100 sci fi women #31: Eowyn of the House of Eorl

Eowyn of the House of Eorl   Lord of the Rings (both book and film)

Eowyn is exactly the type of determined, strong, brave, independent and compassionate woman that we like around here. She can fulfil a traditional female role in caring for her uncle, the much reduced King Theoden, however when told to stay at home when the men were going into battle she chafed against the restrictions placed on women. In a culture which valued the way of the sword, Eowyn recognised that one could never be an equal member unless one proved oneself with the sword, and she knew that she truly was an equal member. Eowyn also faces the unwanted attentions of Grima, but again was not willing to bed to a partnership with him because she should.  Ok, so she has a big girly crush on Aragorn, but let’s face it, with charisma like that, who amongst us could really have resisted? Eowyn is willing to hide her identity, to march into unknown dangers with her fellow Riders of Rohan, and because of her bravery saves her King and slays the Nazgul. In healing she her compassion helps to heal others and she comes to love Faramir, who has also been injured in both body and soul.  Eowyn is the best of the Tolkein women, brave and unwilling to accept conventions and strictures thrust upon her by men and the patriarchal society in which she has been raised.

January Cultural Round Up

So I have decided as an exciting new feature to give a quick overview at the end of each month of those things cultural which have taken up my attention over the last month. We thus commence with January.

Books

The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov

In a word, Russian. There is something about the first half of books that requires that the plot really doesn’t move along much – I’ll never forget the endless wanderings around the streets for the first half of Crime and Punishment. Anyhow, I did enjoy the second half and clearly it is fascinating as a product of its social time and place.

The Resurrectionist James Bradley

Have not finished yet, but it is darkly seductive, drawing one in and leaving one dreamily wanting more just like the opium Gabriel finds himself taking. And whoever thought that short chapters made a book easier to put down at night. I find myself reading well past my bedtime, figuring just one, short chapter more can’t take very long…can it?

Cinema

Avatar

Well, I have said my piece on Avatar elsewhere to some extent. Beautiful to look at but empty at its heart. And I am sorry, but a “best Film” should really be a bit more than aesthetically pleasing – I generally demand an actual script and some less by-the-numbers acting.

Sherlock Holmes

Strong auteurial influence – it had never occurred to me to think of Watson as a bit of a geezer before. However, rather an enjoyable romp, though I think it might have been better if the central characters were renamed – really, anything other than Holmes and Watson.

The Princess and the Frog

Classic Disney in the classicist sense. Old school animation, American Dream rags-to-riches storyline…Admittedly the “princess” is a poor girl with a dream (Cinderella anyone) and the Prince is a lay about – but let’s face, he is transformed by love and hard work and she is transformed by marriage, so there we go. Nonetheless, not too bad, and I will even guiltily admit I got a little tear at one point – must have been dust in my eye.

Television

The Wire  – Season 2

The charisma of Jimmy McNulty insidiously creeps under one’s guard, and suddenly one finds oneself with a full blown case of TV boyfriend! So far, season 2 is showing itself to be as intriguing as season 1, full of moral dilemmas and perspectives and a demonstration that some of our notions about crime and morality are not as black and white as they could be. Situation, opportunity and grinding poverty are all keys to the story.

Dollhouse – season 1

It occurs to me that this series was just a big chance for Joss to do what he loved to do in Buffy and Angel – make his characters be someone else. Better mid season than its shaky start, I still long for it to be a bit better. The mid season episodes are improved though by Eliza getting to play Eliza, which has always been her strongest suit.

Games

Lego Star Wars  for the Wii

It must be said that the interstitial moments of Lego Star Wars really make you want to get to the end of the level. Wait, so does the frustration of having to do the same annoying thing over a few times… Having never really played one of these types of games before I was somewhat addicted for the first half of the month – and I can see Zelda purchases in my future.

Music

This month was dominated by the Big Day Out which we journeyed all the way to Adelaide to attend. The best discoveries for the day: my mild interest in The Decemberists was heightened by seeing them perform live and Peaches, let’s just say her show is totally, rockingly, insane. For my full run down of the Big Day Out, see here.

100 sci fi women #30: Willow Rosenberg

Willow Rosenberg Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Willow was another chance for those of us who liked to read, understood the notion of research, and had a slightly eccentric dress sense to have the notion that we were useful and, in fact critical, reflected back to us.

But most importantly, what Willow repersented was growth and change. Her journey on Buffy was probably the most significant, greater even than that of Buffy, who manage to squeeze in dying. Willow actually had the best relationships, she learnt her own value, but then lost it again in her addiction to magic. And OK, some of us may have loathed the over-determination of that particular story (let’s keep it at the level of metaphor next time Joss), but it didn’t mean that the story of Willow wasn’t still one that held us.  Her Shakespearean anger at the murder of her lover, Tara, demonstrated the full range of her power, but with that power came a terrible destructiveness.

