Imagine a planet with cold giant sun and mysterious native species. Imagine people of Celtic and Spaniard origin colonizing it and establishing a feudal society. Imagine nobility and social prestige based on psi powers. Welcome to Darkover.
My Adventure with Darkover
Having read Mists of Avalon I wanted something else, something new by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I excepted that Darkover would be a stunning mix of Celtic and Spanish-like motives, of fantasy and science fiction. I had been waiting four years until I managed to buy books. I was delighted by Thunderlord and by Two To Conquer. I was dissapointed by the earlier books in the series (like Star of Danger and The Planet Savers). I enjoyed the two sequels to Traitor’s Sun, but I found the book itself irritating. Anyway, the whole series did not meet my expectations. I was expecting something more feminist and more compassionate towards commonfolk. Bradley was considered as a feminist, wasn’t she? I thought that feminists shouldn’t be conservative about social classes and feudalism issues. Usually, they are liberal or socialist at such matters. I thought that in feminist’s books rape culture and patriarchy should be explained, but not justified.
In a nutshell: I expected another Ursula K. Le Guin. I was wrong, and I found Darkover books problematic on many levels. Let me explain, why.
NOTE: Maybe I should not publish this post at all. For twenty six books in the series, I’ve read sixteen (adding Stormqueen!). I am not able to express my opinion about the whole series. I have not read Heritage of Hastur and Sharra Exile, which are often considered as the most important ones. I have not read books about Renunciates and some cooperations by Deborah J. Ross. If these unread books somehow contradict the issues I’ll mention below, let me know.
False Feminism and Inconsequent Patriarchy
If you think that Bradley’s books were feminist from the very beginning, you are wrong. In Star of Danger there is no female character at all, except one random leroni (a female term for a person wielding psi laran powers) dealing with weather issues. An elf-like chieri met at the end of the book, as a hermaphrodite, shouldn’t count, I suppose. As long as we are not searching for any non male character. Instead we have two adolescent boys from Different Worlds, a guest from the Earth and a Darkovan aristocrat. They have a Lesson of Survival, they Learn from Each Other and they establish a Frendship Despite Prejudices. Sooo original. Twain did such motives better, Bradley.
But it is not the point. We have one book without any female characters. Do you think that the first published book in the series (1958), The Planet Savers, will be better? Nope.
Let’s meet Kyla. She’ s Darkovan Free Amazon, a Renunciate, a mountain guide and a warrior in the patriarchal world. The main character, doctor Allison, describes her in such words:
Her nose was snubbed and might have looked whimsical but was instead oddly arrogant. Her mouth was wide, and her chin round.
To Save a World omnibus, p. 40
So what we have here? Stereotypical mixture of childish appearance (snubbed nose and round chin) of a woman and provocative interpretation of that appearance. Really, describing women as kids is awful enough. It indicates that men prefer childish women, obedient and innocent, over the independent and experienced ones.
The further, the worse. Allison and Kyla are going on an expedition to find a treatment for a very dangerous Darkovan disease. Except Kyla the guide the whole party is male. Allison thinks that Kyla may provoke these men to rape only by her very presence. She assures him that she will not make any trouble. Yeah, it is described in that way. Rape culture so much, and all that bad on so many levels.
It doesn’t matter that the men from expedition should be accustomed to Renunciate’s as Darkovans. It doesn’t matter that Allison is from more progressive Terra and yet he holds such opinions. It doesn’t matter that victims should never be to blame. It is not your behaviour or presence which cause rape.
I know, I know. This book was published over sixty years ago. I know that science fiction writings were quite male-centered and sexist at these times. Maybe just popular fiction missed entirely decades in comparison to the classics who had been able to write about convincing female characters (like Emma Bovary or Anna Karenina) even in the 1800s. Oh yes, there was hidden misogyny in these books also. But this book was written by a woman and this woman was considered as a feminist some years later. I was hoping that The Planet Savers would outstand sexist undercurrents of these times. I was wrong.
In The Bloody Sun it is indicated several times that the Darkovan women have better position than the Terran ones. Children get the surnames according to parent’s rank in the society, not to the gender. Leronis from laran Towers can have sex casually and are not obliged to stay virgins (except the Keepers). What Bradley forgets to mention is that these questions applies only to small part of the Darkover’s population. Not many people have laran and most of women is bounded by expectations and limitations of medieval-like world. They cannot inherit before men, choose a job or rule independently (as a full ruler instead as a consort). Bradley points out all these matters in later books but even then she justifies patriarchy. In Traitor’s Sun the Darkovan patriarchy is justified by… high children’ mortality rate. Really. Something like “We needed kids on hard-climate planet, and that’s why we were overprotective towards women.” In our history there were many societies where conditions where as harsh as on Darkover, and yet women enjoyed much more rights. There were many queens (like Elizabeth the First from England) who ruled independently. In Celtic Ireland the dominant position in the household was based on wealth, not on the gender. In medieval Norway, the first son got the main estate and the title, but all other children had rights to other goods and estates from both parents. In early modern Netherlands, daughters from the first marriage inherited before sons from the second marriage. In all these places, I suppose, mortality rate of children was not any better than on Darkover. Besides, Darkovan patriarchal and war-centered culture does not make sense anyway. With all these psi powers, laran-wielders should rule here, and knowing that women have these powers as well as men… Looking at it logically, they shouldn’t be discriminated!
What is the most false feminist-like is the attitude towards sex described in the Forbidden Circle omnibus. We have there four main characters: a Terran Andrew Carr, a laranzu Damon Ridenow and the Alton twin sisters, Callista and Ellemir. Altons and Ridenows are prominent noble houses. Andrew rescues Callista the virgin Keeper from Evil! Catmen (I am going to describe racist undercurrents towards native Darkovan species later) and marries her. Damon marries Ellemir who is about twenty years his junior. It turns out that Callista is afraid of sex. So, after quite dangerous try, she proposes Andrew to sleep with Ellemir. And guess what? It is Darkovan custom. If a wife is pregnant, ill or unwilling, a husband can take her sister as a lover. And we can stumble upon on that in other Darkovan books as well. Could you explain me where there is damned feminism here (except that the wife wouldn’t be raped)? Such a custom is rather typical for a patriarchal society where sex is seen as a need for men and a duty for women. You know, a man must have sex, otherwise he’ll be dead. If wife cannot grant him sex, then it must be some other woman. It reminds me of how Henry VIII treated ladies-in-waiting (and not only he). Anyway, in such societies men were allowed to be infidel (discreetly or openly). What is more, on Darkover patriarchal prejudices also follow. No woman enjoy sex during pregnancy; really😅? These great laran – wielders do not know how the women’ body works?
You know, that custom wouldn’t be so bad if women were allowed to do something similar – for instance, taking a lover when a husband is ill or far away for months. But, as you’ve probably guessed, they are not. Double Standard rules!
Left Hand of Fiction 