XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: fwbrown@bellsouth.net   
      
   In rec.arts.books.tolkien Paul S. Person    
   wrote:   
   > On Mon, 30 Dec 2013 17:42:11 +0000 (UTC), Wayne Brown   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >>On Mon, 23 Dec 2013 16:27:03 in article    
   Taemon  wrote:   
   >>> On 23-12-2013 17:02, John W Kennedy wrote:   
   >>>> No. As touching Bilbo's adventures, it would be a distinction without a   
   >>>> difference -- except for the problem of a female going off with 13 men!   
   >>>> Of course, you could make the dwarfs female, too, but, once you've done   
   >>>> that, you've completely severed the story from the Western tradition,   
   >>>> while creating something that everyone will perceive as a ham-handed   
   >>>> feminist "so there!"   
   >>>   
   >>> So... what's wrong with that?   
   >>   
   >>For one thing, Tolkien didn't choose to do it that way.  That's enough   
   >>for me.  But I also strongly appreciate the "Western tradition" and   
   >>strongly dislike "ham-handed feminist" writing--or ham-handed writing   
   >>of any kind.   
   >   
   > The /sexist/ "Western Tradition", yes, certainly.   
   >   
   > But I'm not entirely certain about the Western Tradition as such.   
   >   
   > It's been quite some time since I read the Greek Playwrights in /The   
   > Great Books of the Western World/ (a very large and diverse set that I   
   > am slowly reading through -- I am nearly done with Boswell's /Life of   
   > Johnson/, although what makes it a "Great Book" I really couldn't   
   > say), but I seem to recall several of the plays having strong female   
   > characters.   
   >   
   > So I don't know that adventerous girls running off with bands of women   
   > is all that far outside one of the oldest parts of the Western   
   > Tradition. Or is Ancient Greece no longer part of the Western   
   > Tradition?   
   >   
   > After all, the Amazons were part of that tradition -- an entire   
   > culture of women so dedicated to the martial arts that they burned off   
   > their right breasts so that they better use their bows. (I bet /that/   
   > smarted!)   
      
   I suppose when I saw the words "Western tradition" I thought primarily   
   of Norse, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic tradition (Tolkien's major interests).   
   Other than Boadicea and Brynhildr there aren't many adventurous women   
   from those traditions that leap to my mind.   
      
   --   
   F. Wayne Brown    
      
   Þæs ofereode, ðisses swa mæg.  ("That passed away, this also can.")   
      from "Deor," in the Exeter Book (folios 100r-100v)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)