(no subject)
Apr. 23rd, 2008 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsMy slow but . . . all right, not even steady, but at least somewhat progressing trek through the new Young Wizards books (being a crotchety old-timer, I consider all the books after High Wizardry 'new') continues! And Wizard's Holiday, which I finished yesterday, is most definitely my favorite of the new ones I've read.
Filif and Sker'ret are as awesome as anticipated and Carmela is awesome likewise - I missed her in the second half of the book, but I know she will be yet more awesome in the next, so I will not complain! I am sad to say that Roshaun and his poor-little-prince-boy angst stir no pity in my heart as of yet, but it does make me giggle. And the scenes with the cranky, bored Lone Power! Best thing ever - especially since, as I mentioned in my review of A Wizard Alone, they already fixed the Lone Power, so it's kind of nice when they remember that. And overall I find ambivalence much more interesting than evil. So, the book gets a thumbs-up, and I am actively seeking out the next.
However, I do have a question for people who have read it: am I reading too much into the story to see a colonialism discussion going on in the text? Kit and Nita arrive as strangers in a perfectly happy, moneyless, corruptionless (and, coincidentally, brown-skinned) culture that is nonetheless failing to advance, and decide they need to fix it; the inhabitant of the culture to whom they demonstrate the flaw angrily rejects the idea and tells them they are judging on the basis of their own flawed culture. What's interesting is that a.) Duane emphasizes the idea that Quelt needs to make the decision for her culture - which is what makes me think that she's aware of what she's doing - although it's Kit, Nita and Ponch that push her/allow her to do it, and b.) their people then (presumably) advance (instantaneously - I wasn't sure about that; shouldn't the new Choice just have allowed the chance to change?) to a bodiless state of awesome beyond that of the earthlings, or at least that is the impression I got, and I am not quite sure what to make of that.
Meanwhile, everyone who visits Earth thinks Earth culture is totally awesome, with the exception of Roshaun, whose issues are a result of his shown-to-be-problematic culture. The exchange students on Earth are there to save Earth from an immediate physical danger; Kit and Nita are there to change a way of life.
I don't know, guys. What do you think?
Filif and Sker'ret are as awesome as anticipated and Carmela is awesome likewise - I missed her in the second half of the book, but I know she will be yet more awesome in the next, so I will not complain! I am sad to say that Roshaun and his poor-little-prince-boy angst stir no pity in my heart as of yet, but it does make me giggle. And the scenes with the cranky, bored Lone Power! Best thing ever - especially since, as I mentioned in my review of A Wizard Alone, they already fixed the Lone Power, so it's kind of nice when they remember that. And overall I find ambivalence much more interesting than evil. So, the book gets a thumbs-up, and I am actively seeking out the next.
However, I do have a question for people who have read it: am I reading too much into the story to see a colonialism discussion going on in the text? Kit and Nita arrive as strangers in a perfectly happy, moneyless, corruptionless (and, coincidentally, brown-skinned) culture that is nonetheless failing to advance, and decide they need to fix it; the inhabitant of the culture to whom they demonstrate the flaw angrily rejects the idea and tells them they are judging on the basis of their own flawed culture. What's interesting is that a.) Duane emphasizes the idea that Quelt needs to make the decision for her culture - which is what makes me think that she's aware of what she's doing - although it's Kit, Nita and Ponch that push her/allow her to do it, and b.) their people then (presumably) advance (instantaneously - I wasn't sure about that; shouldn't the new Choice just have allowed the chance to change?) to a bodiless state of awesome beyond that of the earthlings, or at least that is the impression I got, and I am not quite sure what to make of that.
Meanwhile, everyone who visits Earth thinks Earth culture is totally awesome, with the exception of Roshaun, whose issues are a result of his shown-to-be-problematic culture. The exchange students on Earth are there to save Earth from an immediate physical danger; Kit and Nita are there to change a way of life.
I don't know, guys. What do you think?
