Agents of Change and Stories About Everypeople
Thursday, November 27th, 2008 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniObligatory Notice: The below is a Babble; it is not a scholarly treatise and ought not to be treated as such.
So, yesterday, Steve and I went out to breakfast -- accidentally, out to breakfast, the house power having knuckled under to the force of the wind on the overnight. And one of the things we talked about, over our coffee and other tasty things, was the vigilante hero in SF. Very often in genre, the motivator for the hero is A Death -- of a spouse, of a beloved sibling, a parent... Very often, it seems as if A Death is the only motivator. Looked at in the light of those folks who say (but do they really?) that they want stories about "Mrs. Brown" -- i.e., the "normal" (whatever that means) middle aged lady who lives downstairs, the problem of genre heroism becomes even trickier. What would motivate Mrs. Brown to cease her comfortable existence, leave her cozy apartment, her cats and her grandkids, and embrace heroism? Heroism is messy; it hurts; very often people -- at least, the person you were before -- fail to survive it. In fact, heroism is not ordinary, therefore a story about heroism is extraordinary.
Steve thought that maybe Getting Fed Up, or Witnessing an Injustice might impel someone into heroism. There's something there, though I wonder if such change-points would compel most genre readers. In the Liaden Universe(R), there is a character I think of as a hero because they refused the annihilation of worlds as their solution and took the longer, slower, non-violent course. Readers think this character is a wimp at best, and lost to honor at worst, because they're not doing anything. Kinda funny, that.
But, back to Mrs. Brown... 'way down the years, when I was a tall enough, if not exactly old enough, to read from the adult section of the public library, I fell into a series of books by an author whose name I no longer recall. Edited to Add: Mary Lasswell. The stories concerned three "normal" women -- Mrs. Feeney whose husband had died, leaving her the proprietor of a bar; Mrs. Rasmussen, also a widow, forced by penury to live with her slovenly daughter and abusive son-in-law; and Miss Tinkham, an unemployed piano teacher. All three ladies are long in the tooth and they form an alliance.
Mrs. Feeney sees Miss Tinkham going from door to door in the neighborhood, has pity on her and offers her the spare room in trade for playing piano at the bar. Mrs. Rasmussen, a long-time friend of Mrs. Feeney's gets fed up with her circumstances and also moves in with Mrs. Feeney. Mrs. Feeney recalls that she had always wanted to travel, so the three of them load up Mrs. Feeney's ancient station wagon and take off to have adventures. Wherever they land, they become Agents of Change, righting everyday wrongs, smoothing the path of Young Love, helping a Mexican woman in the country illegally to avoid the Border Patrol, gain a job and her green card...
Clearly, these were stories about Mrs. Brown and I enjoyed them thoroughly when I was thirteen, but they were written as comedies; nobody could take the antics of the three ladies seriously, after all. One wonders how they might play, written "seriously" -- or if they could even be written seriously; or if reader expectation insists that such stories must be comedy.
...and now, back to work
So, yesterday, Steve and I went out to breakfast -- accidentally, out to breakfast, the house power having knuckled under to the force of the wind on the overnight. And one of the things we talked about, over our coffee and other tasty things, was the vigilante hero in SF. Very often in genre, the motivator for the hero is A Death -- of a spouse, of a beloved sibling, a parent... Very often, it seems as if A Death is the only motivator. Looked at in the light of those folks who say (but do they really?) that they want stories about "Mrs. Brown" -- i.e., the "normal" (whatever that means) middle aged lady who lives downstairs, the problem of genre heroism becomes even trickier. What would motivate Mrs. Brown to cease her comfortable existence, leave her cozy apartment, her cats and her grandkids, and embrace heroism? Heroism is messy; it hurts; very often people -- at least, the person you were before -- fail to survive it. In fact, heroism is not ordinary, therefore a story about heroism is extraordinary.
Steve thought that maybe Getting Fed Up, or Witnessing an Injustice might impel someone into heroism. There's something there, though I wonder if such change-points would compel most genre readers. In the Liaden Universe(R), there is a character I think of as a hero because they refused the annihilation of worlds as their solution and took the longer, slower, non-violent course. Readers think this character is a wimp at best, and lost to honor at worst, because they're not doing anything. Kinda funny, that.
