I've got to be honest here, I'm not sure how to feel about this story. At some points, it seems like a critique of those superhero groups involving all those overused characters: the sexy token female, the hardcore guy, the time traveler and the jackass. This in and of itself is a good reason to reflect on this story. I mean, it isn't every day that protagonists in superhero stories are able to heighten their abilities with copious drug-snorting. Pratt certainly had some interesting touches, but overall, I had to ultimately wonder if this was a critique or if he was really just succumbing to the cliches. Hey, sometimes it's hard to tell a parody from a sincere story attempt! The reading I prefer is the parody, because if this ISN'T written to be satirical, I have a bone to pick or a forbidding fruit to offer. I'm rather tired of reading stories that involve obviously sexist renditions of female characters. I know that Laurie and Laura at least will appreciate this notion; so many times in fantasy we either get a goddess or a whore. I really noticed it in this story and it kind of bugged me. And trust me, I'm not a militant feminist. In "Cup and Table" we've got a witch-whore and a masculine, bitchy boss-lady. It made me sigh a bit.
HOWEVER! I really enjoyed the ending. I'm learning that religious fantasy (ala "The Muldoon") can be molded into stories that simply pulse with edgy life, and the Deist worldview solidly presented here offers some fascinating possibilities (such as snorting God's blood and asking him not to leave the world ticking away on its own).
HOWEVER! I'm also incredibly bitter. I really wish we had read this story before I wrote my paper about man vs. God... *sigh*
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4 comments:
I just wanted to add a question:
We've discussed this before in class, authors being criticized for their stories being 'sexist.' How far do writers have to go to deserve this title, or do they ever?
You know, I was so enjoying the weird world the author created that I didn't even notice his gender stereotypes. You're right though...nothing but bitches. But, I don't think that always makes a writer sexist. You could always just think of them as being bad-asses, which would be a compliment to a guy.
i agree with jessie. maybe they're just women who can hold their own. the guys arent' that great either. one's a junkie, the other is made of evil (??LOL), and the other eats weird stuff! so... there you go.
you know, the old doctor... he reminded me of buffy's watcher, giles. lol. did anybody else get that feeling?
Well, I totally agree with you that the whole Virgin/Whore split is still sadly alive and well in the Fantasy genre! Mr. Rosenbaum actually brought something similar up with his own Maghd over in the "Visit with Benjamin Rosenbaum" post. He said he actually worked hard at trying to make the story more than just the typical male hero beating the stereotypical "bad witch."
Anyway, yeah, I was a bit saddened by the two female characters in this story... Carlotta is a whorey, ill-mannered, bad tempered witch with a crusade against God. The New Doctor is an evil bitch who poisons people to get her way. Slim pickins lemme tell ya.
However, on the satire comment, I think this was another one of those "20 Epics" stories in which the author tries to condense an Epic into a short story. By its very nature, I think it's supposed to hit a few cliche notes just to ring some bells in the reader's internal catalog of epic superhero stories. I totally got the comic book vibe in this story, and I was actually really excited about it! The made-of-evil guy was totally my favorite, and I really loved his "made-of-carbon" line.
As for the religious tones, I thought they were interesting, well placed, and rung with echoes of His Dark Materials. That last line was killer. I actually went "Awwww, that's kinda sweet."
Man! I totally thought of your paper when I read this, too! I was like, "Aw, man, poor Casey! This would have been perfect."
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