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Shakespeare and Dragons
May. 19th, 2022 05:04 pmLast night, I went to see '& Juliet', which was a trip that had been mooted in April 2020 and only just got rearranged.
( Cut for spoilers )
Today, I also finished listening to When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill. It took me a while to get into it, since the opening sections contained a lot of exposition, background information and discussion of the various issues being explored (which in some cases were too heavy-handed and in other cases were too subtle to come across very clearly). To being with, and at certain points throughout, it felt very ponderous, despite the excellent message and interesting narrative perspective.
However, once the story really got going, all the relationship dynamics and the protagonist's aspirations and struggles really got me invested, and it was an excellent story. What really got me thinking was the complexity of the ethics. Alex, as viewpoint character, was very sympathetic but I didn't wholly agree with some of her attitudes, particularly in relation to her sister, Beatrice. But, the main dragon character, Marla, while representing the desired independence and power of women, also demonstrated attitudes I disagreed with, in terms of her refusal to apologise for abandoning her obligations, and also being dismissive of Alex's feelings in a lot of ways.
So, it was a very interesting and quite challenging book in places. And I felt the conclusion brought everything to a close very well. It's a just a shame the narrative was rather encumbered by the dense sections of 'telling' the history, as it was a really intriguing premise, with a lot of interesting things to say.
( Cut for spoilers )
Today, I also finished listening to When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill. It took me a while to get into it, since the opening sections contained a lot of exposition, background information and discussion of the various issues being explored (which in some cases were too heavy-handed and in other cases were too subtle to come across very clearly). To being with, and at certain points throughout, it felt very ponderous, despite the excellent message and interesting narrative perspective.
However, once the story really got going, all the relationship dynamics and the protagonist's aspirations and struggles really got me invested, and it was an excellent story. What really got me thinking was the complexity of the ethics. Alex, as viewpoint character, was very sympathetic but I didn't wholly agree with some of her attitudes, particularly in relation to her sister, Beatrice. But, the main dragon character, Marla, while representing the desired independence and power of women, also demonstrated attitudes I disagreed with, in terms of her refusal to apologise for abandoning her obligations, and also being dismissive of Alex's feelings in a lot of ways.
So, it was a very interesting and quite challenging book in places. And I felt the conclusion brought everything to a close very well. It's a just a shame the narrative was rather encumbered by the dense sections of 'telling' the history, as it was a really intriguing premise, with a lot of interesting things to say.