But Willow also learned to overcome her dark side and make her power used for good. Her relationship with Tara alo showed the way that friends do deal with a friend coming out, and showed a highly positive example of a lesbian relationship which supported each other to grow. It was only its terrible end that was dark.

Willow, supportive friend, ace researcher, IT whizz, caring lover, powerful Wiccan – in whatever guise,we love you.

100 sci fi women #29: Joanna Dark

To date, the women on my list have come from books, films and tv. However, there is of course another medium which engages with science fiction and fantasy quite heavily, so it is perhaps time to move to the world of gaming. Perhaps the reason why it has taken this long to get to a game character has something to do with the arguments in this interesting piece of women and (computer) gaming. I will confess that I am somewhere in the middle between a “casual” gamer and a hard-core gamer chick. I do play lots of casual type games, but I also have a history with more “serious” computer gaming. The thing for me is that I am just not that engaged by first-person-shoot-em-ups, which is perhaps why I will never become a full-on gamer. And I don’t have enough time in my life for serious WoW.

Nonetheless, one first-person-shooter I have played, and one female character I do like, is detailed below.

Joanna Dark Perfect Dark (Nintendo 64)

Joanna Dark is an special agent of the Carrington Institute, pitted against a rival corporation, dataDyne. Her perfect training scores earn her her “Perfect Dark” nickname. While Joanna is sexy, she was never quite as hypersexualised as her video-gaming compatriot, Lara Croft. She was a first-person shooter, so the player saw through her eyes. In her missions she saves the US President, saves good aliens, defeats evil aliens and generally saves the world. This has got to rate as a worthy female hero. A rare figure in the world of games, Joanna Dark stands on both her own merits, but also on what she represents: a female centred games, where the character who is played through is a woman, not clad in shorts, who is more than merely capable and who can beat the bad guys every time. I just wish they’d make Perfect Dark for the Wii.

100 science fiction women #28: Margarita Nikolaevna

Ok, so I have been inattentive. but here I am now. And my list for the day is again from city of tongues (thanks James) and is 100 Top Science Fiction/Fantasy books. While there are a number of my very favourite books on the list, like The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin and The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, I think that the list is more a reflection of the writer’s 100 favourite books, leaving out as it does a number of significant authors and featuring so many books by the same author. But who said lists need to be objective? And it does provide further food for rumination. Tonight’s edition of this list involves a book I had been meaning to read for years, and have just finished, and so to….

Margarita Nikolaevna The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov

You know you are reading Russian literature when the eponymous Margarita doesn’t appear until the second half of the book (and the Master appears hardly at all). But discussion of the nature of literature aside, Margarita represents an interesting character in this book, as one of the few characters the Devil on his visit to Moscow does not treat extremely badly. Margarita is unhappy, separated from her love and lover, the Master, living in a marriage which, will financially beneficial and to, it would seem, a pleasant enough (but non-appearing) character, does not involve love. She is driven by love for the Master and her desire to be reunited with him, but even though this overrides her actions, she is willing to use the opportunity to ask for anything to beg the Devil to end the eternal torment of a dead ghost who is haunted by the child she killed. Margarita understands the desperation which drove this young woman to her crime, and asks the right question – what of the man who made her pregnant and left her abandoned – is he made to suffer as she does. Willing to embrace adventure if it leads her from her unfulfilling life and towards the Master, she rides a broom naked and invisible through the streets of Moscow. Full of passion she destroys the house of the critic who broke the will of the Master, overcome by rage and yet her compassion stills her hand when she sees the fear she creates in a young boy. She is unafraid of the strangeness and possible danger of her role as the hostess for the Devil, and will take on the pain and discomfort involved to meet the Master again.

Margarita’s breath was taken away, and she was about to utter the cherished words prepared in her soul, when she suddenly turned pale, opened her mouth and stared: “Freida!…Freida, Frieda!” someone’s importunate, imploring voice cried in her ears, “my name is Frieda.”

100 Sci Fi women #27: Marcelina Hoffman

Ok, back to the usual game. In the lists update a couple of good one end-of-year ones which come courtesy of city of tongues: the best and worst sci-fi movies of 2009 and the best sci-fi novels of 2009. Hopefully the world will continue to create great science fiction, fantasy, speculative fiction and horror in 2010.

