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Books filled my house as a child. So did science fiction and fantasy. (Every year, regular as clockwork, my Dad read The Hobbit to me and my younger brother.) So, naturally, I became a great reader. I read a lot, and I read fast. And, in elementary school, oh joy of joys, I discovered the public library, which was only two blocks away from my parents' business. You can see where this is going, right? I started devouring the books there. But, you know, they had a strict limit on how many books you can check out at a time (only twenty! the horror, the deprivation!), and I read fast and constantly, and YA books are usually pretty short. So one day, the librarian (who knew me quite well by then) took me over to the adult (grown-up, not porn, get your minds out of the gutter) section of the library and showed me the science fiction section, particularly the Star Trek novels all on the same shelf. I was probably just starting middle school, by that point; it's one of the clearest memories I have of childhood, that glorious moment when I saw all those books I had never read, and all of them so much bigger--i.e. more-to-read--than the YA and children's books. It was awesome.
I started out with the Star Trek books, already being a fan of the series. Once I'd read all of those, I started expanding. And one of my first finds was Honor Harrington. (The series as DRM-Free multiformat e-books)
I was in love. Here was a female character like me, with whom I could identify! (This was much the same reaction I had to Belle, when the Disney movie came out. OMG, a Disney movie about a bookworm! Who's not into the handsome jock!) Honor was an awesome character who had great adventures, but she was also socially and romantically awkward (but learned social/political/romantic skills as the series went on). Let me tell you, I was very, very socially and romantically awkward; at the time, I had no idea what Aspergers was, or that I had it, and the same could be said about asexuality. I knew that I wasn't like the other girls, but I expected that eventually I would figure out what all the fuss was about and grow out of my shell and fall in love, as indeed Honor did. Honor was like me, but Honor also got to go on amazing adventures. Honor got to grow out of her shell and become even more awesome than she was when she started. All through middle school and high school, Honor Harrington was my absolute favorite character, and David Weber my favorite author for creating her. With an adult's eye, I can see that Weber is not in fact a great writer, per se--his writing tends toward the clunky, his characters toward the flat side, and don't get me started on his infodumps. But none of that mattered, because he gave me Honor.
That's her up in my icon. And that's her in the banner. (Covers by different artists; the original covers of the early books were of varying quality and style. Once DW became Baen's biggest author, they hired a new artist to do coherent-and-accurate-to-the-books new covers for the whole series.) But, you say, the woman in the icon is swordfighting and the woman in the banner is an admiral commanding a huge ship in space. Honor Harrington is just that awesome. She is a space admiral and one of the best tacticians in the galaxy, who on several occasions almost single-handedly saves her country and Makes the Galaxy Safe for Freedom and Democracy. She is a crack shot with a pistol, and she learns the sword during the series, and wins duels with both of them! She's a top-level hand-to-hand martial arts fighter, too! She takes no crap from anyone! She always gets the guy! She's the one whose boyfriend gets fridged (although I didn't understand the significance of that until I was older.) She was the one who introduced me to the fact that "she" and "her" could be default pronouns. She almost single-handedly cracks open the patriarchal shell of a very sexist/patriarchal society so that its women can start a feminist movement and become engineers and naval officers and anything they darn well please. She did all that while being a girl like me!
Mary Sue, you say? Well, she's not any less or more awesome than Weber's male heroes. In fact, she is very closely based on Horatio Hornblower (note they share the same initials, because Weber is Obvious Like That), who was based on the real Admiral Horatio Nelson. In fact, the entire series is (or, at least the first half the series, things have taken a major turn since) based on the Napoleanic Wars, with the Star Kingdom of Manticore standing in for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the People's Republic of Haven standing in for the French. (Seriously. The Robespierre analogue in the series was named Rob S. Pierre. Subtlety is not one of Weber's strengths.) So the only real reason to call her a Mary Sue is because she's a girl and girls aren't allowed to be that awesome. Well, let me tell you, as an adult, of the many quibbles I have with the series, her being awesome ain't one of them.
But you know what hurts worst? What hurts worst, is when people look at her characterization and her awesomeness and say she's just a man with boobs. I've heard that complaint a couple of different times when she comes up in fannish circles, from both men and women. That she doesn't pass some mythical test of "thinking like a woman," whatever that means. Apparently, you see, real women aren't socially awkward. Real women aren't late bloomers. Real women aren't, apparently, like me. Because remember, the reason I fell in love with her is that when you take away all the action-hero stuff, she's like me, and she's who I wanted to see myself grow up in to, and all those things people complain about when they call her a man with boobs or other similar slurs? Those are the very things that made her like me. And it's not the only female character like that, either; I have a similar problem with people complaining about Sam Carter on Stargate and how she's proof that the writers couldn't write female characters. And you know, while it's true they needed to get the sexism knocked out of them, many of the things people complain about Sam Carter's characterization were the very things that made me identify with her in the first place. Let me be clear that I don't believe either Honor or Sam to be on the autism spectrum, but whatever the root cause the social awkwardness has similar results. They are, in some ways, like me.
