The castle awaits

[pallas_athena]

So I've just read Linda Medley's excellent fairy-tale-inspired graphic novel Castle Waiting, and I loved it-- it's full of very human characters doing their best to help each other and make the world a better place. If the castle itself is a safe sanctuary for fairy-tale misfits, then the book provides a similar harbour for the misfit mind. Also, the art is very, very good.

One of the things this book makes me wonder, however, is: how much of my response to it is a product of gender? I'm a firm believer that people shouldn't be expected to fit into boxes marked "male" and "female"; I think that differences between individuals are greater than differences between genders. Still, I wonder if I would feel as much at home in the world of Castle Waiting if I were male. Most of the characters are women; the subjects of the various chapters are things like witchcraft, pregnancy and baby-having, nuns, wives escaping from unworthy husbands, and ... well... feelings. All of which are seen by today's [intensely fucked-up] society as being essentially feminine matters.

I've heard that Medley's plan is to tell the backstory of everybody in the castle. (In the hardcover collection I've read, Sister Peaceful is the only one to get the full treatment.) If that's still the plan, it'll be interesting to see what happens when Medley gets to characters like Sir Chess and Iron Henry. Meanwhile, I'd be interested to hear from anyone else out there, of any gender, who likes Castle Waiting. I ask with some trepidation: is it the graphic-novel equivalent of a chickflick? What do you think?

Comments

[laughingmagpie.livejournal.com]

Well well well. My amazon books wishlist has just grown by one more! I didn't know about this one.

Since I haven't read it, I can't comment on it in particular. But I try not to get too worried about where my responses to things come from. Gender is just as much a part of me as being the daughter of a Franciscan friar, for instance. And just like I'm not like all the other daughters of Franciscans (I'm sure there must be more than my sister and I!), we all reflect our gender a little differently. But we can't deny it has an influence. And why would we want to? I'm happy to hear about a graphic novel that might appeal to my feminine interest in interpersonal relationships :-)

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting point (and an interesting background!) I like the phrase "we all reflect our gender a little differently"; as though it's the sun and we're all differently-shaped mirrors. I admire your balance of mind.

[laughingmagpie.livejournal.com]

Somedays I'm not sure how balanced it is! :-)

One of the things a medical geneticist (like me) does is get consulted on newborns with ambiguous genitalia. I have a little speech on gender determination that underlines how, just like when our hearts or fingers get made, our gender arises from multiple, complicated steps - and some of them happen well after birth. It's not just your chromosomes (and even then, there are plenty of variations). Anyway - I feel that since, even on a strictly physical level, we vary so so much, it seems natural to me that our personalities reflect it differently too.

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. I know that decisions arbitrarily taken at birth can cause a lot of grief to some, and I think those kids and their families are lucky to have you around.