From: jc@crosfield.co.uk (jerry cullingford)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Sexual Politics and Diane Duane (was re Diane Duane, _D into Fire_)
Date: 7 Oct 92 13:43:19 GMT
Organization: Crosfield Electronics, Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom.

In article <6OCT199221485154@rosie.uh.edu> st1rk@rosie.uh.edu (Maxwell, Darin) writes:
>In article <15559@suns7.crosfield.co.uk>, jc@crosfield.co.uk (jerry cullingford) writes...

>>The basic premise is reasonable enough, but I think that Duane did tend to
>>get slightly preachy about it in the first book. Compared with the second
>>and third books, the first one does go slightly overboard (IMO, IMO :-) )

>Given a world in which same-sex pairs are accepted, you can't get preachy
>about it in any meaningful sense. In the Herald Mage series of Lackey, the 
>society doesn't accept same-sex pairs as a matter of course, so Lackey does
>have the tendency to get preachy. My first comment to the guy who loaned
>me his copy of Duane's books was to point out the acceptance of the same-
>sex relationship in such a way that you could forget about it.

Hmm :-) My reaction was basically the other way round - Misty's Herald-Mage
books take an unusual-in-background-world same-sex pair more or less as a
matter of course (as far as justifying it in the book goes; It's happened,
and the characters live with the resulting reactions..) It's a part of the
story, and doesn't stand out more than any of the other parts of the plot.

>Some of my favorite books in which a same-sex pair is featured have been ones
>in which the pair is just plopped right into the plot. That, IMHO, is what
>makes a good novel of this kind, especially if the pov is the same-sex
>pair.

Exactly my point. We agree here.

>I loved Mercedes Lackey's series because it is rare. There are quite a few
>points in the books where the same-sex pair is accepted implicitly (e.g
>the Shadow Lover is male for Vanyel).

(I can highly recommend Misty's books as well :-) )

That's what I see as the flaw in Duane's first book; It takes a world in
which same sex pairs are unremarkable, and then spends a lot of effort in
justifying it, which gave me the impression of preachiness, rather than
just accepting it as implicit - somewhat irritating, a flavour rather like
saying something along the lines of

"Bill had a cup of coffee. Coffee is made from coffee beans and boiling
water, but bill didn't get scalded because you don't drink it while it's
boiling, and he didn't get soaked because cups hold liquid."

instead of just saying "He had a cup of coffee". (Yes, I've exaggerated
the effect a bit ;-) , but that's the difference in impressions between the
two - Misty's LHM books (and Duane's second and third "door" books) are good
stories that just happen to include same-sex pairs; TDIF struck me as suffering
a bit from being 'here's a book about a how you could have a world in which
same sex pairs are common - and by the way there's also a good story going on
as well'.

Your mileage may vary, of course :-)
-- 
+------------------------------------------------------------------+     |
| Jerry Cullingford  #include <std.disclaimer> +44 442 230000 x3868|   ,-|--
| jc@crosfield.co.uk (jc@cel.uucp) or jc@selune.demon.co.uk        |   \_|__
+-----(Work)---------------------------------(home)----------------+ \___/