I had a very rocky start with MZB, having read about 900 pages of the Mists of Avalon when I was 9 years old. I hated it, it took a story I had loved to pieces and made it all about sex.
When I had seen the cover in the library I thought it was more about the women in the King Arthur story, and it was. But instead of making them also do cool things, suddenly all the cool things were missing from the story and everything was about sex. As if women were good for nothing else. I mean I was obviously far to young for that book, but it really turned me off women's fantasy until I found Tamora Pierce,Ursula Le Guin, Mercedes Lackey and Andre Norton (the later two often used sex too but it wasn't sooo supercentral).
In hindsight I'm glad I always hated her, but yeah I know the experience of liking someone's work and finding out that they are a horrible person. I mean almost all older male writers have massive problems with women. I usually read stuff like that with more distance. I can still think Plato had interesting things to say, even though he was a massive misogynist and of course a pedophile.
It is different though with fantasy I can really dive into. I don't want to get lost in the head of someone who is a horrible person. Reading their books is like traveling through their brain and I don't want to do that when I believe them to be a person I would hate. I need more distance then and that would mean that I am no longer reading for entertainment.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2014-06-25 07:05 pm (UTC)When I had seen the cover in the library I thought it was more about the women in the King Arthur story, and it was. But instead of making them also do cool things, suddenly all the cool things were missing from the story and everything was about sex. As if women were good for nothing else.
I mean I was obviously far to young for that book, but it really turned me off women's fantasy until I found Tamora Pierce,Ursula Le Guin, Mercedes Lackey and Andre Norton (the later two often used sex too but it wasn't sooo supercentral).
In hindsight I'm glad I always hated her, but yeah I know the experience of liking someone's work and finding out that they are a horrible person. I mean almost all older male writers have massive problems with women. I usually read stuff like that with more distance. I can still think Plato had interesting things to say, even though he was a massive misogynist and of course a pedophile.
It is different though with fantasy I can really dive into. I don't want to get lost in the head of someone who is a horrible person. Reading their books is like traveling through their brain and I don't want to do that when I believe them to be a person I would hate. I need more distance then and that would mean that I am no longer reading for entertainment.