since I didn't read anything with the Jihad (I think. The war was on
Dune and seemed done), Paul was still well-connected, and so on, perhaps I
have a very different view of the characters. We must be talking about
two completely different stories. Mine ended at the end of Dune (I
started the next one but the story from Dune had crystallized into a whole
that was final and I couldn't shatter it (which the next book seemed to
want to do)) In my world the other Dune books are taked onto and modify
the story while in yours, I only saw a piece of the story. (I think)
-- Joel VanLaven
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