Having finished Five Hundred Years After
Sep. 18th, 2009 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mllelaurelPoint 1: I liked it a great deal, and knowing the event it was building up to didn't lessen the impact of said event.
Point 2: Since it's been in discussion lately, congrats to Steven Brust for passing the Bechdel test, and moreover doing so within a novel whose primary protagonist is male.
Rule 1: There must be at least two female characters.
Accomplished and then some. There are a number of female mains (Tazendra, Sethra, Aliera, Daro), and the characters in the background are pretty much 50/50. This is helped by the fact that Brust's Dragaeran society is professionally very equal. The random guard, general, bartender or farmer mentioned can be male, female or we might never even learn one way or the other.
Rule 2: The female characters must talk to each other.
Yes, they do. The most notable conversations are those between Sethra and Aliera, and Sethra and Tazendra.
Rule 3: ...About something other than men
To use the example of Sethra and Aliera's first meeting, they spend a few minutes being hostile toward one another (Aliera is investigating without authorization in a case she may be a suspect in), they proceed to geek about forensic techniques, ignoring Khaavren completely. Sure, the victim whose death they're investigating is male, but I don't think that counts.
Applying this rule to race, which I've also seen done, gets trickier since this is not our world. As far as the physical makeup of the cast goes, the House of Dzur seems to have some Asian (visual) traits, and contrary to being paired with the modern Asian stereotype of quiet studiousness, the Dzur are known for hotbloodedness and their love for battle and its glory. People who've read more can probably offer further comment, though again, the comparison gets rather spurious, since the characters are not even human, exactly.
Point 2: Since it's been in discussion lately, congrats to Steven Brust for passing the Bechdel test, and moreover doing so within a novel whose primary protagonist is male.
Rule 1: There must be at least two female characters.
Accomplished and then some. There are a number of female mains (Tazendra, Sethra, Aliera, Daro), and the characters in the background are pretty much 50/50. This is helped by the fact that Brust's Dragaeran society is professionally very equal. The random guard, general, bartender or farmer mentioned can be male, female or we might never even learn one way or the other.
Rule 2: The female characters must talk to each other.
Yes, they do. The most notable conversations are those between Sethra and Aliera, and Sethra and Tazendra.
Rule 3: ...About something other than men
To use the example of Sethra and Aliera's first meeting, they spend a few minutes being hostile toward one another (Aliera is investigating without authorization in a case she may be a suspect in), they proceed to geek about forensic techniques, ignoring Khaavren completely. Sure, the victim whose death they're investigating is male, but I don't think that counts.
Applying this rule to race, which I've also seen done, gets trickier since this is not our world. As far as the physical makeup of the cast goes, the House of Dzur seems to have some Asian (visual) traits, and contrary to being paired with the modern Asian stereotype of quiet studiousness, the Dzur are known for hotbloodedness and their love for battle and its glory. People who've read more can probably offer further comment, though again, the comparison gets rather spurious, since the characters are not even human, exactly.
