antongarou (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
antongarou) wrote2013-06-02 06:55 am
antongarou) wrote2013-06-02 06:55 am
warning-rant
I read this entry by needled_ink_1975(rant about movie!Eowyn being better then book!Eowyn) and after I thought a bit about why it felt so wrong, I have this to say:
For me it is the other way around. PJ's Eowyn is pretty forgettable, while book Eowyn is this woman who is full of honor and pride and grief and despair at the beginning because for her the only great and honorable deeds are those of battle, which she is barred from("What do you fear, lady?" he asked."A cage," she said. "To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and the chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.") and at the end she has seen all that battle can offer, won the greatest honor that battle can grant, and I think she found the price for them too great, as it always is. And if people think the Gondorians are so small as to not grant her that honor for standing and slaying the Witch King, I don't think they read the same culture I did, the one whose legendary kings are scions of Luthien, who faced Sauron when he was but a greater power's servant and defeated him, who has riven prison walls stone from stone by song only.
After all that her decision is not to go and "darn Faramir's socks". It is to go to another field of battle, where the victory is healing people. And I think she chose that knowing that in that profession there are as many defeats as victories. Most of all, at the end of the book she feels much more whole then when we first meet her - when we meet her she is all broken corners and defiance, in that talk with book!Faramir, she is very much rounder, calmer, with compassion rounding things a bit. She does not choose this in defeat, as a last resort, she chooses to be a healer because that what she wants to do now, because she has left behind her people's perspective of the king as a warrior and chose the Gondorian perspective of the king as a healer( "The hands of the King are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known").
As to Faramir, he is depicted in the books as the counterpoint to Boromir. While Boromir was prideful, and emulated their father as best as he could, Faramir was patient and insightful and it is hinted that he listened to Gandalf over his father more than once. That kind of man? Would probably consider it an honor(and an unexpected one) to have such a woman as a wife, and won't dream of stunting her growth or putting walls around her.
(yes, I can totally see Faramir and her arguing because she is going to help with healing in this village affected by $Sickness, because he will be still worried about losing her, and her winning and him going "At least take some guards with you!")
needled_ink_1975(rant about movie!Eowyn being better then book!Eowyn) and after I thought a bit about why it felt so wrong, I have this to say:For me it is the other way around. PJ's Eowyn is pretty forgettable, while book Eowyn is this woman who is full of honor and pride and grief and despair at the beginning because for her the only great and honorable deeds are those of battle, which she is barred from("What do you fear, lady?" he asked."A cage," she said. "To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and the chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.") and at the end she has seen all that battle can offer, won the greatest honor that battle can grant, and I think she found the price for them too great, as it always is. And if people think the Gondorians are so small as to not grant her that honor for standing and slaying the Witch King, I don't think they read the same culture I did, the one whose legendary kings are scions of Luthien, who faced Sauron when he was but a greater power's servant and defeated him, who has riven prison walls stone from stone by song only.
After all that her decision is not to go and "darn Faramir's socks". It is to go to another field of battle, where the victory is healing people. And I think she chose that knowing that in that profession there are as many defeats as victories. Most of all, at the end of the book she feels much more whole then when we first meet her - when we meet her she is all broken corners and defiance, in that talk with book!Faramir, she is very much rounder, calmer, with compassion rounding things a bit. She does not choose this in defeat, as a last resort, she chooses to be a healer because that what she wants to do now, because she has left behind her people's perspective of the king as a warrior and chose the Gondorian perspective of the king as a healer( "The hands of the King are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known").
As to Faramir, he is depicted in the books as the counterpoint to Boromir. While Boromir was prideful, and emulated their father as best as he could, Faramir was patient and insightful and it is hinted that he listened to Gandalf over his father more than once. That kind of man? Would probably consider it an honor(and an unexpected one) to have such a woman as a wife, and won't dream of stunting her growth or putting walls around her.
(yes, I can totally see Faramir and her arguing because she is going to help with healing in this village affected by $Sickness, because he will be still worried about losing her, and her winning and him going "At least take some guards with you!")
no subject
no subject
no subject
I think that our differences here stem not in the book but in personal perceptions. So I'll get personal in a purely personal way.
At every turn Eowyn is told, "No, you can't do that, cos you're a girl." I cannot tell you how many times I was told that as a child, an adolescent, and as a young adult. I still hear it occasionally (and take rather ebil pleasure in then fixing that motorcyle, or planning a better treehouse). And the thing about people who say, "No you can't cos you're a girl" is that they also have very clear ideas about what it is girls should do. These days darning socks is a skill quite lost (just buy new ones), but there are still a helluva lot of men (and women) who believe that a woman's place is in the home, and that 'the home' begins in her husband's bed and ends there after she's dutifully put their children to bed.
You might not see that in the story, and that's fine, but as a woman, I see it quite plainly and I'm not alone.
My take on Eowyn has her saying:
I was a fool, and I bent my knee to a man who will never forget that. Aragorn wouldn't call me weak for it, not after Pelennor Fields– he's too good a man to disparage even a woman's strength, but he'd call me womanish and never his equal. I don't think it too much to want to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with anyone, and face the same hardships and joys. But I'm made to feel, by men like Aragorn and a few nobles of Rohan, that what I want is beyond any reasonable expectation.
I think you'll recognize book!Eowyn there, but my take on her is a lot stronger, and instead of telling her, "No, you can't do that cos you're a girl," as writer I'm asking, "Eowyn, as a woman, what can't you do?"
I don't think there's any doubt as to which is fairer handling.
Just saying...
–Nici