bookage and bright colors, etc.

[anotheranon]

Ever since I got back from Seattle, I've been like a magpie in my attraction to bright colors: vivid and so saturated that if you put it in the washer it will turn your socks [insert color here]. I fed it a bit this week by playing with peacock blue sari fabric but what's satisfying it now is my long-backordered copy of Moda a Firenze 1540-1580. I don't know whether it's the lush artwork within or imagining the original red of Eleanora of Toledo's surviving burial dress, but ... I want to make something with that kind of intense color. I keep flipping back to a blue green dress with gold sleeves (a color combo I've never seen described in Northern Europe for the same time period).....

Am also reading the first Pern book. I want desperately to like this book - it's been recommended to me by many and after whinging about the lack of Strong Female Characters in my fiction stack it's fair to argue that Lessa fits the SFC bill, but....maybe I'm just being too cynical, but the psychic link with dragons (dragons!) just reeks of new-age-huggy-cuddly fantasy cliches (dragons!) to me. Should I stick with it or not?

And it's amazing the things one learns on Teh Interwebs: cat hair does, indeed, felt. I've been threatening to take all of Spice's shedding and knit a "Spice sweater" for Kisia, but beads dyed with Kool Aid sound so much easier (because I can't knit) :P

Comments

[geekchick]

Am also reading the first Pern book.

If I'd known you were interested in reading it, I'd have given you one of my copies; I got two some years ago when the publisher was giving away free copies along with books by then-new authors, and I just ditched the last copy recently on Paperbackswap. I really liked the Pern series a few decades ago when I read them, but they weren't anything I ever felt the need to re-read.

but the psychic link with dragons (dragons!) just reeks of new-age-huggy-cuddly fantasy cliches (dragons!) to me. Should I stick with it or not?

I think that if the "psychic link with dragons" thing irks you, then the Pern books are probably not for you. =)

[geekchick]

Also? Much lust for that Moda a Firenze book.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I invite you to come visit the book. It is scrumpdillyicious!

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

It's not so much that the psychic dragons think "irks" me as much as it smacks of every fantasy stereotype that has put me off reading any book that has a dragon anywhere in it.

I didn't realize the Pern series was written back in the 1960s; was McCaffrey was the first author to write extensive fantasy with dragons?

[geekchick]

It's not so much that the psychic dragons think "irks" me

Gotcha. Perhaps poor word choice on my part.

as much as it smacks of every fantasy stereotype that has put me off reading any book that has a dragon anywhere in it.

Have you read any of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series yet? Yes, dragons, but the premise is a "reimagining of the epic events of the Napoleonic Wars with an air force—an air force of dragons, manned by crews of aviators".

was McCaffrey was the first author to write extensive fantasy with dragons?

I must confess that I don't actually know. I think that at the time I read the series, the dragons were what drew me to it (I was 12, maybe?), but I think my later feelings on the books are somewhat similar to ragdoll's. I wasn't feeling particularly sad to part with my copies of any of the books.

I don't remember offhand if you'd linked to this or not, but you might find something interesting at http://feministsf.org/bibs/recommended.html. If you haven't read Sheri Tepper's "The Gate to Women's Country" yet, that one can be excellent conversation-fodder.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

I'd say McCaffrey was likely the pioneer with non-fairy-tale dragons in a fairly-well-thought-out social setting, and like all pioneers, she had to feel her way cautiously and slowly ... as in all series, later books move faster because it can be safely assumed that a reader knows the background. There are some impressive societal twists and discoveries in the books (remember, the Pern series are science fiction, not fantasy, despite surface appearances, and McCaffrey does use that well). I'd say try to stick with this first book to the end (ideally, I'd say read the first three, which formed a fairly complete trilogy). Or switch to McCaffrey's Harper Hall books instead (also set on Pern, but from a non-dragonrider POV ... when it comes to strong female characters, I'd rank that series' Menolly ahead of Lessa).

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

Ooh the book on Florentine fashion sounds awesome. As for Pern -- meh. I read the books when I was a teenager and loved them but in retrospect, I think they just reek of bad romance novels set in space. I don't really see Lessa (or any of the other heroines in the story) as particularly strong esp when they have to rely on a) their dragons and b) the men who rape love them to get by. I think the whole falling in love with rapist thing irks me too (yeah yeah, it's not REALLY rape because they're going at it due to their psychic links with dragons but it's not exactly voluntary) plus Pernish society is alot more sexist than some would like to think. Considering when they were first written (the late 60s??), they are feminist (i.e. the women do more than just cook and clean and wait for their men to save the day) but...meh.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I got all excited that Lessa was going to get to go flying on a dragon(! a dragon, but still - flying! Perhaps with a sword!) But then it turns out that the queen dragon doesn't fly (except to make babies) [sigh]

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

The only female dragons that fly are the greens. And they, of course, are sexually insatiable. And sterile, IIRC.

[kat1392.livejournal.com]

Keep reading. She does get to fly.

[vree.livejournal.com]

Stick with the Pern books. The huggy-cuddly stuff exists but i find the societal delineations quite fascinating. Not to mention its a pack of rocking good adventure stuff. Of course i tend to read Pern chronologically instead of by publication date so my view might be a bit warped.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

the psychic link with dragons (dragons!) just reeks of new-age-huggy-cuddly fantasy cliches (dragons!) to me

While one can't argue taste, I think you may be being as unfair to the books as those who now accuse Tolkien of being "riddled with fantasy cliches". When you recall that the first Pern book was written in the late '60s when the concept of "new age" in it's current sense hadn't even been invented yet .... Is it fair to blame McCaffery for having been relentlessly imitated in the intervening years? (I won't argue that McCaffery wasn't, at heart, a romance writer dressing up in sf clothing. But at least the clothing was new and hand-sewn at the time, not a second-hand knock-off from the thrift store.)

For its day, those were pretty cutting-edge SFCs.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Is it fair to blame McCaffery for having been relentlessly imitated in the intervening years?

See upthread - I didn't realize that the Pern series was written in the 1960s, and I fully admit that my aversion is likely fueled by poor imitators who came after.

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

I see that everyone else has already pointed out how long ago these were written. It's kind of hard to be accused of in effect imitating yourself.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Blue green with gold ... sounds gorgeous (and would look great on you).

Hmmm ... if cat hair felts, theoretically a single laundering of the family pet should put an end to shedding, right? Although hand felting would be a better idea to ensure that the end of shedding doesn't also mean the end of the cat. ;P

[dreamtigress.livejournal.com]

I highly suggest sticking with the Pern books a bit longer. At least the first trilogy, and the harper Hall trilogy. You might also enjoy Dragonsdawn if you want more sci-fi out of them. Anne MacCaffrey wrote them before a lot of the new age movement even began, and she helped pioneer the idea of dragons as something other than "the bad guy".

To this day, the majority of the Pern series are among my favorite books.

[darkflightless.livejournal.com]

I don't think the Pern books have aged well.