Woodreads 3
See? Even Preteen Syr’Nj can share the glory now and then, especially if her poor little sister unconsciously guilts her into it.
“A story ABSOLUTELY NOT FOR CHILDREN,” the text “Copses of Corpses” warns. Of course, such a “warning” would be like catnip (or, I dunno, Miracle-Gro plant formula?) to the preteens and early teens most likely to enjoy its tales of bloody-minded vengeance. At this age, Syr’Nj would not be particularly troubled by its sexism (“our women and children”) or its jingoism/racism/nationalism. The adventurous mind can imagine itself as the best character in any story, heedless of any barriers of gender, race, or class.
“To the Hell Fires with…” is lifted directly from Conan (the barbarian, not the comedian), and a couple other phrases might be, as well. That’s not exactly an endorsement, but it shows that Young Syr’Nj has read “low” entertainment and “high” scholarship with equal appetite.
If everyone’s cheating then it must be fair, right?
The author’s name does make me doubt the intentions of the author.
Great. Now the total is up to 6 books I have to read.
Ah, yes, there are some… interesting implications in sentence turns like “stealing our women, killing our children”.
On the one hand, it’s an accurate description of the typical behavior of raiders/genocidal-bent armies all along IRL history. “coming to maim and kill our loved ones” or “enslaving and murdering non-combattants” are more generic, but don’t exactly have as strong an emotional impact.
OTOH, these sentences are indeed typically written for a male reader. I suspect that would-be female warriors may feel excluded (“OK, either I’m not part of “our women”, or I’m not part of the defenders for which this was written”).
Male non-combattant bystanders may also feel left off (“so the barbarians came come and ravish me, you don’t care?”).
(the penny drops)
Ooooh. That’s why, or part why, there is a picture of Conan.
Hey, women can have women too. They don’t all have to feel excluded.
Eh, it’s a matter of biology as well (assuming wood elves work the same way humans do, which they seem to.)
You can kill off three quarters of the adult male population of a civilization and it will often survive with little to no reduction in population growth. They’ll be back to full strength in one generation. Kill off half the adult females and/or a significant portion of the juveniles though and they will be crippled for generations to come. Something like 14 generations just to regain what they lost depending on a few assumptions about their reproductive traits.
Armies of bachelor males dukeing it out is a wasteful way to settle an argument, but it is unlikely to cause lasting damage to either side in the long run. When one side starts enslaving or slaughtering the other’s females and children though that’s not a minor political dispute. That’s an attempt at genocide.
“Noncombatants” doesn’t have the same implications save for the fact that that category generally includes the females and the children.
Can’t not post this whenever someone mentions Conan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBGOQ7SsJrw