Janice
Timely message this, as I just finished *The Sparrow* last right.
*Spoilers*
I also expected to find something much more radical about gender in the
novel, and was similarly disappointed. In fact, on attempting to puzzle
through what might be different, the only thing that I could think of was
her treatment of masculinity/macho in the form of Emilio - how vulnerable
that made him and how it rendered him speechless about the rape. If you
think about it just as a role reversal it seems somewhat simplistic, but in
the context of the discussions about celibacy it is rather more complex.
>
> Now that I think about it, it almost feels like the two species play
> against one another in a stereotyped male/female way -- the communal,
> peaceful Runa as the females and the predacious, highly "cultural"
Jana'ata
> as the males.
I'm not convinced of this reading, unless you want to simplify male/female
to predator/prey and I don't think Mary Doria Russell does this.
>
> By my count, there are only three actual females that play important
roles
> in the book. 1) Anne Edwards, the middle-aged mother figure; 2) Sofia
> Mendes, the sexualized figure who tempts the main character to break his
> vow of celibacy; 3) Askama, the verbally facile, trusting Runa
girl-child.
I know you acknowledge that it's more complex than this, but I think
setting up Sofia as a temptress is going further than Russell does - a
possible occasion of sin, perhaps, and a temptation from that point of
view, but nothing more active. Sofia and Emilio both keep a very tight
rein on their sexuality, for differing reasons. And it is interesting that
Sofia's attractiveness - despite conventional references to her beauty - is
portrayed as tied up in her intellectual brilliance. (I'm fairly
ambivalent about this point, myself).
> But... I felt troubled by the spin put on each character. Anne seemed to
> exist just to "fix" other people. The shoulder to cry on, the supportive
> wise one who always knew how to draw someone out & ease their pain. Sofia
> was the tough, ultra-competent professional with a painful past whose
> healing came in the form of a heterosexual relationship and pregnancy.
> Askama was the loyal innocent whose death was the final blow to Emilio's
> fading sanity. These all seem very familiar roles for females.
Playing Devil's Advocate, again (tee-hee), the character Sofia marries,
Jimmy - again despite his massive size - is often presented as having
*typically* feminine traits - not to mention the fact that he is a
*mother's boy* (and Emilio emphatically is not). (The influence of off-set
mothers on character formation would be a fascinating topic)
But what troubled me more was the dialogue - particularly Anne's
feistiness. It did seem to be stuck in a bit of a timewarp - it had the
same feel as mainstream SF I read as a teenager (15ish years ago) but don't
ask me to pinpoint the writers.
I may be doing MDR a disservice here, but the novel seemed to me to be much
more about spirituality and the differences/conflicts between Divine Love,
and Mortal (Physical) Love. The gender issues really don't seem worked
through enough in the sense that we are shocked/disrupted or made to
question. With regard to the Runa/Jana'ata it seemed a fairly simplistic
role reversal trick was used with the Runa and the Jana'ata don't seem
terribly different to us. The interesting relationships between the
Runa/Jana'ata had to do with the predator/prey relationship which I suppose
could be read as a metaphor for slavery or colonisation. With regard to
the party of the explorers, as you identify, the relationships seem
basically rather conventional.
Like you I couldn't put the book down, and perhaps second time through I'll
get more nuance. I loved the historical references to religion, although I
had my doubts that a 21st century Sephardic Jew would still be harbouring a
grudge against Spaniards, particularly when she had much more recent
atrocities to deal with.
I'd be curious to know what other readers find in *The Sparrow* that would
convince them that it warranted The Tiptree Award.
Joan
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