Misaimed Fandom?

[branchandroot]

*reads reviews of The Blue Sword with mounting puzzlement*

...why does everyone think tBS is a bildungsroman? It isn't. I'm finding a lot of criticism because people say it's a bad example of its genre, that Harry doesn't actually learn and grow. But... she's not supposed to. Isn't that obvious?

This book is a deconstruction, in the original rather than popular meaning of the word, of the fairy tale. Harry gets given everything, yes: sword skill, language, a place to belong. She doesn't have to struggle for any of it, no. Because that's not the point. The point is that being magically gifted with all these things is a royal pain in the ass and involves becoming the tool of magic, like it or not--and a bewildered, ignorant tool at that. The wonderful fairy tale where everything comes easy is turned over to show the consequences of not having to struggle for language and place and skill: it means she doesn't actually know what she's doing and hasn't had a chance to grow into these things or, significantly, to control them.

So will people stop blithering on about that and talk about things I can use for supplementary materials, like the absent colonized, the links between whiteness, demonicness, and divinity, the gender politics, or the construction of Damarian culture.

Comments

[annotated_em]

*snorts* But it's so much easier to complain that Harry doesn't act like a typical white straightdude hero.

[branchandroot]

*mutters under her breath about lazy reviewers*

*makes notes about what history to prime her class with*

[ilyena_sylph]

*hugs Harry, wanders away*

[seagull2eagle]

Huh? {{doesn't read online reviews}} The Blue Sword is one of my favorite books. I loved it when I was young and it was new, and I still love rereading it today. I just *like* reading it. "Bad example of its genre"... what? o.o I thought the whole point to SF/Fantasy is that every book in there doesn't HAVE to be like the other books - people are free to explore and create within their own imaginations and people who share that love of that same imagination come and love the books as well. Why does everything have to be so complicated with reviewers? o.o

[branchandroot]

Well, young adult lit does have a handful of extremely common themes, and tBS does hit some of them. I suppose that's a danger of deconstructing a form--that some people will totally miss that thrust and just think it's badly done.

[staranise]

...Oh, tBS. I remember reading that book when I was 14, and what blew my mind was near the end, when Harry and Corlath are kissing and she pulls him down beside her and I got, for the very first time in that moment, that women could want sex and could sometimes be in charge of it, instead of it being this (occasionally nice) thing men did to them.

I am so glad I read it.

[branchandroot]

*agrees* And she did it in just one line. Well, okay, and the momentum of their relationship before that, but still. Mckinley's writing style isn't for everyone, but I've always been very fond of it.

[kenllama]

Intriguing... I've not read the book, but this makes me curious.

When is a bildungsroman not a bildungsroman? When it's not...

*snickers and sighs at the same time*

[branchandroot]

*wry* Yeah. I have no issue with the people who just don't like what the book is, but the ones who seem to blame it for not being what it really doesn't look like it's supposed to be... no.

[tiny_turtle]

I haven't read this one, but I <3 Robin McKinley and maybe stalk her titles at the library. (Maybe.)

[branchandroot]

*grins* Yeah, I like a lot of her stuff. She can get pretty dense, but sometimes it's nice to take a while, even with a light story.