Posted by Richard Simms on March 24, 1998 at 13:34:16:
In Reply to: Prototypical Vance hero's Romantic Interest posted by The Professor on February 27, 1998 at 23:21:25:
: Did anyone else notice how Keith Gersen, especially, but other protagonists also seem to fall for a particular type of woman.
: She is usually of a higher social/economic/race/??? class than the hero (Emphyrio, The Killing Machine, The Face). She is not only attractive but often haughty, almost unattaniable, and at first, not at all interested in him.
: This perfect "adolescent" dream girl/woman is almost always hard to get, but eventually comes to respect and sometimes like our protagonist. But alas, things generally never work out in the long run.
: Of course there are exceptions to this (The Pnume, Lyonesse, the
: gypsy Sherl in one of the Alastor books).
: Comments please?
Putting Vance's recent novels aside, in which he has portrayed strong willed and full of life female characters ( Skirlet Hutsenreiter, Madouc, Wayness Tamm ) I must confess the one which sticks in my mind more than any other is The Face.
Reading other follow-ups it seems I am not alone in having a special fondness for this book.
The Jerdian Chanseth character didn't seem to me shallow. At least thats not as I remember her (its been a while since I read it!).A victim of upbringing yes, aloof and snobbish certainly but surely this is one of Vance's strongest female characterisations.
Perhaps though the impact of the Methel section of the book and the somewhat sombre outcome of the romantic involvement between Gersen and Chanseth is what really impresses.
On another note I wonder if anyone else was dissapointed in the
absence of any mention of Pallis Atwrode in The Killing Machine?
Are we to assume that her ordeal at the hands of Dasce curbed any wish to further her involvement with Gersen?
This is knit picking for sure but I always felt if Alusz Iphigenia warranted a mention in The Palace of Love surely Atwrode did in T.K.M !