Learning to Skate

already suggested a

sapphibbatical

7 years ago someone posted this-

And 5 years a different user posted this-

PROPAGANDA:

[Yue Qingyuan]

"The Sect Leader should get pregnant because the Sect Leader should be the picture of fertility and virility both, boost the usage of male child-bearing pills, and because the whole Sect would go crazy trying to find out who's the baby daddy. I think Yue Qingyuan could benefit from having to raise a child of his own instead of managing disciples, because Yue Qingyuan no longer has a family of his own and deserves one, and this way, perhaps he'd be forced to care about another person again. His strong and qi-rich body would also have an easy pregnancy and have a strong and happy child."

[Maes]

"The ultimate family man, the #1 wifeguy, wouldn't it be a joy for him to take some of the burden off his wife when the time comes to grow his family? (And shhh, everything is fine! Canon won't happen if we close our eyes and write fix-it fic instead)."

This occurred to me after I just reread "A Wizard of Earthsea" in which Le Guin is very much in love with her fictional world, and while there may be a few blindspots in the worldbuilding, Earthsea is lovingly constructed and feels very rich and very real; the reader wants to explore the world with Ged while he's on his adventure, and we feel wonder and discovery and immersion. I did not get that from AC0TAR at all, and it really just felt like Maas created Prythian or whatever so it could be where the plot happens. So much in that book is just there to facilitate The Plot (which is mediocre at best.) Various aspects of the worldbuilding are not explored any deeper than what is necessary to introduce a plot point.

And we really just do not get much immersion into the world at all; the human culture seems very shallow; we don't get a sense of their mythology and oral tradition, religion, and cultural practices (like we do in Earthsea), their languages (as in LotR,) (somehow there is no language barrier between Feyre and tamlin) their political history (as in the Witcher) (yes there is a war history in thorns and roses but it feels super shallow and unrealistic) and Maas is very insistent that they don't have religion. Which is utterly absurd and honestly fucking infuriates me because EVERY human society has religion; even secular societies have religions (civic religion, football, etc.) Like I think there was a mention of holidays or festivals or something but Maas is really insistent that there are no gods and I just cannot believe that a pre-industrial society has no gods or functionally similar deity-figures (defined loosely.) Because obviously the main character girlie has to have all the same exact ideas about herself and the world she lives in as a hyper-individualist 21st century american suburban liberal white woman.

Which is the THING. None of these characters seem to be products of their environment and culture at all. There is zero thought put into how their culture might differ from 21st century middle america and how that might shape the characters' beliefs, behaviors and personalities. See also how Tamlin is not nearly racist and entitled enough for someone who grew up in a house with enslaved people. See also how we don't get any sense of how Feyre's relationship with her gender, sexuality and body may be impacted by her culture. We are told that their society has dowries but almost nothing else about how gender is constructed or what kinds of misogynies are happening and I'm sorry but I can't get off to a romance story if there isn't something in the text about how gender roles and misogyny shape a woman's psyche. And honestly it makes Feyre profoundly unrelatable to me. Because also she has this whole not-like-other-girls tomboy schtick and the whole text feels vaguely misogynistic towards the gender-conforming women, and I would have like to see her actually in an intelligent way wrestling with her femininity and the restrictive womanly expectations placed upon her etc etc. But NO that would involve thinking critically about gender! Which Maas doesn't want to do, same as she doesn't think about race or class.

Also another thing pisses me off is how this whole book is so profoundly post-industrial capitalist/consumerist. We see multiple mentions of Feyre's sisters buying things. They should not be buying their clothes! They should be making their clothes! They should be spinning and weaving! Every woman here should be weaving and sewing. There is ZERO understanding of how people in pre-industrial societies acquired the goods and tools they needed (they made a lot of them or traded with neighbors.) But no! Feyre doesn't have a relationship with her neighbors either! And she feeds her family by...hunting. In the fucking woods. and selling the pelts. It just feels so completely and utterly horribly unrealistic. Why doesn't she have a garden! Honestly I would find it so much more believable if she was a sex worker or something.

*reluctant sigh*

*scrolls back up*

Brennan: "[As you talk about investing in this town] you can watch as their eyes glaze over a little bit --"

Ally: "'Cause they're not staying."

Brennan: "[...] Some of them are talking about San Francisco or Seattle, other far-flung places. In other words, you guys talk about investing in this town ... I think either the kids are like, 'Cool! I'm a Junior. I've got one year left here.' or even if they're not, they're going like 'how long does it take to make a town good?'

You're watching a little bit of youth, and there's something very beautiful in youth in terms of their aspirations. But I think you can see, in the aspirations of many of these young people, there is a single-minded focus on the personal ambitions of their own life.

Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind 💖📚 Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.