soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2016-08-10 07:45 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2016-08-10 07:45 pm
Monstrous Regiment, by Terry Pratchett
Thanks, everyone, for the kind words in response to my last post. Much appreciated.
Now let's get back to my excessive backlog of book thoughts to post! I've got like TEN book posts written up... Let's start with this one.
Monstrous Regiment, by Terry Pratchett
TBH I picked up this book for a reread because I was talking about it with a friend who was sure that the book told us Jackrum's birth name, and I was sure it didn't. (I know finding this info doesn't require reading the whole book, but I couldn't resist.) Turns out I was right! I love being right.
I recently came across an online discussion of this book and the various participants in the discussion all used she/her pronouns for Jackrum and my goodness that felt so wrong. Apparently I'm convinced in my heart of hearts that Jackrum is trans, because no. In the conversation between Jackrum and Polly at the end of the book where Jackrum tells Polly his history, the narrative works pretty hard to avoid using any pronouns for Jackrum for most of the conversation, to the point where I was convinced it didn't use any at all. But I double-checked before finishing writing this review because I wanted to be sure, and....I was wrong, it uses "she" for Jackrum twice, once early on in the conversation and once in the very last sentence as Polly's leaving.
Which like - on the one hand I think these characters, including the the pov character (Polly), would have little conception of trans identities, and it's Polly's pov that's using these pronouns for Jackrum. But on the other hand can I be sure that it's not also the narrative's opinion?
Jackrum's sense of gender identity is not something the book is actually particularly interested in exploring, so really I think it could be read either way. So I guess I understand all the people who see Jackrum as a crossdressing woman like all the other crossdressing women in this book. But I still can't think of Jackrum as being comfortable being anything but a man. I thought this about Jackrum before I even really knew trans people were a thing, back when I first read this book. It just seemed so obvious to me that he's a man despite his biology.
At any rate, I continue to find this a supremely enjoyable book. I love the increasingly ridiculous reveal of just how many people have been secretly crossdressing to be in the army this whole time, including high up. But it's also just a really good book about the pointless awfulness of war. And ALSO a book with great relationships between female characters, both platonic and non.
Definitely high up there in my list of fave Pratchett books.
Now let's get back to my excessive backlog of book thoughts to post! I've got like TEN book posts written up... Let's start with this one.
Monstrous Regiment, by Terry Pratchett
TBH I picked up this book for a reread because I was talking about it with a friend who was sure that the book told us Jackrum's birth name, and I was sure it didn't. (I know finding this info doesn't require reading the whole book, but I couldn't resist.) Turns out I was right! I love being right.
I recently came across an online discussion of this book and the various participants in the discussion all used she/her pronouns for Jackrum and my goodness that felt so wrong. Apparently I'm convinced in my heart of hearts that Jackrum is trans, because no. In the conversation between Jackrum and Polly at the end of the book where Jackrum tells Polly his history, the narrative works pretty hard to avoid using any pronouns for Jackrum for most of the conversation, to the point where I was convinced it didn't use any at all. But I double-checked before finishing writing this review because I wanted to be sure, and....I was wrong, it uses "she" for Jackrum twice, once early on in the conversation and once in the very last sentence as Polly's leaving.
Which like - on the one hand I think these characters, including the the pov character (Polly), would have little conception of trans identities, and it's Polly's pov that's using these pronouns for Jackrum. But on the other hand can I be sure that it's not also the narrative's opinion?
Jackrum's sense of gender identity is not something the book is actually particularly interested in exploring, so really I think it could be read either way. So I guess I understand all the people who see Jackrum as a crossdressing woman like all the other crossdressing women in this book. But I still can't think of Jackrum as being comfortable being anything but a man. I thought this about Jackrum before I even really knew trans people were a thing, back when I first read this book. It just seemed so obvious to me that he's a man despite his biology.
At any rate, I continue to find this a supremely enjoyable book. I love the increasingly ridiculous reveal of just how many people have been secretly crossdressing to be in the army this whole time, including high up. But it's also just a really good book about the pointless awfulness of war. And ALSO a book with great relationships between female characters, both platonic and non.
Definitely high up there in my list of fave Pratchett books.