All right. Let's put it this way- the Dresden novels were pretty much exclusively recommended to me by nothing but female geeks- at least threee of them that I can think of. One of whom runs her own feminist discussion site/blog. None of which has any bearing on whether or not you'd enjoy the books or not.
Is Harry Dresden a bit sexist/chivlarous/whatever way you'd rather spin the coin? Yes. Does that go with his characterization in general? Also yes. Personally, were I in Dresden's shoes, I'd probably find myself thinking and acting the exact same way- hell, it goes with the gumshoe/cowboy genre in general. And if it fits the character, then no, to my mind, it's not a bad thing. And honestly, Harry's attitudes about himself or other people make up a very small fraction of the books. Most of it's fully of stuff more like this:
(Fuck being spoilery. That part's pretty damn obvious, and well, Zombie Tyrannosaurs still work as the best book advertisement ever.)
I think the post you reference has issues- namely that the writer has found a few things to be offended at and blown them out of proportion in relation to the rest of the book. Then again, I think all the recent race/sex/species-fail kerfuffles on the internets have also been hugely guilty of that. Hells, you can argue that any media is racist or sexist depending on how much you want to spin your perceptions of what happens in the book. The Lord of the Rings? Racist and sexist to an extreme- why does nobody attack that? Hell, better yet, why is it worth spending that much time and energy over importing your politics into your choice of entertainment? Read what you like- you're supporting authors, not some deep-seated regime of oppression and hatred. Why should it matter this deeply that we feel guilt over the imagined plight of imaginary protagonists that we refuse to support artists and writers because of it? It is fiction, not historical reference. It is meant to be read for fun, not to make us feel good about our political or lifestyle choices.
OK, I could rant about this all afternoon, but as it is, I need to go get the van's tires replaced, and well, I should quit running my mouth, before it turns into one long screed about oversensitive hypocrites like the author of that critique.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
asenathwaite
hoo boy, this opens up a can of worms....
Date: 2010-05-05 06:38 pm (UTC)Is Harry Dresden a bit sexist/chivlarous/whatever way you'd rather spin the coin? Yes. Does that go with his characterization in general? Also yes. Personally, were I in Dresden's shoes, I'd probably find myself thinking and acting the exact same way- hell, it goes with the gumshoe/cowboy genre in general. And if it fits the character, then no, to my mind, it's not a bad thing. And honestly, Harry's attitudes about himself or other people make up a very small fraction of the books. Most of it's fully of stuff more like this:
(Fuck being spoilery. That part's pretty damn obvious, and well, Zombie Tyrannosaurs still work as the best book advertisement ever.)
I think the post you reference has issues- namely that the writer has found a few things to be offended at and blown them out of proportion in relation to the rest of the book. Then again, I think all the recent race/sex/species-fail kerfuffles on the internets have also been hugely guilty of that. Hells, you can argue that any media is racist or sexist depending on how much you want to spin your perceptions of what happens in the book. The Lord of the Rings? Racist and sexist to an extreme- why does nobody attack that? Hell, better yet, why is it worth spending that much time and energy over importing your politics into your choice of entertainment? Read what you like- you're supporting authors, not some deep-seated regime of oppression and hatred. Why should it matter this deeply that we feel guilt over the imagined plight of imaginary protagonists that we refuse to support artists and writers because of it? It is fiction, not historical reference. It is meant to be read for fun, not to make us feel good about our political or lifestyle choices.
OK, I could rant about this all afternoon, but as it is, I need to go get the van's tires replaced, and well, I should quit running my mouth, before it turns into one long screed about oversensitive hypocrites like the author of that critique.