(no subject)

[alexseanchai]

Has anybody read The Bone Doll's Twin et al by Lynn Flewelling? 'Cause—spoilers!—I'm thinking that trilogy is a trans narrative, but I'm not wholly convinced our lead is a trans character. Opinions?

Comments

[madgastronomer]

Yep. Several times. I would not consider the character to be trans. There's no expressed gender dysphoria, although there's an adjustment period after the change. The character personally does not seem to have much gender identity. The author, honestly, doesn't seem to have much idea that gender identity independent of plumbing is a thing that exists in the world (she's a straight woman who is really, really into slash, with no apparent awareness of the greater issues queer people face). But internal to the books, I'd say the character just isn't strongly gender identified at all.

[neotoma]

I'd say that's a fair assessment. As I recall, the main character is kind of shocked to discover she was a girl instead of a boy, but that's about the total of the impact it has on her self-identity.

[inkstone]

I would say that's correct. I've read the entire trilogy that book is part of and while there are sort of references in the final book to dysphoria, it doesn't really go far enough in the exploration.

[iamshadow]

I have read the trilogy, and they're excellent, and you're not wrong. As for narrative vs character, I don't know what you mean exactly, but trans themes are definitely present, far more overtly than, say, in a transformational fairy tale.

Flewelling's Darkrunner series, which is set several hundred years later in the same universe, stars a lead canonical queer couple, too. She's one of my favourite fantasy writers.