Author Topic: Problematic Xanth - Piers Anthony discussion from PC287  (Read 6514 times)

danooli

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on: November 22, 2013, 10:50:02 PM
What fun!

I don't have much to say about the story, I'm a big Baum fan so, I will always love stories in Oz.  The narration made it even more fun :)

On a side note, I was thinking about introducing my nephew to A Spell For Chameleon just yesterday!  It was my first real fantasy book; I read it when I was 12 years old at sleep away camp.  I had borrowed it from my bunk mate and had my mom send me the next one in the mail, if I recall correctly :)  Anyway, I have a 12 year old nephew who loves to read so I was thinking of adding that to his Christmas gifts but now I'm not so sure... Although, he also has a 7 year old brother who is starting to become an obsessive reader as well.



Sgarre1

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Reply #1 on: November 22, 2013, 10:59:14 PM
I also read SPELL FOR CHAMELEON at 12 - it is a perfect book for a boy verging on puberty, honestly.  There's some healthy investigations of sexual matters (masturbation, female centaurs with breasts) without being overtly sexual or creepily obsessive.



Fenrix

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Reply #2 on: November 23, 2013, 01:23:03 AM
Don't forget the exploration of menstrual cycles. I think I hit a Spell for Chameleon around the same age, and through that I consumed everything in his oeuvre available through inter-library loan. The librarians made me learn to fill out the ILL paperwork myself since I was such a consumer.

You could also consider Anthony's Apprentice Adept series, as it covers both fantasy and sci fi and ages a whole lot better. It also doesn't show off Anthony's creepy old man vibe, which gets progressively stronger as the Xanth series goes along. Anthony's great for a YA audience, but his stuff ages poorly.

Alternately, bypass Anthony altogether and go for Robert Aspirin's Myth series. Great for YA and ages well.

Or get him a bunch of Oz books. Because Baum is the Bomb!

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ArbysMom

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Reply #3 on: November 23, 2013, 08:03:54 PM
I never could get into the Xanth series, but I loved Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality. And Robert Aspirin's Mything series is awfully wonderful (the puns are groaners but the stories are hilarious). I started his Phule's series as well, but while the first one was gold, they went downhill after that, and after the fourth one, I quit. I still bought the books, but I haven't gotten around to reading them. I suppose after all these years, I'll have to go back and re-read/skim all of them to remember where things were.


Sgarre1

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Reply #4 on: November 24, 2013, 05:14:24 AM
Ooops, never mind what I said about SPELL FOR CHAMELEON - seems it is now deemed a hateful piece of misogynistic trash by the younger (and thus smarter) than me folks at THE ONION A.V. CLUB.  I shall now go scrub my memories accordingly and shall never direct adolescent children near it again.

http://www.avclub.com/article/revisiting-the-sad-misogynistic-fantasy-of-xanth-104382



danooli

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Reply #5 on: November 24, 2013, 01:53:21 PM
Holy cow, that's scathing...and, now that I've read it, I will also never be able to recommend this to my nephews :(  This makes me wonder how the ideas and themes Anthony presented in these books has affected my psyche.  I mentioned that I read A Spell For Chameleon whilst away at camp.  I didn't mention it was "fat camp" and that I, as an overweight preteen, had some issues with my body and self image....



Varda

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Reply #6 on: November 24, 2013, 01:59:45 PM
Ooops, never mind what I said about SPELL FOR CHAMELEON - seems it is now deemed a hateful piece of misogynistic trash by the younger (and thus smarter) than me folks at THE ONION A.V. CLUB.  I shall now go scrub my memories accordingly and shall never direct adolescent children near it again.

http://www.avclub.com/article/revisiting-the-sad-misogynistic-fantasy-of-xanth-104382

Wow - that was an intense read.  :o I never read Piers Anthony as a kid, but maybe that was a good thing after seeing this article. Around that age, I remember Mercedes Lackey's "Arrows of the Queen" trilogy being pretty outstanding, which handled coming-of-age themes, and was the first book I remember reading that dealt with sexual maturity in a positive way. That series has a female protag though, so maybe not the perfect substitute for the Xanth book if you're looking for something to recommend to a prepubescent boy.

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Sgarre1

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Reply #7 on: November 24, 2013, 05:05:05 PM
Quote
Holy cow, that's scathing...and, now that I've read it, I will also never be able to recommend this to my nephews Sad  This makes me wonder how the ideas and themes Anthony presented in these books has affected my psyche.

It's perhaps worth considering that, while I'm sure it's all true quotes and not taken out of context or anything (THE ONION is quality writing, even when it's somewhat wrong-headed), the level of disdain it generates in the author of the article is... well... let's say it's of a piece with a lot of other things like this I've read on THE ONION AV and elsewhere online - incapable of finding the good that exists along with the bad, committed to condemnation and rarely considering the creative product in any kind of context.  But then, on the other-OTHER- hand CHAMELEON is a disposable piece of pop-cult fantasy writing and perhaps should fall by the wayside.

But I refuse to feel sorry for reading and enjoying it as a youth, nor regret fondly thinking back on the little I can still recall of it as an adult.  I never had any plans on rereading it, because that kind of fantasy writing is not my thing anymore (in truth, it never was - I read the first three books and they were probably the last heroic fantasy, comedy or otherwise, I ever read).  In fact, now I get to have something I can proudly point to as being the reason I am part of the (perceived) problem, though I am still just a flawed human being working hard to treat people as human beings first, outside of normative gender roles (surprisingly - doesn't help much in developing dating/relationship chops!), and not some loathsome male beast with reductive views of woman.  And so it goes.
« Last Edit: November 24, 2013, 05:39:42 PM by Sgarre1 »



Scattercat

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Reply #8 on: November 27, 2013, 10:32:59 AM
This was actually why I stopped reading Xanth.  I started in my preteens (and I don't think they do much harm; at that point, most of the unpleasant stuff just goes straight over one's head.)  When I went to reread them in my later teens, I was appalled to realize that "A Spell for Chameleon" and, moreso, "The Source of Magic" were just extended jokes about PMS, at which point I stopped being able to read any of the Xanth books without seeing unpleasant sexist tropes everywhere.  (Chameleon had previously been my favorite character, specifically her ugly and smart personality, which I was forever hoping would become locked in as her obvious real identity.  I couldn't understand the appeal of beautiful but dim, and honestly still don't, though now I get what Piers Anthony appeared to think was the barbed satirical point of what I will for lack of a better term call his "jokes.")

I say go with Terry Pratchett's "Truckers" series and, if you must have puns, then "The Phantom Tollbooth."  Also Lloyd Alexander is generally okay, and the Bunnicula series is always tops.