Author: Bess Appledore

I'm a literature freak obsessed with classics, fantasy, and eighteenth/nineteenth century revolutionaries.

My Numerous Problems with Darkover Series – Part Five

NOTE: In the previous parts, I examined the questions important for particular worldview and set of values. I tried to prove (but this was by no means my main goal) that Darkover series is not as progressive as some people would think. That it is not feminist by the modern standards, that it has many … Continue reading My Numerous Problems with Darkover Series – Part Five →

My Numerous Problems with Darkover Series – Part Four

Illusion of Full Understanding towards LGBT People At first it seems to be that Darkover series is very progressive about LGBT people. Even in the books from the seventies - like The World Wreckers and The Forbidden Tower - you have homosexual and bisexual positive characters. You have Regis and Danilo, you have Andrew and … Continue reading My Numerous Problems with Darkover Series – Part Four →

My Numerous Problems with Darkover Series – Part Three

Lack of Intersectionality and Gender Issues I am well aware that feminism has changed a lot during recent decades. That probably explains why in earlier Bradley books we have hippie-like described questions of free love or polyamory, and then (in The Alton Gift or inThe Children of Kings) we get supposedly emancipated, but monogamical relationships … Continue reading My Numerous Problems with Darkover Series – Part Three →

My Numerous Problems with Darkover Series – Part Two

NOTE: I do not expect that every writer (or even the majority of writers) would have pro-democratic/liberal/socialist/moderately conservative worldview. I do not expect that every fantasy book would promote democratic values. But I can see that most fantasy literature is quite thoughtless, naive or conservative, when it comes to question of social classes, governing and … Continue reading My Numerous Problems with Darkover Series – Part Two →