But, back to Mrs. Brown... 'way down the years, when I was a tall enough, if not exactly old enough, to read from the adult section of the public library, I fell into a series of books by an author whose name I no longer recall. Edited to Add: Mary Lasswell. The stories concerned three "normal" women -- Mrs. Feeney whose husband had died, leaving her the proprietor of a bar; Mrs. Rasmussen, also a widow, forced by penury to live with her slovenly daughter and abusive son-in-law; and Miss Tinkham, an unemployed piano teacher. All three ladies are long in the tooth and they form an alliance.
Mrs. Feeney sees Miss Tinkham going from door to door in the neighborhood, has pity on her and offers her the spare room in trade for playing piano at the bar. Mrs. Rasmussen, a long-time friend of Mrs. Feeney's gets fed up with her circumstances and also moves in with Mrs. Feeney. Mrs. Feeney recalls that she had always wanted to travel, so the three of them load up Mrs. Feeney's ancient station wagon and take off to have adventures. Wherever they land, they become Agents of Change, righting everyday wrongs, smoothing the path of Young Love, helping a Mexican woman in the country illegally to avoid the Border Patrol, gain a job and her green card...
Clearly, these were stories about Mrs. Brown and I enjoyed them thoroughly when I was thirteen, but they were written as comedies; nobody could take the antics of the three ladies seriously, after all. One wonders how they might play, written "seriously" -- or if they could even be written seriously; or if reader expectation insists that such stories must be comedy.
...and now, back to work
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-27 04:13 pm (UTC)I'd read it.
Have you read Remnant Population (http://www.sfsite.com/05b/rem33.htm) by Elizabeth Moon? It's not exactly the story you cite, but it is an old lady doing great things.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-27 04:20 pm (UTC)Also in this line: Paul Gallico's Mrs. 'Arris books.
Also, those readers don't get it. I got it, and thought it wonderfully sneaky, devious and... Liaden.
Hmm...
Date: 2008-11-27 04:24 pm (UTC)Just ask any Indian.
Re: Hmm...
Date: 2008-12-01 01:40 am (UTC)We've never been told exactly what cultural genetics is, but my guess would be studying the roots of various cultures, and how they grow and develop, and how cultures are related to each other/can be traced back to common roots. No need for students to relinquish their own culture, as so many native americans were forced to.
My interpretation of his balance, in a nutshell, is that rather than attacking Terrans he's attacking ignorance.
Re: Hmm...
Date: 2008-12-01 01:47 am (UTC)"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
no subject
Date: 2008-11-27 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-27 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-27 05:13 pm (UTC)ordinary people
Date: 2008-11-27 05:18 pm (UTC)Nanette F.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-27 05:19 pm (UTC)And yes, they're funny, but to a Woman of a Certain Age, they're not JUST comedies. They're uplifting comedies, if you will. Hysterical, but the women prevail and that's the *point.* Or perhaps it's a different series.
Miss Marple would be such a story written serious, albeit in a different genre, yes?
Interesting question. Hm.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-27 05:41 pm (UTC)I think plot justifications are not as serious as you suggest. It's always nice to have a convincing and coherent plot, but it's not everything. Awesome characters in a wonderful setting with smart witty dialogue will make up for a lot of deficiency in plot. Of course, make the best plot you can, but I'll be happy with the Hero Thanksgiving Cook if the battle between white meat and dark meat is juicy enough!
no subject
Date: 2008-11-27 06:08 pm (UTC)And he absolutely is a hero. Teachers change people, and thereby change worlds.
If the individual is my second-favorite character, then he too is both a hero and so not a wimp, and more than one world (Surebleak if no other!) is the better for his deliberate and reasoned slow road.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-28 01:18 pm (UTC)Ditto - TWICE! - in that order even
no subject
Date: 2008-11-27 08:49 pm (UTC)I also thought of Mrs. Pollifax, whose stories are neither entirely serious, nor entirely comedy. Or another of Dorothy Gilman's books, The Tightrope Walker.
Romantic suspense often takes a fairly ordinary heroine and drops her into an extraordinary situation. I wonder if it's harder to do "ordinary" heroes without them failing to Meet Expectations?
