Booklogging: Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
Sep. 27th, 2011 08:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katewritesI had an urge to reread this recently, so I checked it out from the library and OH MY GOD. I had forgotten 90% of the book, but it immediately took me back to where I was when I first read it.
Oh, man, this book spoke to the young me in SO MANY WAYS. The message of "someone out there will respect and love you for who you are" is so universal and in a lot of ways it doesn't speak to girls now but to other youth - LGBT or other marginalized/bullied kids.
Right now, the latter makes a lot more sense than the textual reading of girls-are-unworthy. I kept getting frustrated because rather than the usual "You're a girl you can't be a (fill in the blank with a boy's job - warrior, king, etc)." Mostly because Menolly wanted to be a.... wait for it.... harper (aka: singer/teacher/priest?). Also if you said, "Yeah, we didn't have to wait for that", then clearly you've read the books.
Anyway, being a harper involves singing, teaching children, and (I think) acting as counsel and guidance to the cities where you're sent. I added priest as part of their job because their job is to keep towns loyal and attentive to the dragon wyers. Their job is to make sure people believe in the dragon riders as their saviors.
The first two, singing and teaching kids are things that are actually much more "girl jobs" even when McCaffrey was writing. But maybe, that's why she did it that way. Because there was, when she was writing, "men's jobs" denied to women both in sci-fi and in real life. So, she chose a job that even someone who says, "What do you mean? A girl can't be a warrior king!" would say, "It's SO UNFAIR that Menolly can't be a harper! Her dad is SO UNFAIR!"
The latter is why, in today's society, I think it speaks really well to LGBT youth. The message she gets from her father is that: you aren't normal. You want something girls aren't supposed to want. How dare you try to be different.
After the old harper dies, she's told: You can do that thing you love, as long as you only do it in the strictist, most conservative way possible. You can't BE YOURSELF when you do it, you can't introduce new music or ideas. And then when she breaks the rules, even a little, she's severely beaten and what she loves is taken away. She's faced with a future where she will never be what she wants more than anything, and instead put in a little box of "right way for a girl to be."
So, she runs away, even though the new harper is looking for her because he's figured out that she'd the AMAZING SPARKLE PRINCESS of harperdom. (In these kinds of stories, the person is never an average person, they're always the most AMAZING SPARKLE PRINCESS at what they do) She impresses 9 firelizards and then goes to a weyr where EVERYONE LOVES HER FOREVER.
Despite the weird gender stuff that goes along with Pern (canonical dubcon? no people of color ever? weirdly constrictive gender roles disguised as liberated women?) my only issue with it here was in the end where Menolly is HIDING THAT SHE IS A HARPER and DOESN'T WANT TO BE FOUND. Someone tells the harper looking for her that he needs to "go gentle" because she's clearly traumatized. So what does he do? TRICK HER INTO REVEALING SHE CAN SING.
Menolly: *exhausted from working all day*
Harper 1: *starts playing* Menolly, sing with me!
Menolly: Oh, I don't know... *sings a little*
People: *slowly start appearing*
Harper 1: *starts playing a song Menolly wrote*
Menolly: OH, NO! YOU'VE FOUND ME. NOW I WILL FOREVER BLACKEN MY FAMILY'S NAME. I WILL BE KICKED OUT OF THE WEYR. NO ONE WILL LOVE ME. *SOBS*
Masterharper: Aha! I've found you! You can't escape! You have to come with us and be a harper.
Menolly: AUGHSKJFDSJ.
*slow clap*
Awesome. Because that's what traumatized girls need. To be tricked into revealing their secrets, rather than talked to honestly.
Oh, man, this book spoke to the young me in SO MANY WAYS. The message of "someone out there will respect and love you for who you are" is so universal and in a lot of ways it doesn't speak to girls now but to other youth - LGBT or other marginalized/bullied kids.
Right now, the latter makes a lot more sense than the textual reading of girls-are-unworthy. I kept getting frustrated because rather than the usual "You're a girl you can't be a (fill in the blank with a boy's job - warrior, king, etc)." Mostly because Menolly wanted to be a.... wait for it.... harper (aka: singer/teacher/priest?). Also if you said, "Yeah, we didn't have to wait for that", then clearly you've read the books.
Anyway, being a harper involves singing, teaching children, and (I think) acting as counsel and guidance to the cities where you're sent. I added priest as part of their job because their job is to keep towns loyal and attentive to the dragon wyers. Their job is to make sure people believe in the dragon riders as their saviors.
The first two, singing and teaching kids are things that are actually much more "girl jobs" even when McCaffrey was writing. But maybe, that's why she did it that way. Because there was, when she was writing, "men's jobs" denied to women both in sci-fi and in real life. So, she chose a job that even someone who says, "What do you mean? A girl can't be a warrior king!" would say, "It's SO UNFAIR that Menolly can't be a harper! Her dad is SO UNFAIR!"
The latter is why, in today's society, I think it speaks really well to LGBT youth. The message she gets from her father is that: you aren't normal. You want something girls aren't supposed to want. How dare you try to be different.
After the old harper dies, she's told: You can do that thing you love, as long as you only do it in the strictist, most conservative way possible. You can't BE YOURSELF when you do it, you can't introduce new music or ideas. And then when she breaks the rules, even a little, she's severely beaten and what she loves is taken away. She's faced with a future where she will never be what she wants more than anything, and instead put in a little box of "right way for a girl to be."
So, she runs away, even though the new harper is looking for her because he's figured out that she'd the AMAZING SPARKLE PRINCESS of harperdom. (In these kinds of stories, the person is never an average person, they're always the most AMAZING SPARKLE PRINCESS at what they do) She impresses 9 firelizards and then goes to a weyr where EVERYONE LOVES HER FOREVER.
Despite the weird gender stuff that goes along with Pern (canonical dubcon? no people of color ever? weirdly constrictive gender roles disguised as liberated women?) my only issue with it here was in the end where Menolly is HIDING THAT SHE IS A HARPER and DOESN'T WANT TO BE FOUND. Someone tells the harper looking for her that he needs to "go gentle" because she's clearly traumatized. So what does he do? TRICK HER INTO REVEALING SHE CAN SING.
Menolly: *exhausted from working all day*
Harper 1: *starts playing* Menolly, sing with me!
Menolly: Oh, I don't know... *sings a little*
People: *slowly start appearing*
Harper 1: *starts playing a song Menolly wrote*
Menolly: OH, NO! YOU'VE FOUND ME. NOW I WILL FOREVER BLACKEN MY FAMILY'S NAME. I WILL BE KICKED OUT OF THE WEYR. NO ONE WILL LOVE ME. *SOBS*
Masterharper: Aha! I've found you! You can't escape! You have to come with us and be a harper.
Menolly: AUGHSKJFDSJ.
*slow clap*
Awesome. Because that's what traumatized girls need. To be tricked into revealing their secrets, rather than talked to honestly.