And guess what. I ain't no man with boobs. I'm a woman. So is Honor, and I'm darn glad I got to have her as a friend and role model growing up.
Thank you, David Weber.
I started out with the Star Trek books, already being a fan of the series. Once I'd read all of those, I started expanding. And one of my first finds was Honor Harrington. (The series as DRM-Free multiformat e-books)
I was in love. Here was a female character like me, with whom I could identify! (This was much the same reaction I had to Belle, when the Disney movie came out. OMG, a Disney movie about a bookworm! Who's not into the handsome jock!) Honor was an awesome character who had great adventures, but she was also socially and romantically awkward (but learned social/political/romantic skills as the series went on). Let me tell you, I was very, very socially and romantically awkward; at the time, I had no idea what Aspergers was, or that I had it, and the same could be said about asexuality. I knew that I wasn't like the other girls, but I expected that eventually I would figure out what all the fuss was about and grow out of my shell and fall in love, as indeed Honor did. Honor was like me, but Honor also got to go on amazing adventures. Honor got to grow out of her shell and become even more awesome than she was when she started. All through middle school and high school, Honor Harrington was my absolute favorite character, and David Weber my favorite author for creating her. With an adult's eye, I can see that Weber is not in fact a great writer, per se--his writing tends toward the clunky, his characters toward the flat side, and don't get me started on his infodumps. But none of that mattered, because he gave me Honor.
That's her up in my icon. And that's her in the banner. (Covers by different artists; the original covers of the early books were of varying quality and style. Once DW became Baen's biggest author, they hired a new artist to do coherent-and-accurate-to-the-books new covers for the whole series.) But, you say, the woman in the icon is swordfighting and the woman in the banner is an admiral commanding a huge ship in space. Honor Harrington is just that awesome. She is a space admiral and one of the best tacticians in the galaxy, who on several occasions almost single-handedly saves her country and Makes the Galaxy Safe for Freedom and Democracy. She is a crack shot with a pistol, and she learns the sword during the series, and wins duels with both of them! She's a top-level hand-to-hand martial arts fighter, too! She takes no crap from anyone! She always gets the guy! She's the one whose boyfriend gets fridged (although I didn't understand the significance of that until I was older.) She was the one who introduced me to the fact that "she" and "her" could be default pronouns. She almost single-handedly cracks open the patriarchal shell of a very sexist/patriarchal society so that its women can start a feminist movement and become engineers and naval officers and anything they darn well please. She did all that while being a girl like me!
Mary Sue, you say? Well, she's not any less or more awesome than Weber's male heroes. In fact, she is very closely based on Horatio Hornblower (note they share the same initials, because Weber is Obvious Like That), who was based on the real Admiral Horatio Nelson. In fact, the entire series is (or, at least the first half the series, things have taken a major turn since) based on the Napoleanic Wars, with the Star Kingdom of Manticore standing in for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the People's Republic of Haven standing in for the French. (Seriously. The Robespierre analogue in the series was named Rob S. Pierre. Subtlety is not one of Weber's strengths.) So the only real reason to call her a Mary Sue is because she's a girl and girls aren't allowed to be that awesome. Well, let me tell you, as an adult, of the many quibbles I have with the series, her being awesome ain't one of them.
But you know what hurts worst? What hurts worst, is when people look at her characterization and her awesomeness and say she's just a man with boobs. I've heard that complaint a couple of different times when she comes up in fannish circles, from both men and women. That she doesn't pass some mythical test of "thinking like a woman," whatever that means. Apparently, you see, real women aren't socially awkward. Real women aren't late bloomers. Real women aren't, apparently, like me. Because remember, the reason I fell in love with her is that when you take away all the action-hero stuff, she's like me, and she's who I wanted to see myself grow up in to, and all those things people complain about when they call her a man with boobs or other similar slurs? Those are the very things that made her like me. And it's not the only female character like that, either; I have a similar problem with people complaining about Sam Carter on Stargate and how she's proof that the writers couldn't write female characters. And you know, while it's true they needed to get the sexism knocked out of them, many of the things people complain about Sam Carter's characterization were the very things that made me identify with her in the first place. Let me be clear that I don't believe either Honor or Sam to be on the autism spectrum, but whatever the root cause the social awkwardness has similar results. They are, in some ways, like me.
And guess what. I ain't no man with boobs. I'm a woman. So is Honor, and I'm darn glad I got to have her as a friend and role model growing up.
Thank you, David Weber.
