(urth) what?? (was: Re: 'King Rat' and the abuse of women in Gene Wolfe's stories)

Jane Delawney jane_delawney at sky.com
Tue Mar 8 16:39:13 PST 2011


Sorry can't remember as of this moment if I'm supposed to be 
top-posting, bottom-posting or interlining, these mailing lists get 
confusing they all have different rules and I don't have much time.

Hard to believe that there are still peeps out there who will admit in 
public that they have mistaken the writer's depiction of his/her 
characters/world for that writer's own personal view on whatever subject.

It's fiction. GW has created worlds with certain societal norms; given 
the world we see in BOTNS it's not at all surprising to me that women 
get something of a raw deal in that world. It's kind of a might is 
right, chivalry duhhhh? what's that? universe. Despite this GW gives us 
strong, independent female characters who are obviously up against it in 
their world but who survive and pursue their goals none the less: Agia 
of course; and Dorcas, a real tough cookie who despite looking like a 
teenage girl and despite her internal disarray none the less makes her 
way back from Thrax to Nessus unmolested in time (we are led to assume) 
to be reunited with her son. Actually a happy ending, if an obliquely 
signalled one.

(I'd love to have more information about what happened to Cyriaca, who 
attempted to do much the same thing, but we'll never know).

Oh I could go on, but I do think that the idea that GW is a dyed in the 
wool mysogynist is very, very silly.

jd

On 08/03/11 22:39, Daniel Petersen wrote:
> On a wholly different note, have you all read the latest Silk for Calde blog
> post on Wolfe?  A really well reasoned article on this issue of misogyny in
> Wolfe:
>
> http://silk4calde.blogspot.com/2011/03/king-rat-and-abuse-of-women-in-gene.html
>
> <http://silk4calde.blogspot.com/2011/03/king-rat-and-abuse-of-women-in-gene.html>
> DOJP
>
>    
>
>
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