tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5450780169551486131.post7294920062111860795..comments2021-01-04T09:05:45.744-08:00Comments on Sententia 3.0: Swimming Against The Manstream #2Diana Kingston-Gabaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5450780169551486131.post-89281173454929906912007-06-08T00:17:00.000-07:002007-06-08T00:17:00.000-07:00You just have to remember to take that left turn a...You just have to remember to take that left turn at Alberquerque. :)<BR/><BR/>The thing about Orion is that, from the time of Eppy Thatcher, he's led by women: first his sisters, then Sherri and Fadi, and finally Laurel the Dancing Widow. You also have women like Susan Veraghen joining the Grendel army as equals. So if the Assante dynasty is a patriarchy, it's a patriarchy that practices gender equality, which is something you don't usually see in fiction. :)<BR/><BR/>I actually found and read both Batman/Grendel stories, and... well, you're right that the first one, with Hunter, was better than the second, but then I prefer mind games to wanton violence. :) However, it was pretty much what I expected in terms of being a self-neutralizing story - in that sort of conflict, neither protagonist can ever really defeat the other definitively, and yet one of the things I love about "Grendel" is precisely Wagner's decisiveness, that idea that being in an iconic position of power is no guarantee of success or survival.Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5450780169551486131.post-92175711764682356932007-06-06T21:33:00.000-07:002007-06-06T21:33:00.000-07:00Well, I can't beleive it took me forever to find t...Well, I can't beleive it took me forever to find the place. . .no, wait. . .actually I <I>can.</I> I am very slow.<BR/><BR/>I think it <I>might</I> have been accidental, because by Orion's time he's estabilshes a patriarchal dominance (more or less--it's how I read the whole "men conceiving children" deal), but that's really only on the surface--there are a lot of women characters moving behind the scenes (and by the time of <I>War Child</I> not-so-behind-the-scenes. It's kind of interesting that there's a matriarchal undercurrent at the same time. It's hard to tell. Wagner has a real subtle touch.<BR/><BR/>Then again, Christine and Stacy are, I think, some of the lynchpin characters in the whole saga. <BR/><BR/>As for remembering Hunter, the first <I>Grendel Tales</I> series (Four Devils One Hell) I think, had a bunch of stuff about Hunter Rose's descendant and stuff but Wagner didn't write it so I'm not sure it counts, and like the whole "quest for Hunter's skull" thing, I felt like it didn't lead anywhere that would be ultimately interesting, namely <I>Batman/Grendel 2</I>.<BR/><BR/> Shame too--the first B/G is positively amazing (I wasn't sure if you'd tracked it down yet?) It has some interesting buttresses to your 'female Grendel' theories, which I'm really finding intriguing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5450780169551486131.post-61051361980165954312007-06-04T20:56:00.000-07:002007-06-04T20:56:00.000-07:00I don't know if it was intentional on Wagner's par...I don't know if it was intentional on Wagner's part, but what ends up happening is Christine, who assumes the role of Grendel as an extension of her identity as a mother, ultimately becomes the symbolic mother of all the Grendels who follow her. The journals that survive into Orion's time (which informs him about vampires) are hers, not Hunter's. In fact, that's part of what was so surprising about "Devil Quest" - Grendel-Prime was looking for Hunter Rose, but I don't recall any evidence before that suggesting that anyone even <I>remembered</I> Hunter Rose.<BR/><BR/>As an aside, welcome aboard. :)Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5450780169551486131.post-52505742955736838352007-06-04T20:14:00.000-07:002007-06-04T20:14:00.000-07:00You know, I'd never considered that it's Christine...You know, I'd never considered that it's <I>Christine's</I> legacy that endured rather than Hunter's. In fact, had Wagner approached it that way, it would have made the Grendl-Prime stuff well, a lot more intriguing in terms of a denouement, I think.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com