Babel Clash

I was going to post that I’m not a fan of frailty, or not to the degree Joel says he is, but thinking about my books that might not be so true. First and foremost I’m interested in power and its mechanics – what such a level of power can do to a person and their actions – but if you go below the surface frailty becomes crucial. Isak I can’t talk about because Ragged Man isn’t published yet, but even at the start of the series there is a note of frailty in his fears and unpreparedness.

A reoccurring theme of the Twilight Reign is me messing with my powerful characters, presumably because I’ve got the social development of a three year old. Many are frighteningly powerful and are capable of inflicting horrors on the rest of the world, but as a result this high station makes me immediately think about knocking them down. I’m playing with the vulnerabilities of gods, I’m breaking or torturing the superhumans – the more I think about it, the more I realise power comes with the price of being noticed by the kid with the God-complex and no morals.

Joel’s post made me think of a question to pose, to myself as much as him or the wider world – is there often a purpose for when a female character is used in fantasy fiction, rather than a male? Now I’m not drawing conclusions here, or even certain of the validity of my question, but especially with the idea of frailty being important to the dynamics of a novel and the place of women in most of these medieval societies, might it be that many of female characters are used specifically to counter-balance strength or highlight frailty in a situation?

If you read a history book, most of the figures mentioned are male, especially if you reduce that down to those who actively do something rather than get fought over like Helen of Troy. The course of history has rightly or wrongly been shaped by men and most fantasy writers conform to that model to some degree, for basic physiological reasons mostly. That in itself relegates women to a lesser position and most likely limits their numbers in the book – but do you think that makes them window dressing or individually more important than the men because of the extra dimension they add to situations?

And now, like the coward I am, I’ll leave that for Joel to answer…

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