Very glad to see you finishing up this video series Raf! Had a few very brief exchanges with you on Twitter about this (I'm High Fist Dylan on that app), but I read through The Black Company this year and followed up each entry with one of your videos, so I was a bit bummed when I ran out of your content haha. Not just that but as far as I'm aware, there's nothing up on either UA-cam or Spotify for the last two books in the series from any creator so it's also cool to see you correct that.
Great review! You make a lot of really great points about how well the book has and hasn't aged. It is great to see someone talking about this part of the series. I don't know what it is about booktube but it seems like most people never read past The White Rose. Which is infuriating. They are missing the best parts of the series! Keep up the good work!
One Eye’s sexist jokes Yes, One-Eye is sexist and the jokes are horrid. I always read these exchanges as One Eye’s misguided and futile attempt to help Sleepy breakout/get over their self-imposed isolation. One Eye is after all, aside from being a right cunt, empathetic, intelligent and has been around war, soldiers and trauma enough to recognize PTSD when he sees it. If what he sees is actually what there, that’s a different discussion. Sleepy’s sexuality and gender presentation I always read Sleepy as having isolated their sex and gender and through mental surgery completely separated that from their sense of self and identity. And therefore is rather non-sexual and genderless, as opposed to (what I understand about) asexuality and non-binary-ism. I think what speaks for this view is that they are also emotionally and mentally very cut off, both from themself and the group. I agree that the Head Librarian’s pursuing Sleepy has homophobic undertones. I do think that these parts would not have read that way if consensual, homosexual relationships had been a part world. The homophobic portrayal, as far as I remember, is more in the trope of the predatory, older homophile in a position of power pursuing a younger, man/boy who is dependent on the Librarians good graces. I don’t remember anything standing out that is explicitly homophobic and in a more diverse world the dynamic would lose some of its implied homophobia and become more a universal portrayal of powerful people preying on the less powerful. I think the Head Librarian story line is very poignant and one of the reasons I hold Glen Cook to be one of those who handle gender, sex and sexual assault the best. If you disregard the build in homophobia of the time, it is a very good portrayal of power dynamics and gender. Both together and separate from each other. As I touched on above, there is the predatory nature of advances on a person in a position of dependency. I always thought that Glen Cook did a magnificent job of showing how this is in its nature predatory and puts the object (Sleepy) in a terrible position. And this is regardless of whether the Librarian sees himself as predatory, or whether he has any intention of retaliating if Sleepy were to reject him. Impact vs Intent. Honestly, I’m disillusioned enough about the general audience, and fantasy readers specifically, that I believe that the only way of communicating the predatory nature of the situation to a large part of readers is for both predator and victim to be male. Any other gender in either role would have obscured this for a majority/sizeable portion of readers, and downplayed the severity. Unfortunately, this is because of who our society is able to envision as predator/victim. And therein lies the homophobia as its build into that role-assignment. And this is true today, and even more in the 1990s. I also see the Librarian as being an answer to assumptions in earlier books about biological sex and gender. If I’m not mistaken, it is relieved that “he is a she” during the company’s march to assault Overlook, when Murgen is annalist. The stated assumption is that Sleepy has disguised herself as a boy/man in order to keep herself safe from the sexual dangers in the world at large, and in a company of soldiers/mercenaries specifically. Having this subplot in the following book, with Sleepy as annalist, can be read as a rebuttal to these earlier assumptions. While yes, being perceived as a girl/woman is statistically more dangerous from a sexual assault perspective, but a boy/man is not safe either. Just safer. In a more modern reading, it can also be read as a rebuttal of the assumption of gender on the basis of biological sex. A progressive writer now might even complicate Sleepy’s gender expression and non-sexuality and explore the nature/nurture aspect. Is she hiding her gender and presenting as a man, or are they non-binary? Is she non-sexual (ie a conscious or subconscious choice that could change) or are they asexual? Is it trauma? Or an inherent, natural part of Sleepy? And the dynamic between the trauma/natural orientation.
Very glad to see you finishing up this video series Raf! Had a few very brief exchanges with you on Twitter about this (I'm High Fist Dylan on that app), but I read through The Black Company this year and followed up each entry with one of your videos, so I was a bit bummed when I ran out of your content haha. Not just that but as far as I'm aware, there's nothing up on either UA-cam or Spotify for the last two books in the series from any creator so it's also cool to see you correct that.
Awesone video on an awesone book in a awesome series :) I wrote an essay... So many thoughts!
Great review!
You make a lot of really great points about how well the book has and hasn't aged.
It is great to see someone talking about this part of the series. I don't know what it is about booktube but it seems like most people never read past The White Rose. Which is infuriating. They are missing the best parts of the series!
Keep up the good work!
One Eye’s sexist jokes
Yes, One-Eye is sexist and the jokes are horrid. I always read these exchanges as One Eye’s misguided and futile attempt to help Sleepy breakout/get over their self-imposed isolation. One Eye is after all, aside from being a right cunt, empathetic, intelligent and has been around war, soldiers and trauma enough to recognize PTSD when he sees it. If what he sees is actually what there, that’s a different discussion.
Sleepy’s sexuality and gender presentation
I always read Sleepy as having isolated their sex and gender and through mental surgery completely separated that from their sense of self and identity. And therefore is rather non-sexual and genderless, as opposed to (what I understand about) asexuality and non-binary-ism. I think what speaks for this view is that they are also emotionally and mentally very cut off, both from themself and the group.
I agree that the Head Librarian’s pursuing Sleepy has homophobic undertones. I do think that these parts would not have read that way if consensual, homosexual relationships had been a part world. The homophobic portrayal, as far as I remember, is more in the trope of the predatory, older homophile in a position of power pursuing a younger, man/boy who is dependent on the Librarians good graces. I don’t remember anything standing out that is explicitly homophobic and in a more diverse world the dynamic would lose some of its implied homophobia and become more a universal portrayal of powerful people preying on the less powerful.
I think the Head Librarian story line is very poignant and one of the reasons I hold Glen Cook to be one of those who handle gender, sex and sexual assault the best. If you disregard the build in homophobia of the time, it is a very good portrayal of power dynamics and gender. Both together and separate from each other.
As I touched on above, there is the predatory nature of advances on a person in a position of dependency. I always thought that Glen Cook did a magnificent job of showing how this is in its nature predatory and puts the object (Sleepy) in a terrible position. And this is regardless of whether the Librarian sees himself as predatory, or whether he has any intention of retaliating if Sleepy were to reject him. Impact vs Intent.
Honestly, I’m disillusioned enough about the general audience, and fantasy readers specifically, that I believe that the only way of communicating the predatory nature of the situation to a large part of readers is for both predator and victim to be male. Any other gender in either role would have obscured this for a majority/sizeable portion of readers, and downplayed the severity. Unfortunately, this is because of who our society is able to envision as predator/victim. And therein lies the homophobia as its build into that role-assignment. And this is true today, and even more in the 1990s.
I also see the Librarian as being an answer to assumptions in earlier books about biological sex and gender. If I’m not mistaken, it is relieved that “he is a she” during the company’s march to assault Overlook, when Murgen is annalist. The stated assumption is that Sleepy has disguised herself as a boy/man in order to keep herself safe from the sexual dangers in the world at large, and in a company of soldiers/mercenaries specifically. Having this subplot in the following book, with Sleepy as annalist, can be read as a rebuttal to these earlier assumptions. While yes, being perceived as a girl/woman is statistically more dangerous from a sexual assault perspective, but a boy/man is not safe either. Just safer.
In a more modern reading, it can also be read as a rebuttal of the assumption of gender on the basis of biological sex. A progressive writer now might even complicate Sleepy’s gender expression and non-sexuality and explore the nature/nurture aspect. Is she hiding her gender and presenting as a man, or are they non-binary? Is she non-sexual (ie a conscious or subconscious choice that could change) or are they asexual? Is it trauma? Or an inherent, natural part of Sleepy? And the dynamic between the trauma/natural orientation.
@@denise-ew9to thank you so much for this! I'll reply in detail when I'm back home.
I have nothing to add, but love this comment!