Marcelina Hoffman Brasyl Ian McDonald

Marcelina is vain, appearance obsessed and botox using, selfish, coke snorting, obsessed with success and just a little bit shallow. But who said woman had to be self deprecating earth mothers who wash only in tea leaves to be good heros? Marcelina is also fearless in many ways, willing to take on new things, rise to new challenges and explore new ideas. She also discovers herself to be capable of deep love. As the producer of trashy reality television programs she gets to do that, as the chosen zemba of the multiverse she has no choice but to embrace it and meet the challenge. Marcelina’s world is upended when she finds an exact copy of herself busily going about destroying her life by revealing production secrets, ignoring her friends and insulting her family. Worst yet, the other-Marcelina tries to kill her. Marcelina, as a practitioner of capoeira is not without fighting skills, and as a television producer is not without the skills to plan her way out of trouble. This task is made slightly harder by the fact that the other-Marcelina knows how she thinks. In her flight, Marcelina discovers that there are multiple worlds and multiple worlds and, while people are not supposed to travel between them, sometimes they do. She is initiated into the role of zemba – the warrior – fighting against the Order and gets a fabulously cool weapon. What Marcelina comprehensively proves, is that people’s potential and their essential character should not be judged by the superficial flit across the world – when tested they might be something completely different.

Again the multiverse pulsed around Marcelina. Cut. Edit. You are not unarmed now. You are not a victim. She held the knife high over her head.

Looking for a new formula

Walking home in the middle of a balmy summer night after seeing Avatar the other night, the discussion turned naturally to the merits of the film. The question that occurred to me after, is how much of a pass can you give something because of its merit on one front?

It is undeniable that Avatar, for example, is a technologically impressive. It is also very aesthetically impressive. Or pretty, if you would rather. But beyond that, the film’s merits are entirely questionable. The characters are stereotyped and one-dimensional, as are most of the performances (we’ll give you a pass Sigourney, you were OK). The script is at times very laboured, especially the anachronistic use of Iraq War terminology which just grated at times. There was nothing remotely original in the story, and I don’t think there was anything that happened that surprised me (although I did think for a minute they might save Grace, but let’s call that a minor surprise). There were a number of things which were pretty lacking in credibility (for example: if you had invested billions and billions in a business, would you be trusting its management to an unthinking loser like Parker Selfridge and the scenery chewing colonel? And the politics were heavy handed and, amusingly, enough to set off the right (particularly in the form of Miranda , bemoaning the deprecation of the military and the Iraq War and the left, with (justifiable) concerns about the depiction of disability, race and gendered notions about warriors vs spirituality. Personally, I can’t abide the white-man-rescues-poor-natives trope which is the film’s central conceit (see Sociological Images for a nice discussion of that here). I must admit that amongst that litany of problematic depictions, I actually thought that, Na’Vi earth goddess trope aside, the depictions of human women were not too bad. But this is perhaps beside the point. My other concern with Avatar as a whole though was that it, with is formulaic plot and its poor characterisation, bordered on the boring at times.

What I am particularly interested in, is to what extent can one give an artistic creation a pass because of its superior aesthetic value. Many people I know have said “well…it was pretty.” And pretty seems to count for a lot. But how do you stack pretty up against poor scripts, lack of imagination or, indeed, poor politics. Overall,as a society, when it comes to people we do seem to be willing to let a lot slip when faced with superior aesthetics! But people are different from art. Without engaging in hyperbole, or any implication that James Cameron is a Nazi etc, it should be noted that films like Triumph of the Will and Olympia were supremely aesthetically pleasing, and impressive demonstrations of their current technology. It is true, that these films are still watched and studied and indeed admired for their aesthetic values. But the questions remains as to whether they are “good” films. Can their core of rottenness be overcome by their superior aesthetics?

Is there a formula or an equation that can be reached which says, despite its poor script, its aesthetics bring it up to par, but now you add some dodgy politics, it drops out of contention? It is interesting that we often do this in the other direction – the lighting and the sets were poor and it was ugly, but the script was fantastic – it is a “worthy” story. Are there some things which cannot be forgiven in a film, no matter how beautiful?

Update: with respect to questions of the originality of the script of Avatar see this very amusing take on it.

Further update: A good discussion about the idea of considering these questions, plus the representation of race itself in Avatar is here.

Wild or sulky?

Where the Wild Things Are was a book I loved as a child, and it has been one that we have read over and over again to our boys, so much so that we have the call and response down pat: “And Max said…” “NO!” And everyone loves jumping on the bed when the wild rumpus starts. So naturally we were very excited by the idea of the film and went as a whole family.

