I was exasperated with the “mass outing” as well. I was expecting Jackrum to [spoiler]be some sort of personification of Borogravia’s army - ageless, bloodthirsty, full of tricks, and always in the service of the Queen. When the Queen appeared in Wozzer, Jackrum instantly recognized her.
Being some sort of localized minor deity (as well as a folk hero) would have been neat, as well as being in line with the casual approach to religion in the Discworld.[/spoiler]
Wiz, Silvernose, I tend to agree. Not my favorite PTerry book. Oh well. I’m rereading the Johnny Maxwell trilogy at present as a distraction.
Wizard Song:
[spoiler]I see what you’re saying, and that was my first reaction as well, but after some reflection, I changed my mind. I like the way it’s written just fine.
The problem I have with your ending is that it requires that there be a male prescence to, in effect, “give permission” for the women to seize equal rights. It would be looking for a male character to approve of the women’s action, when the point of the story is that no such approval is necessary. The ending continues this theme: sure, the positions granted by the patriarchal military are symbolic, but the last scene, with Polly seargenting at the new female recruits, shows that she doesn’t give a damn if her position was intended to be honorary or ceremonial. She’s going to make it mean something, and she doesn’t need a man’s help or approval to do it.
One of the themes of the novel is that these women are struggling against their nation’s patriarchy. Much is made of the differences between men and women, about how the socks down the front of her trousers made Polly feel more “manlike” (read: brave and forceful). They even trot out the tiresome old canard about how there wouldn’t be any wars if women were in charge. The marvellous thing about the ending as Terry wrote it is that all of these differences are entirely imaginary. Women do rule the world, or at least the Borogravian military, and there are still wars. The people Polly was trying to emulate with her roll of socks didn’t have anything down there but socks themselves. The book starts off creating a dichotomy between men and women, and then destroys that dichotomy by revealing that everyone is a woman. In so doing, it shows that the differences between people cannot be so easily dismissed on the basis of gender.
I, too, prefer living in the post-feminist world. But not everone lives here with me, and it’s important to see their lives reflected in literature, too. Even if it’s whacky fantasy literature. Especially if it’s whacky fantasy literature.
Incidentally, I was expecting Jackrum to be the Queen. All those years she was “pining” for her dead husband, she’d actually been out in the trenches, fighting tooth and nail for her country. They mention at one point how long Jackrum’s been a soldier, and it would have started at right around the time the Queen went into seclusion. I was so sure I had guessed that plot twist ahead of time, too.[/spoiler]
Miller-
[spoiler]See, I figured I’d pre-guessed the Sgt. Jackrum plot twist, too, but I figured that he was pining after his lost love, the Duchess herself. The Duchess died, he joined the military to keep her memory alive… Well, turns out we were all wrong. Dang.
I understand what you’re saying about not wanting to have a patriarchy give them permission to be women. I agree that would not have been a good message, either, but I would still have liked for some male character to have accepted the women for who they were. Well, besides Vimes, I guess, who just seemed to like anything that gave Lord Rust a hard time. Think, for instance, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even though Giles is technically her boss/teacher, Buffy is still obviously the party with the power in the relationship. The Sqaud in MR were going to continue being women, and they were going to continue to be women soldiers, too, no matter what the tribunal had to say about it.
Now that I think about it, though, I agree that it probably wouldn’t have worked if the General had been a man. That would be setting up the scenario that you talked about. Jackrum, however, would have been a great candidate for malehood. He wasn’t giving the women permission to be women, he was just looking at all comers with an egalitarian eye. They were all cannon fodder, really, to him, and he knew firsthand that the cannon didn’t care if the fodder had… er… socks or not.[/spoiler]