(Note: I wrote this post back in July of 2010 but it was sitting in the "drafts" pile. I guess I had more to say, but the thought seems more or less complete at this reading...)
Right now I'm reading "A Game of Thrones." For the most part, it's very good - at least, the characters and settings are written quite vividly and the storyline is pretty interesting.
One thing that bugs me, though - and it's actually probably a testament to the skill of the author that he's managed to provoke a reaction in me - is the part of the storyline involving a young prince (age 15) riding off to war with his mother acting as his backbone. She manipulates him into making what she sees as wise choices for battle, and she bargains in his stead with a landowner that controls access to land that he (they) believe they need to take. She reflects that to her, he never seemed more manly than he did the very second he swallowed hard and accepted the terms that she negotiated for him.
(As a side note, she almost single-handedly started the war, by being ultra reactive and jumping to some unsubstantiated conclusions, and taking some very rash action.)
In some ways the interactions between the adolescent prince and his mother remind me of the dynamic between Paul Atreides and Jessica in "Dune."
I'm trying to think of well-known non sci-fi books that have the same degree of mother-son influence, and I'm drawing a blank. (Anyone want to fill in? I'm sure there are some. I think I've probably just been reading too much sci-fi recently.)
This whole train of thought combined with what I know of most people's tendencies to project quite a bit when they write fiction leads me to wonder...are male science fiction writers more likely to be mama's boys?
Right now I'm reading "A Game of Thrones." For the most part, it's very good - at least, the characters and settings are written quite vividly and the storyline is pretty interesting.
One thing that bugs me, though - and it's actually probably a testament to the skill of the author that he's managed to provoke a reaction in me - is the part of the storyline involving a young prince (age 15) riding off to war with his mother acting as his backbone. She manipulates him into making what she sees as wise choices for battle, and she bargains in his stead with a landowner that controls access to land that he (they) believe they need to take. She reflects that to her, he never seemed more manly than he did the very second he swallowed hard and accepted the terms that she negotiated for him.
(As a side note, she almost single-handedly started the war, by being ultra reactive and jumping to some unsubstantiated conclusions, and taking some very rash action.)
In some ways the interactions between the adolescent prince and his mother remind me of the dynamic between Paul Atreides and Jessica in "Dune."
I'm trying to think of well-known non sci-fi books that have the same degree of mother-son influence, and I'm drawing a blank. (Anyone want to fill in? I'm sure there are some. I think I've probably just been reading too much sci-fi recently.)
This whole train of thought combined with what I know of most people's tendencies to project quite a bit when they write fiction leads me to wonder...are male science fiction writers more likely to be mama's boys?
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