She's a wish fulfilment character

[purplecat]

Author Scott Lynch responds to a critic of the character Zamira Drakasha, a black woman pirate in his fantasy book Red Seas Under Red Skies, the second novel of the Gentleman Bastard series.

I'm always little uncomfortable with responses to critiques of women in fantasy which run

critique: Female warriors/whatever in a pseudo-medieval setting are unrealistic
response: So the dragons are fine, but you are worried about the female warrior?

Because even though at one level it makes sense, at another the existence of dragons in fantasy clearly requires a different kind of suspension of disbelief to the existence of emancipated women. It's a really complicated discussion which impinges on an equally complicated discussion about when one is, and isn't able to suspend disbelief which doesn't just apply to gender roles but also to abuses of science and (on one notable occasion) the precise presentation of the minarets in Jerusalem.

So it's really feel refreshing to see a response to this kind of critique which isn't "hey! look! dragons!" but is instead yes of course she's fantasy wish fulfilment. AND WHY NOT?.

I've only read the first of the Gentleman Bastards series which I thought was a truly excellent novel. I haven't read the rest because I heard somewhere that they dropped in quality and I didn't really want to spoil how much I had enjoyed the first. But the above response makes me think I should re-evaluate that decision.

Comments

[afuna]

That description of Zamira was what got me to pick up the next books in the series.

The first book is still the best, but... I didn't have any regrets reading the next ones.

[momijizukamori]

Red Seas Under Red Skies is great - I didn't like Republic of Thieves as much, but some of that was being uninterested in the secondary story that weaves in between the maiin one.

Not so much suspension required

[ed_rex]

Because even though at one level it makes sense [to carp about woman warriors]...

Maybe not so much as we commonly think. More and more evidence is coming to light that women have been slitting throats and bashing heads all along, so why shouldn't they do it in fantasies as well?

With more research, I could have dug about a more reputable-looking source, but I came upon this Cracked article very recently, so here it is, Exhibit A.

[fredbassett]

Nothing wrong with wish-fulfillment characters!

Was the take-down linked to here the author's actual response? that was a bit unclear, but I whole-heartedly agreed with the sentiments expressed.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

There's plenty of wrong-headed political correctness and cultural marxism to complain about in fantasy and (especially) science-fiction literature at the moment, but the existence of emancipated female pirates isn't it.

Neither is it anything new. Robert E. Howard has a female pirate queen in the Conan stories. Admittedly, her skin is "ivory white", but her crew are black.

[mysteriousaliwz.livejournal.com]

Hell yes!

[a-cubed.livejournal.com]

Refer the complainer to Hurley's "We have always fought"?

(This won a Hugo for Best Related Work, which I think was a stupid thing on behalf of those who nominated/voted for it - not because it's not a good book - I haven't read it, but it's had good reviews in the academic press. The trouble is that no matter how good the book, it shouldn't have won a Hugo because it's not related to SF or fandom, which is the point of that category. It won because Hurley is a well-known fan writer - she also won the best fan writer Hugo lasst year with which I have no problem, as by all accounts she is an excellent online fan writer.)

[inamac.livejournal.com]

I was particularly please that Scott didn't take the equally 'easy' line out that states there *were* real women pirates, So There!

Like you, I was impressed by the first book (one of only a handfull of new books that I've read in the last three years) but have yet to explore the sequels.

[fififolle]

Honestly! You're so right. Reminds me about a fandom secret where they made fun of people complaining about the horns on the helmets of the characters in the how to train your dragon films. No problem with the dragons, there, either :D