And my response…well, it is just a bit boring. Actually, quite boring. After a bit I was dying for Max to get back on his private boat and sail away, and it wasn’t just because the 3 year old was climbing all over me – I couldn’t take it any more. Yet I wouldn’t say it was a bad film; the costumes were brilliant and the photography lovely (though I could have done with a little less shakily hand held) and the light was beautiful and the performances were good (I especially thought that Max was great)…but it just didn’t quite have the plot to sustain it. And not only that, but that the conception of the idea of “wild” was one which didn’t gel with me, and the overly depressive nature of the wild things just added to the boredom.

A few reviewers I have seen have argued that it is a film “about” children or one which captures the essence of childhood, but I am not sure that I agree. It seems to be a view of children from someone who doesn’t like children, and/or doesn’t know them well enough to be able to capture the roundedness of children. Yes, children do get sulky and be difficult and get lonely and grumpy, but they also have this amazing joy and wonder and kindness and happiness. In fact, children are more often happy and intrigued in my experience than sulky and sad. The film failed to capture those kind of ideas. For me, the wildness of children is their variability and changeability – one moment they are thrilled and happy, the next the depth of despair and then five minutes later they have engaged with something else again. The endless downer of the wild things and the dude-ish tones made it all rather more teenage – a ‘Where the Emo Things Are’ interpretation of the film. There were glimpses of something else, particularly in the characters of KW and Carol, but mostly it was drowned out by the over all doleful tone.

The thing that interests me the most is Maurice Sendak’s involvement in the film and thus overt approval of the approach. His books for me always captured a little more mischief and joy that the sullen depression of the wild things. Max’s sneak attack on his sister’s friends is more like it, but that seems to disappear largely when he hits the island.

But sadly, overall, it is not a film I would see again, or recommend to anyone. Which is not the childhood magic one had hoped.

100 sci fi women #26: Romanadvoratrelundar

Romanadvoratrelundar aka Romana Doctor Who (both versions)

Romana is the only one of the Doctor’s companion who has challenged him intellectually. While Adric was a maths genius, he was, in every other way, inferior to the Doctor. Romana, on the other hand, another Time Lord (or Lady, though that sounds naff), scored a triple first at the Academy on Gallifrey, while the Doctor only just scraped through. Thus, Romana and the Doctor function much more as equals than he does with many of his other companions and she sometimes gets the better of him.

Romana’s two regenerations provide for contrasting beauties – the aristocratic dark Romana and the blonde waifish Romana. In her second form Romana develops a greater sense of humour. Unlike the Doctor’s regenerations, Romana has much greater control over her form and recovery, which could again be seen as a way in which she is superior to the Doctor.

While in various non television forms, Romana has gone on to positions of great authority within the Time Lord world, part of me hopes that she might still be waiting somewhere in E-Space, ready to return to assist the new incarnation of the Doctor along. It would be nice to think that if the Doctor is not the only surviving Time Lord that Romana might be the one to reappear at some time. As has been pointed out, if some of the Daleks survived (and it seems that a plague of them did) surely some Time Lords did as well. Seeing Romana again in a new body or an old one, would be a big treat for those of us brainy girls who found a character to identify with in Doctor Who as youngsters. There is a new plot for you RTD.

Update: Have now watched The End of Time and hoped like hell that the mysterious woman might have indeed been Romana. Apparently, according to pod-cast commentary, this is definitively not so. However, that doesn’t mean the mind cannot be changed….And there was the second TimeLord woman also….It was the whole “I was lost once” bit which made me particularly hopeful. That and the fact she was clearly a TimeLord. Nonetheless, I think Romana is still someone who can reappear sometime in the future.

100 sci fi women #25: Ann Burden

Ann Burden Z for Zachariah

Reading this book in the first half of my teens during the nuclear paranoia of the early 1980s, I felt a strong sense of identification with Ann, the surviving 16 year old who is cultivating her isolated valley and surviving the horrors of the apocalypse elsewhere. Of course, I now know that I wouldn’t have half the farming and animal husbandry skills that Ann does – I have been reduced to the position of battle bard in our post apocalyptic planning – but you know what I mean. Ann’s isolation does not stop her maintaining a sense of the positive in the face of despair, and when a man arrives in the valley, rather than being threatened or fearful, she nurses him back to health, hoping for a companion. The contrast of Loomis in his suit and Ann with her lack of fear is immediate and apparent. Of course, all does not go well, and Ann demonstrates other qualities – bravery, strategy, resourcefulness, and a refusal to be dominated, raped and subjugated. Ann has the kind of resilience we all dream of, and hope and courage that allow her to face that which would otherwise be unthinkable.

If you shoot me, you really will be alone.