Sandry’s Book

[osprey_archer]

I read a lot of books about tomboys when I was young. I don’t know how much this was a result of my reading preferences and how much it simply reflected the prevalence of tomboy books in the 1990s, but either way I came away from it with the impression that all proper heroines dislike women’s work in general and sewing in particular.

I didn’t exactly have a big a-ha! moment when I read Tamora Pierce’s Sandry’s Book, but reading about a heroine whose stitchery is literally magic did start putting the dominoes in place to knock out an epiphany eventually.

In fact, one of the things that the Circle of Magic books do really well is take a particular false dichotomy in feminist pop culture - women’s work sucks and all true heroines hate it OR women’s work is valuable and it’s actually more feminist to have a heroine who loves it (I think this one is often a defensive reaction to the plethora of tomboy books) - and basically explode it. Sandry has sewing magic (traditionally feminine); Daja has blacksmithing magic (traditionally masculine); and Tris has weather magic, which is not gendered on the grounds that it is generally beyond the ken of us mere mortals, and they’re all powerful mages with absolutely necessary skills.

In recent years I’ve become a very strong proponent of the importance of having multiple heroines, or at least multiple important female characters, because there’s only so much variety you can show with one character, you know? Especially if she has to be exemplary because she’s the only female character in the thing and therefore is supposed to somehow represent all women everywhere.

(This insight I think is also applicable to characters from other marginalized groups.)

Other fine qualities about Sandry’s Book in particular and the Circle of Magic quartet in general:

The found family vibes are top notch, A++.

Lark and Rosethorn. I totally didn’t get that they were a couple the first time I read the books (or the second, third, fourth…), but I doubt the book would have been published with any more explicit acknowledgment of that fact, and it blew my tiny mind when I heard about it years later.

The general existence of Tris. (Did the “Tris goes to Lightsbridge” book ever happen? I’m not as up on my recent Tamora Pierce books as I should be. I still haven’t read Battle Magic. Should I read Battle Magic?)

Comments

[landofnowhere]

I'm also rather fond of these books! Though I owned&read the first two multiple times, and then only read the later books once. I should retry them!

I had two friends who were best friends in college and cosplayed Sandry and Tris, and it was awesome because that was exactly who they were!

[osprey_archer]

That's great! Did they ever find a Briar and a Daja to go with them?

[landofnowhere]

They had a Briar! At the time I thought it was a great fit, but the person in question has since come out as a woman, which makes it a bit odd to think back on. They offered me Daja but I didn't take them up on it -- since it was more of them wanting to make me feel included than because it was a particularly good fit.

[ivy]

I have gotten in line at the library for this one; thanks for the rec!

[osprey_archer]

I feel that I should tell you that I read this when I was like ten and had no prose standards whatsoever, so who knows how the book is from that standpoint.

[ladyherenya]

the importance of having multiple heroines, or at least multiple important female characters, because there’s only so much variety you can show with one character, you know?

Yes. This.

I liked Battle Magic a lot more than I was expecting to -- I didn't like Melting Stones much (the one about Evvy, did you read that one?) and I also didn't see the need for a story when I knew more or less what would happen. It's too long since I read it for me to remember how much it is affected by from Pierce's current tendency to make her books longer than it needed to be.

The last I heard about “Tris goes to Lightsbridge”, Pierce said it wasn't happening because the publisher wasn't interested. Which is a rather unsatisfying explanation, in my opinion. I really, really wanted to read that one!

[osprey_archer]

Uuuuuugh that is the WORST reason not to have a "Tris goes to Lightsbridge" novel. Or rather it's an understandable reason, but the publisher should get with the program and realize that "Tris goes to Lightsbridge" would be awesome. :(

I didn't like Melting Stones either, which is why I gave Battle Magic a miss. But if it's better then I should give it a shot.

[asakiyume]

Totally agree with you about multiple heroines.

[osprey_archer]

I think a lot of arguments about How to Write the Perfect Feminist Heroine would be less vitriolic and more productive if people would realize that no single character can be all things to all people and it's more important to write a variety of heroines (if not in the same book then over time) than to try to make a single perfect girl.

It's also occurred to me that one of the failure modes of feminism is to create its own kind of pedestal to put women on. The traits desired are very different than those of a traditional True Woman, but it's still a place without a lot of room to move.

[asakiyume]

Absolutely. Needless to say (and yet, I'm saying it!) if you try to make a character be everything, it loses all humanity. And--as you point out--if what we want to say is that women can be *many* things and have *many* personalities, it makes no sense at all to try to jam them into one person.

I can't comment on feminist theory because my exposure to it is only via social media, but I can definitely say that I really dislike any discourse that divides people up and then prefers one group over another, whether it's men preferring men or women preferring women or ... well. You know. All of it.

[osprey_archer]

I'm not thinking so much of feminist theory as feminist book/movie/TV reviews, which can run the gamut in the amount of feminist theory that the writer actually knows... and like any other philosophy, knowing the theory doesn't necessarily translate to embracing the spirit.