I haven't read the Lasswell books but may look for them. Somewhere around the house I have a book called Once Upon a Midlife. Without referring back to it, I recall it as comparing folk tales of many cultures and talking about the difference between the stories of youth, often about finding yourself or your place in the world and involving lots of proving yourself, often with violence, as compared to the stories of midlife, which are often about role reversals and reclaiming parts of yourself that have not been used so far. So, in stories of midlife women who have been contentedly (or not so contentedly) domestic go off on quests or rescue their husbands from some dire fate, and men step down from high positions or become more sensitive or nurturing or artistic. Those happen a lot, say, in women's fiction but it's harder to think of genre examples.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-28 12:41 am (UTC)Daav not only disappeared, he remained disappeared, and then having engendered a child, provided no information to his offspring regarding family history and quirks, until such time as she started asking him very pointed questions--which he provided highly limited information about and no real detail or much in the way of direct cautionary statements--he didn't, for example, warn her not to trust Liadens, didn't warn her about predatory Liaden culture characteristics, didn't warn her about the existence of the Code of Conduct and the draconian penalties and punishments that were legal, up to and including slavery, sale of slaves, and capital punishment, and the absolute control over all members of a clan, that a head of clan--the Delm of a clan--had.
That is, there are claims some people have made, that Daav was in effect acting as an instructor failing to cover critical course material, as regarding instruction to his own daughter.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-28 06:30 am (UTC)Teresa
no subject
Date: 2008-11-28 06:31 am (UTC)Teresa
no subject
Date: 2008-11-28 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-01 04:41 am (UTC)That was the reason that Aelliana took no interest in her daughter--her brother had arranged a contract with malice aforethought in which Aelliana would be treated so abusively that she would be completely overtly deferrent to her brother, for years forward. Aelliana had no joy in the contract marriage, and that tainted her view of her daughter. She'd undergone an abusive period for the sake of the clan, and was averse not only to any repetition of the situation, but also apparently to the tangible reminder of it in the form of her daughter.
The removal of Pat Rin from his mother's keeping was as different issue--Kareen was showing herself to be a pernicious and undesirable influence on her son, and so custody of him was awarded to bel'Tarden, to prevent further damage to Pat Rin and to attempt to ameliorate the damage already done.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-01 02:52 am (UTC)As for Theo's situation, her upbringing was dictated by her mother's decisions according to the culture in which Theo was born. He knew that when he accepted becoming Theo's genefather. He would hardly cross certain lines, although he would certainly do his best to see as much information and training be given as possible. How could he possibly raise the child to be Korval if she were never to leave Delgado? It would not only break the agreement made with her mother but it would hurt Theo even more than what she already suffered from that which she picked up.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-01 05:39 am (UTC)However, he also severed all his ties with his foster brother, his foster brother's wife and offspring, his son, his sister, his nephew, his father, and left no forwarding address or infordmation, ever. He set the ship to monitor comm traffic, but made no attempt otherwise to monitor anything about Korval or Liad.
He was ignorant of Anne Davis' death and Er Thom's subsequent death. Aelliana's by assassin, and given that his mother and a cousin died in a trap set for the ship, and his aunt was crippled and debilitated in the disaster that took her sister and her elder nephew, and the anger against Anne Davis' research results, Daav should have known that he wasn't leaving Liad and Korval in a nice peaceful calm situation. That is, his wife died in an attack against Korval, his foster brother's wife had been the victim of attack, his mother and cousin had been murdered in an attack and his aunt permanent disabled by it... and he left behind a young son.
By Liaden custom, he had walked, and stayed away for a far longer than considered de facto grounds for declaring someone legally dead. It was only the actions of Er Thom, Nova, Shan, and Val Con in failing to formalize his absence for so long, that prevented him from being declared dead.
As regards Theo--Jen Sar Kiladi gave her few real pointers before she went on the trip with her mother. Kamele moved into the academic quarters for the purpose of her work, and then took Theo along on the trip with the consultation and advice of Jen Sar. Jen Sar could have said things about pilot and space travel without breaking cover--he had had to have gotten from Liaden space to Delgado somehow and not being a wizard much less one of the caliber of Ren Zel or Anthora and not having a spacetime for springers cat leading him through a warp to a lifemate, he couldn't have walked there... he had to have come via spacecraft somehow. And Theo being Theo and sprung from dozens of generations of pilot ancestors of "Jen Sar"'s lineage, and being someoen that exciting times had a habit of landing on, to expect that she wouldn't be bumping into pilots, would be to expect way too much... ship-hunger's in her genes, going back all the way to both founders of Korval and to Jela.
A youngster of Korval lineage, going on a spaceship--other than Kareen and her emotionally abused son, the chances of ship-hunger not hitting, were almost nil.
