Posted by manic on October 26, 1998 at 14:17:17:
In Reply to: Re: Prototypical Vance hero's Romantic Interest posted by Richard Simms on March 24, 1998 at 13:34:16:
: : 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 !