She is no longer a heroine as such, she's become a 'man's hero' with the genders reversed. She's the only strong woman in her series and again, during the later books, the inferiority of women as a whole in the Anita-verse means that Anita stops being a role model and starts being a man in woman's clothing.
Reminds me of Joss Whedon's comment about setting out, purposefully, to make sure that the men around Buffy are as strong as she is (in many if different ways) and are not threatened by her, but find her strength a positive attribute -- and that the women around her, equally so. That she does not exist in a world of weakness where she's the only strong one, but that her strength reflects the world she comes from: one in which strength (of mind, of humor, of character, of body, of heart) is prized and cherished.
The resulting explanations for why Anita, after nine books of 'sex comes only after emotional connections are formed', falls almost literally into bed with this man are hasty, ill-conceived and have no grounding that I can see in the previous books.
Which is why I say that if an author is going to expect me to read (and pay for reading) on my end, then the author can't go changing boats mid-stream on a character. There must be continuity; lacking that, just start a new frickin' series with a whole new character, then!
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Date: 7 Jan 2007 11:52 pm (UTC)Reminds me of Joss Whedon's comment about setting out, purposefully, to make sure that the men around Buffy are as strong as she is (in many if different ways) and are not threatened by her, but find her strength a positive attribute -- and that the women around her, equally so. That she does not exist in a world of weakness where she's the only strong one, but that her strength reflects the world she comes from: one in which strength (of mind, of humor, of character, of body, of heart) is prized and cherished.
The resulting explanations for why Anita, after nine books of 'sex comes only after emotional connections are formed', falls almost literally into bed with this man are hasty, ill-conceived and have no grounding that I can see in the previous books.
Which is why I say that if an author is going to expect me to read (and pay for reading) on my end, then the author can't go changing boats mid-stream on a character. There must be continuity; lacking that, just start a new frickin' series with a whole new character, then!