And once Theo returned to Korval and let Jen Sar know she was aware he was a pilot, and informed Jen Sar that her ambition was to become a pilot, Jen Sar should have provided her with certain information about Liadens and their contracts and Code and Dealing the Liadens for Dummies critical information--recall the guidebooks ports had for visitors in Balance of Trade, for example
There's objective nformation, subjective information, and information that's a mix of both. That Liadens have a Code of Conduct as a guide to their lifestyles, is objective information. Jen Sar didn't mention that to Theo, even though he knew she was going to a mixed Terran and Liaden planet. Jen Sar didn't mention anything about hierarchies of trading ship families and the Liaden scouts and Terran whatever, even though "Korval is ships" and on the Terran side there were leading companies with lots of ships--Theo's roommate's family was apparently rather well-known, and Hugglelans has an interstellar multisystem basing presence and a number of ships--Jen Sar provided Theo with no apparently information about Trade and about, again, that rankings of whom was who in Liaden and Terran space. He was regularly visiting the yard that he'd left Aelliana's ship at, so he was in a position to hear the gossip of current status of the key issues.
Daav's choice to leave Liad and seek Balance by teaching was one thing. His incommunicado status and his silence to his daughter about information that anyone aspiring to be a pilot who was going to be on a mixed jurisdication planet needed to know, and his lack of telling her about who the powers that be were in ships, were other things, and ones that he flunked.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-09 02:01 am (UTC)As for not telling Theo she's genetically Korval, i think about it this way: An onagrata relationship on Delgado is more like a contract marriage (if that), and certainly not a lifemating. And the relationship - whether to initiate it, how involved it is, how long it lasts, whether there are children - is totally up to the female.
In a contract marriage, it would be spelled out in the contract which parent's clan the child went to and became a part of, and the other parent would most likely not have any role in the child's life, perhaps not even be known to the child. Or there might be some relationship, but that's not expected or really common, it seems. The other parent, having done their marital duty, is outside the child's clan and has no say. Maybe the healers even blur their memory so they don't miss their child so much.
With this as Daav's cultural background for parenting in a contract rather than lifemating situation, and with Kamele clearly the parent who, legally and socioculturally on Delgado, has the child in her care (i'm trying not to talk about possession or ownership, though it does seem to arise) - wouldn't he naturally and appropriately see Theo as _belonging_ to Kamele and her 'clan' (her world/culture/identity), and not to him and his?
Another case in point - remember Er Thom and Anne's major cultural confusions about Shan's legal status. Literally, who did he belong to, Anne or Clan Korval? Because Anne named him yos'Galan, he belonged to Korval. To Er Thom and Daav, that was blatantly obvious and unchangeable once done, while to Anne it made no sense, had no context - and she a scholar of the Liaden language besides. If she'd named him Davis, despite the genes Er Thom wouldn't have felt he had the same kind of claim, if any.
So it's not surprising that Daav was so hands-off in these regards - Theo is Kamele's child and not, legally, of his clan. Even though genetically she's all that.
Thought experiment
Date: 2008-12-01 02:12 pm (UTC)Re: Thought experiment
Date: 2008-12-02 05:20 am (UTC)Yes, I would, I expect:
The Jen Sar Kiladi of the stories-as-they-are, is a construct invention and role assumed by Daav yos'Phelium, former Captain of all Liad and Liaden space, responsible for the entirety of its populace, and a role he assumed following the murder of his wife, for purposes of enacting as bloodless a Balance as possible.
In that role, he allowed himself to be taken as an onagata on an indefinite basis by a rising Scholar of Delgado, and did nothing to prevent his mistress from bearing a child with him as a genetic material donor. He did advise his mistress that his lineage had idiosyncracies, but did not otherwise elucidate. He withheld information about his true antecedents, and seems to not have provided details about clan and affiliations if anything within Liaden space either of Daav yos'Phelium or the constructed Jen Sar Kiladil
Though he maintained a ship at a shipyard on Delgado, he kept that information close and no hint of it got to his mistress' daughter, who was completely unaware, at least consciously, that her father had ever been a pilot, much less that he had a spaceworthy Jump ship sitting ready for spaceflight as a yard on Delgado, which he visited regularly and checked the flightworthiness of. Theo knew about his fishing and his fast cars, but not about the ship.
