Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)
Q: I watched the first couple of episodes of Being Human, and liked it okay, but it bugged me that the girl had to be so passive and emotional. I know that’s what you’d expect of a ghost, so why didn’t they break the stereotype and make her the werewolf? What do you think? — Linda, Whidbey Island, WA
A: The Oracle definitely shares your feelings that the show didn’t break any gender stereotypes, at least in the first few episodes. But I was pleased to see that change in the third episode, where she becomes much more active.
The Oracle was curious what the actress who plays Annie, Lenora Crichlow, thought, so I decided to ask her.
“I think Annie’s a fantastic role model for women,” she tells TheTorchOnline.com. “I get annoyed with this idea that female traits are weak, to be emotional and vulnerable [is to be a bad thing]. Annie’s vulnerability, her compassion, her empathy, her wanting to do things for people, all become what save her really. Later on in the series, her empathy and her intuition as a woman become integrated into her supernatural self.”
According to Crichlow, the first season is “a journey of empowerment [for Annie, but] it’s lovely that she is vulnerable at the beginning, because I think a lot of women are. We lose ourselves in relationships, we sacrifice our careers, and all that. Not just women, obviously, but it a common thing for women. But she can’t stay the same, if Annie wants to move on, if she wants to be seen. I’ve been through that. I know what’s expected of me, but I can turn it up a notch and reach my potential. Annie does a similar thing.”
Q: Is it true that the Laurell K. Hamilton series of novels, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, is being made into a movie or TV show? — Kethlyn
A: The Oracle can reveal that in March, IFC and Lion’s Gate announced that they had optioned the series of novels, which is now also a series of graphic novels, with plans to turn them into a TV movie. At the time, they said that filming would begin this summer for a 2010 air-date.
But when contacted by the Oracle, the producers said there was nothing further to report (something the Oracle interprets to mean that filming is not beginning this summer). Hamilton’s agent suggests you check the author’s site for future updates.
Still, as long as the current vampire hysteria lasts, it’s a pretty good bet this project will get made eventually.
Q: You always hear about how C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were good friends who each week read to each other from their drafts of Narnia and Lord of the Rings. It’s a great story, but is it true? — TheMan, Chicago, IL
A: The Oracle can reveal that, in fact, it is. The two were members of The Inklings, the famous Oxford University discussion group that met weekly (and sometimes also daily, at the local pub) to discuss their own and others’ books, and to encourage two things: strong narrative, or plot, and the genre of fantasy. For a time, Tolkien and Lewis may even have been each other’s closest friends, and Tolkien definitely contributed to Lewis’ move from atheism to Christianity; Lewis eventually became one of the most famous Christian theologians of all time.
But Tolkien and Lewis did have occasional fallings-out, sometimes serious ones, for all the ordinary reasons: disagreements over religion (Tolkien was annoyed by Lewis’ embrace of the Anglican Church, which Tolkien detested and considered anti-Catholic), and women (Tolkien felt that Lewis’ relationship with Joy Davidman, the subject of the movie Shadowlands, intruded on their friendship).
But each absolutely shared and no doubt received important feedback from the other on their most famous works, The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. (Interestingly, Tolkien didn’t think much of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, arguing that the overt religious message over-powered the story.)
Q: A few weeks back, in a special about J.K. Rowling, they said she shortened her name to initials per the editor’s request so boys wouldn’t be put off by a female author. I can think of several examples of women fantasy authors going by initials or male sounding nicknames, but does it still happen as much these days? How prevalent is it in fantasy and sci-fi? — Angela, Mooresville, NC USA
A: The Oracle is sure he doesn’t have to point out that there was a time when female authors almost had to pick a male-sounded pseudonym just to be taken seriously by the world at large. George Eliot anyone?
“Very few writers still do this, and I don’t see much advantage to doing it,” says literary agent Jennifer DeChiara of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency. “When I see it on a manuscript, I think, ‘pretentious,’ and I’m sure most editors think the same thing. It also gets in the way of book promotion — how can you send an author around or talk about them if you’re hiding who they really are?”
Still, although this is far less common than it used to be, it’s probably more common in genres that have large male readerships, like fantasy and sci-fi. For example, fantasy author Margaret Ogden chose the pen name “Robin Hobb,” precisely because it’s gender-neutral. Likewise, Katherine Alice Applegate, the author of the Animorphs, Everworld, and Remnants children’s fantasy book series, chose to go by “K.A. Applegate.”
Another famous example is Dorothy Catherine, or “D.C.” Fontana, Gene Roddenberry’s former secretary who became a television writer for many classic science fiction shows, including three Star Trek series, The Six Million Dollar Men, Land of the Lost, He-Man, and Logan’s Run (she also wrote under several completely “male” pen-names).
But the Oracle believes such pen names will now mostly be a thing of the past, for two distinct reasons: (1) anti-female prejudice even in genre circles is less now, in part because brave, unapologetic pioneers like Ursula K. Le Guin proved that brilliant genre writing knows no gender and that such pseudonyms were not necessary, and (2) the female readership of science fiction and fantasy, always much bigger than most publishers knew, is now so large that a female name might not only not be a hindrance, it might even be an asset.
Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)
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I was so happy to read Lenora Crichlow’s response to the question of her character; I too find it annoying how much inherent (paradoxical) sexism lurks in some charges of sexism - i.e. that the way to make a female character “better” is to make her more like a man, as if traditionally feminine traits are intrinsically a bad thing. (And conversely, that there’s only one way to be “strong” - the traditionally masculine way.)
That said, I do wish the writers had taken some risks with their characters and made the werewolf or vampire female, to play with those horror archetypes a bit more.
I thought she gave a good answer too. She’s quite charming (and obviously very, very attractive).
There are still some authors who use neutral or even male-sounding nicknames for their books. My favorite is Rob Thurman, who writes the Leandros series. After I read the first book, Nightlife, I assumed it had been written by a man - she got into the head of her male teenage main character so well that it didn’t even cross my mind that the author would be female. Then to find out that Rob was short for Robin and it was a she, I was impressed. Not that female authors can’t or don’t do well getting into the mindset of a male character, it just wasn’t something I’d even considered.
It’s an awesome series, def something to be checked out.
In defence of the wonderful Being Human, they did have a female vampire in the form of Lauren. Although, she was particularly “clingy/needy”, but that’s not necessarily a “female” trait.
And there may be some further developments when it comes to a female werewolf in season 2.
As for Annie, I thought she was a great CHARACTER, irrespective of whether she was male or female (although I’m pretty sure she was the latter, provided ghosts have “genders”). I thought she had probably the strongest story-line of the three characters throughout the first season and she definitely ended up in a more empowered place by the end of the season (just like George and Mitchell).
Heck, if they were going to crticise anyone for being passive and emotional, shouldn’t it have been George? Even Mitchell gave into his emo-desires from time to time. Big fan rant over now.
With regards to female authors using gender neutral pen names, it’s worth remembering that Harry Potter is a children’s book. I know one particular mature, gender-secure, lady-friendly adult man who took years to muster the interest to read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials because the lead is a 12 year old girl. He just didn’t expect to be interested in the character at all. He eventually did, and loved the books and Lyra, but if you get that level of reticence from an adult it’s only to be expected that boys in the age range of Harry Potter’s initial ‘target market’ (8-12, 12+) might be downright avoidant. At that point it’s usually only the determined non-conformists that are relaxed enough to say they actually like girls as friends.