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Big Random Cranky
Jan. 3rd, 2004 10:22 amI know I've probably mentioned this before, so feel free to ignore me or tell me to shut the hell up.
Earlier today someone on a reading community was discussing the newest Tamora Pierce and held forth that everyone had to admit that Alanna was a Mary Sue.
Well, no, I don't have to admit that, although whether it's true or not is only tangential to this fuss of mine.
I love slash. LOVE it. And I don't think this is even remotely something connected just to m/m slash, but...
Why is it fast again becoming a held truth (in original fiction, mind you) that any boy who dreams, who finds out he has cool powers or a special destiny, is a hero and any girl who does so is just another Mary Sue?
That fucking pisses me off and I thinks it's a massive disservice to any progress made in equal treatment of genders in children's fantasy/ science fiction. Especially since this is a subset of fiction that, IMHO, is rightly concerned with making the reader (any reader) feel that they are a part of action, that the Super Kid really could be them.
What makes Harry and Ender more valid as heroes than Alanna and Cimorene?
Why is having a dick a prerequisite for specialness, even among people who claim to be and are in most respects more openminded than those who don't want their children reading fantasy at all?
Thoughts? Comments? "Natalie, you're an idiot"s?
/rant
Packing up to head back to TN. I think my laundry breeds when I'm at home.
Earlier today someone on a reading community was discussing the newest Tamora Pierce and held forth that everyone had to admit that Alanna was a Mary Sue.
Well, no, I don't have to admit that, although whether it's true or not is only tangential to this fuss of mine.
I love slash. LOVE it. And I don't think this is even remotely something connected just to m/m slash, but...
Why is it fast again becoming a held truth (in original fiction, mind you) that any boy who dreams, who finds out he has cool powers or a special destiny, is a hero and any girl who does so is just another Mary Sue?
That fucking pisses me off and I thinks it's a massive disservice to any progress made in equal treatment of genders in children's fantasy/ science fiction. Especially since this is a subset of fiction that, IMHO, is rightly concerned with making the reader (any reader) feel that they are a part of action, that the Super Kid really could be them.
What makes Harry and Ender more valid as heroes than Alanna and Cimorene?
Why is having a dick a prerequisite for specialness, even among people who claim to be and are in most respects more openminded than those who don't want their children reading fantasy at all?
Thoughts? Comments? "Natalie, you're an idiot"s?
/rant
Packing up to head back to TN. I think my laundry breeds when I'm at home.