Re: Thought experiment
Date: 2008-12-02 05:31 am (UTC)Jen Sar Kiladi was a construct of Daav yos'Phelium. If there had been a real Jen Sar Kiladi, born Jen Sar Kiladi and not an invention of Daav yos'Phelium which Daav yos'Phelium used as instrument of his will to create change and effect as bloodless a Balancing as possible, what would Jen Sar Kiladi be like, in his own skin without it being occupied inside by the person born and raised and once living openly as Daav yos'Phelium, conceived, born, and raised to rule Liad?
Jen Sar Kiladi the construct collected his academic degrees at a Terran institution, learing to like and appreciate coffee while a student in the Terran instituation.
But what of Jen Sar Kiladi, who would he have been? What clan would he have been born to, where, at what level of Liaden social strata, would he be still in contact with his clan and a member in good standing, or would he have been booted out, or would he have been away without leave, or would he have been away with the approval of Delm and Head of Line, out studying and then instructing, with full clan approval and allowance?
Would Jen Sar Kiladi be a pilot, and were he a pilot, would he have hid it from his Terran mistress and his mistress' daughter? Would he have participated differently in the raising of the daughter?
Re: Thought experiment
Date: 2008-12-02 05:51 am (UTC)Jen Sar Kiladi as lived by Daav yos'Phelium, is comfortable with his Liadeness--there is no sign of him displayed as having been booted off Liaden or out of Liaden space, no rancor or bitterness of the sort a Liaden sold into slavery or less severely under clan disapproval and sanction might have (compare Jen Sar Kiladi a construct of Daav yos'Phelium, with Ren Zel after Ren Zel's birth clan disowned him and declared dead, or the misfortunate Liaden whose mother and brother treated him vilely and sold him into slavery in Balance of Trade, or the Liaden woman on a decade of probation by her clan who took up with the bipolar Terran artist in one of the shorter Liaden stories).
Jen Sar Kiladi as played by Daav doesn't say anything that the reader has seen, about clan affiliation or why he's on Delgado (at least not explicitly). The surmises might be assumption that he's on Delgado because of the opportunity and perhaps prestige of beign a scholar there
But back to "what would someone born and raised Jen Sar Kiladi be like?"
I doubt that he would be on the outs with his clan--he might be detached in the sense of semi=-permanently locating/having relocated himself to Delgado, but he would have done so with the allowance of his Delm and Head of Line to have done so.
He probably would have told his daughter stories of him as a boy and young fellow and why he had come to Delgado and the differences between Delgado and Liad--again, there's no sign of trauma regarding Jen Sar Kiladi's being in Terran space on a Terran planet teaching at a Terran university. He might have had a relative or two show up, or gone off to visit family, and have correspondence with them.
He'd probably be unlikely to be a pilot, but if he were, he'd probably have told his mistress' daughter about it, particularly if he had pilot reflexes and suspected the daughter might have them, too. If he had possession of a ship, he wouldn't have kept it a secret from his mistress and mistress' daughter.
Jen Sar Kiladi the construct, however, has secrets, and is guarding them--hiding his true identity, concealing information that he is a pilot from the woman he is onagata to, and from the young woman he engendered half of whose geneset is from him.
Jen Sar Kiladi the construct has failed to provide the young woman with critical information about Liad and Liadens despite her going off offplanet on a ship where there are likely to be Liadens and with Korval pilot gene reflexes/neural network. When she returns to Delgado asks if he is a pilot and says she wants to be a pilot, he does admit to being a pilot--but doesn't admit to having a ship or provide any hint that he has a ship, has ever owned a ship, etc.
Re: Thought experiment
Date: 2008-12-02 06:25 am (UTC)Back to if Jen Sar Kiladi were actually Jen Sar Kiladi...
Miri had an identification item from her lineage, even though her grandmother, was it, had left the clan to bear a child the Delm had demanded be aborted, and then had gotten stuck permanently never getting back to Erob's clan house. Miri's mother married Miri's father and was stuck on Surebleak and died there, on a planet with a flattened economy. Miri managed to get away by signing on with a mercenary outfit and soldiering. Miri was raised Terran, but she had no aspirations to deal with Liadens/be a pilot, either, when first met in Agent of Change. She had worse problems--recovering drug addict, and stiffed financially and on marginal funds.
Jen Sar Kiladi would have come from a background which effected him winding up at a Terran educational institution studying Cultural Genetics and then teaching it at a Terran university on a Terran planet. Was her perhaps inspired by Anne Davis, or someone who was an influence upon her?
