Woman Warrior

I have found a new aunt. It feels very strange to be reading a living female author who speaks deeply to me. We are very different but there are familiar echoes in her work. This is probably the first time in years I have read two women authors in a row when I haven't been bingeing on mysteries.

I love how very complete her swordswoman is. Reading about Joan of Arc there is a sense of truncation. It is as if to be truely a hero one must give up being truely a woman. To be a mother and a general, a lover and a friend, to sew and to fight is much more complete than to be a forever-maiden who can never be more than a type. I cannot help but wonder how these stories would change if writen by authors of the other gender. Would Joan become someone I could love as a person? She has always been too much saint for that. How beautiful to have the soul of a dragon with a bird's flight. Would the warrior still have a soul if men told of her?

I appreciate how complex and strong and difficult Brave Orchid is. Her magic is so powerful and pervasive. What a color to have painted on memories! Difficult to work with but certainly not dull. I think all daughters must have a moment when they want to pull their own mother close to see who they really are. I wonder if any of us truely succeeds. Maybe that curtain makes us independent of them.