Does Orson Scott Card hate women or is this just a product of my over-analytical imagination? I was trying to explain to someone yesterday why I haven't read the Alvin Maker series, and I realized several things:
First, I haven't read enough of Seventh Son to be able to back up my negative impression of the female characters.
Second, all of the women in Card's Enchantment seem to be manufactured to make people believe that when women want power things go wrong, but Valentine in Ender's Game is really amazing, and even though her purpose seems to be to bring glory to Ender, she is a strong female character.
Third, the women in Frank Herbert's Dune books (okay, I've only read the first two) seem to mainly serve the purpose of supporting the male characters, definitely Paul, but also Duncan Idaho and at the beginning of the book Duke Leto. This seems strange because the Bene Gesserit, one of the main forces in the novels, are a Sisterhood. But think about it, Jessica is chastised for having a son instead of a daughter and then when she does have a daughter the girl is refered to as an "abomination." Chani, Paul's concubine, is a strange twist, too. She's a woman warrior--they're all strong women--but she's not a strong character.
Okay, granted, I haven't read these books in awhile and I may just be making all of this up, but this is what came to mind. I'm going through this trying to figure out whether these writers are really misogynistic or whether this just a trait of Science Fiction to write women in this way. I need to read more Science Fiction before I'll have anything to base a thesis on, but this is really starting to interest me--how are women portrayed in Science Fiction? It is a more plot-driven genre so it is understandable that secondary characters would exist mainly to highlight the main character, at the expense of their own character. These women all seem to have some kind of power (or perhaps more accurately powers like the ability to see the future or knowledge of spells, etc.), but they are in the shadow of the men around them. Does anyone else see what I'm seeing here?
Posted by linnea at February 27, 2006 12:27 AMas far as orson scott card goes, don't forget about petra. great charecter, of course you 'd have to read the bean series to see that, also valentine gets a life of her own in the later books and card brings in a couple of other female charecters which are also quite good.
in dune not only is jessica's daughter reffered to as an abomination but also pauls children are both feared to be abominations: leto and ghanima. it has to do with not only being born with the other life memories, but having one of the other memories possesing you, the bene gesseret assumed that all those born under the spice essence would be unable to deffend against the other memories, and called all those born with other memories as an abomination. while the main women in herberts books do tend to play supporting roles it is quite possibly as a result of it being ridicuously hard for men to write womens roles convinvingly. we just don't understand you guys... i could say so much more about card and herbert, especially herbert, but i'll stop with my little paragraph here.
Not all sci-fi is misogynistic, though it may be a strand dating back to the origins of the genre. I haven't read much Ursula K. LeGuin, but I think she marks a sort of countertrend.
Arthur C. Clarke's more recent books have strong female characters in them, though, as Katzman suggested, they're not too convincingly drawn. Isaac Asimov had trouble writing about women, I think, but he wasn't a misogynist - he just didn't know much about women. I think Tolkien was the same way, although there are rare exceptions like the Tale of Beren and Luthien.
Posted by: Evan Donovan at February 27, 2006 8:01 AMRegarding Ender's Game, I would like to clarify something. I don't think Valentine's purpose is to bring glory to ender, as much as she is there to embody one half of who Ender is (his brother the Hegemon being the other half). They are two poles whose disparate characters, personalities and wills span the breadth of Ender's identity. Card explores Ender's story partly by literally splitting Ender into two other people and showing what happens as a result. (This becomes more apparent in the later Ender books--I don't know how many you've read.)
At any rate, this is why I kept insisting that Valentine's character has little to do with statements about women in society. She participates, in a sense, in the main character of the story. She and her brother are both a part of Ender's self. As I see it, you have to talk about them all together. Again, the later books clarify this much better.
Posted by: Shadow at February 27, 2006 11:32 PMoh i read good omens a couple years ago, its quite entertaining. not as good as pratchets disk world novels but still good.
Posted by: katzman at February 28, 2006 3:20 PMThanks for the comments, guys. I don't really want Card to hate women, I'm just trying to figure out why I get that vibe. I think you're right Katzman and Evan, about the authors just not being sure how to write women. And Shadow, yes Valentine is a part of who Ender is, but she's also a character in her own right. I've only read Ender's Game so I can't comment on further novels. And about Good Omens--not sure how I feel about theological points being made in a Terry Pratchett novel.
Posted by: linnea at February 28, 2006 5:34 PM