I expect that a Jen Sar Kiladi born and raised Jen Sar Kiladi, would likely have wound up matriculating at a Terran institution out of interest and curiosity in/about things Terran, and explained some of his fascination to his mistress and his mistress' daughter about it and how and why he had come to be so far from Liad and Liaden space... and would have done some compare and contrasts between Liadens culture and Terran. Also, he would have explained the less savory things about Liaden culture and that perhaps he was happy to be away from it (think about Kara and her describing to Theo how she reacted to Liad, and how happy she was to be out of there and back to Eylot which though it had unstable politics, didn;t get homicidal over bowing ineptly).
In my own family history, my maternal grandfather left England at the age of 16, presumably at least in part to get away from his mother, and never saw his mother again. He was apparently in contact with his full sister and perhaps some of his older half-siblings, however. From all accounts his mother was an Aunt Kareen sort, labeled "a dragon lady."
Getting back, though...
In the event that Jen Sar had been declanned, he would have said so--the woman in the story who took up with the bipolar artist, explained the situation she was in to him I think. Ren Zel freely admitted to Shan what his situation was of being legally dead. Priscilla was hurting still over what had happened a decade prior being declared dead on her birth planet and having had to leave it but admitted what had happened to Lina and to Shan.
But again, getting back to Jen Sar Kiladi if Jen Sar Kiladi had been born Jen Sar Kiladi--I expect that he would have provided information about Liad and Liadens, both the complimentary and the uncomplimentary, to Theo as information she needed to know, before she went out off the planet of Delgado.
And if he didn't, he would have been shortchanging Theo and acting badly, and failing a major test as a parent--that is, failing to attempt as best he could, to properly apprise Theo of critical informatin, and what to do in what situation. Even such information as "stay away from Liaden and Liaden contracts" would have been more information that "Jen Sar Kilady" gaven Theo...
Mrs. Pollifax!!
Date: 2008-11-28 12:00 am (UTC)She is widowed, and has done yoga, but one day she is on the roof of her apartment and really can't think of a reason not to step off.
So she goes to the CIA and volunteers to be a spy.
Re: Mrs. Pollifax!!
Date: 2008-11-28 02:22 am (UTC)Gilman's CLAIRVOYANT COUNTESS is also very good.
Heroines of "cozy" mysteries
Date: 2008-11-28 02:34 am (UTC)In SF, there's the "little old lady" who hires Heris Serrano. Of course, that ends up being partly about avenging deaths.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-28 01:57 pm (UTC)Facing the 'bright fear' is immediate and transitory, and while yes, heroic, and shouldn't be belittled, it says very little about the base 'character' of the hero.
Quiet hero's - those who take the long road, are truly MORE heroic than those who make the fast 'live or die' decision. - and the read that way as well. Creating cinema for them is tricky, but in print - oh yeah, they work beautifully!
"Mrs. Brown" becoming heroic, depends rather entirely on who Mrs. Brown was before she BECAME "Mrs. Brown" - you cannot convince me that Miri, life-mated to Val-Con, having raised the new generation of Korval, and now being 'of a certain age' - will not OF COURSE remember and if necessary, re-aquire the habits and training she had as a young woman. She would probably utilize and impliment said training with more thought and sense perhaps - oh no, I'm NOT jumping that fence if I can possibly walk around it - but the base is very much there.
If we have to go with 'genre' work (which, actually, I don't class your writing AS) - you have to remember that the genre has grown up! - once upon a time it was written for and read by adolescent males - but that's truly no longer a factor. I'm 42, hubby's 40 and my 15yr. old daughter enjoys stories of adults and grey-heads as much as she does tales of teens and young adults.
There is a lot of buzz regarding women of a certain age - which completely ignores MEN of a certain age. The settled, married/divorced/widowed older male who's fallen into a rut of domesticity. They exist in vast numbers. I see no reason why they should automatically be given the 'of course they could revert to the values of their youth' award - when physiologically, woman is stronger and more resistant to the vagaries age. (which is why you hear about widowed 'Mrs. Brown' in the first place)
A small bag of penny type thoughts is all.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 05:11 pm (UTC)Injections of comedy welcome but not required
Date: 2008-12-01 03:05 am (UTC)I hadn't thought about them being Agents of Change really. But yes.