LucindaE
12-03-2010, 04:05 PM
:?: I'm right at the end of The King Must Die. I am impressed by the quality of the writing, evocative descriptions, lively prose, etc, and am definitely going to read the sequel 'The Bull From the Sea'.
I do find Theseus rather unsympathetic, though; and this detracts from my pleasure in the story.
I did find him sympathetic as a short, slight boy of doubtful paternity, but as he becomes more arrogant he becomes less so. I don't know if this is intentional.
I don't think its because he is as swaggering and macho as you would expect from the son and grandson of patriarchal kings - but because he isn't presented as having enough human weaknesses to make him likable. I've liked lots of dreadful sexist characters in literature.
There is an ugly side to his attitude towards women,too, :(, as when he threatens to 'correct' (ie beat) Persephone when he stays out all night and she abuses him in front of her women. Of course, he was sorely provoked at findng himself a powerless consort, used for her pleasure, but still...
It's a bit awful when he threatens to kill a mistress of his father's, too, for having a wandering eye.
By contrast, I found the swaggering 'Corinthian' sympathetic, and felt very sorry that he was killed off in trying to save the unpopular girl from the bull.
Of course, I know that one must take into account the historical setting, plus the date at which took was written; feminism in the 1950's was a fringe thing, and Mary Renault described herself, I believe, as 'no feminist' and fell out with the gay movement too over her views.
Interestingly - I read a discussion where a reviewer on Amazon commented on the lack of human weaknesses in Theseus in the novel and a woman wrote a furious reply saying that the faults of Theseus are treated ironically and his mistakes bear fruit in the sequel. In fact, few reviewers seem much taken up with the question of the clash between matriarchal and patriarchal cultures illustrated in the novel.
I hope nobody tells me to 'go and read books about swords and sandals, that will be more your level' as that woman told the reviewer, but I am intrigued at what other people think.:idea:
I do find Theseus rather unsympathetic, though; and this detracts from my pleasure in the story.
I did find him sympathetic as a short, slight boy of doubtful paternity, but as he becomes more arrogant he becomes less so. I don't know if this is intentional.
I don't think its because he is as swaggering and macho as you would expect from the son and grandson of patriarchal kings - but because he isn't presented as having enough human weaknesses to make him likable. I've liked lots of dreadful sexist characters in literature.
There is an ugly side to his attitude towards women,too, :(, as when he threatens to 'correct' (ie beat) Persephone when he stays out all night and she abuses him in front of her women. Of course, he was sorely provoked at findng himself a powerless consort, used for her pleasure, but still...
It's a bit awful when he threatens to kill a mistress of his father's, too, for having a wandering eye.
By contrast, I found the swaggering 'Corinthian' sympathetic, and felt very sorry that he was killed off in trying to save the unpopular girl from the bull.
Of course, I know that one must take into account the historical setting, plus the date at which took was written; feminism in the 1950's was a fringe thing, and Mary Renault described herself, I believe, as 'no feminist' and fell out with the gay movement too over her views.
Interestingly - I read a discussion where a reviewer on Amazon commented on the lack of human weaknesses in Theseus in the novel and a woman wrote a furious reply saying that the faults of Theseus are treated ironically and his mistakes bear fruit in the sequel. In fact, few reviewers seem much taken up with the question of the clash between matriarchal and patriarchal cultures illustrated in the novel.
I hope nobody tells me to 'go and read books about swords and sandals, that will be more your level' as that woman told the reviewer, but I am intrigued at what other people think.:idea: