Comments on: “He gave me nothing but a name, and I have filled it with myself”: LeGuin’s Lavinia Reviewed http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/2009/10/lavinia-reviewed/ Skeptical Readings of Literature and History Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:30:08 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Dawn http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/2009/10/lavinia-reviewed/comment-page-1/#comment-5756 Dawn Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:35:46 +0000 http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/?p=58#comment-5756 Angelica, you and Bobby could probably have many long conversations about looking at history through the wrong lens! :) He often rants to me about the tendency of many people to look at history from a modern Western perspective when the subject is definitely not modern and, perhaps, also not Western. I do think that was a major hang-up of this story. Literature (especially in the time in which the <em>Aeneid</em> was written) regarded these topics as important, and I think we still do. Perhaps LeGuin felt that because the original source covered them, then she needed to touch on them as well. Or perhaps she worried that her audience would grow bored or frustrated without knowing what was going on outside the city walls; maybe a bit of both. In any case, I definitely agree with you that she was trying to look at the life of a female aristocrat in an ancient civilization through the wrong lens. Angelica, you and Bobby could probably have many long conversations about looking at history through the wrong lens! :) He often rants to me about the tendency of many people to look at history from a modern Western perspective when the subject is definitely not modern and, perhaps, also not Western.

I do think that was a major hang-up of this story. Literature (especially in the time in which the Aeneid was written) regarded these topics as important, and I think we still do. Perhaps LeGuin felt that because the original source covered them, then she needed to touch on them as well. Or perhaps she worried that her audience would grow bored or frustrated without knowing what was going on outside the city walls; maybe a bit of both. In any case, I definitely agree with you that she was trying to look at the life of a female aristocrat in an ancient civilization through the wrong lens.

]]> By: Angelica http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/2009/10/lavinia-reviewed/comment-page-1/#comment-5644 Angelica Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:23:09 +0000 http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/?p=58#comment-5644 Your discussion reminds me of a book I read about the development of the modern world (meaning 15th century onwards) and how come Europe became leader over cultures that had been vastly more developed up to then. The historian tries to write history that is not Europeocentric. But in a footnote he says maybe historians got it all wrong when they try to understand the history of other cultures from the political/military/economic perspective of traditional Western history, that they should be deal with other cultures in their own terms and not projecting Western categories. From what you say, LeGuin -who is undoubtedly a marvelous writer- seems to have run into that conundrum of trying to write male political/military/economic stuff from a female PoV in a society where women were not even remotely involved in that. Your discussion reminds me of a book I read about the development of the modern world (meaning 15th century onwards) and how come Europe became leader over cultures that had been vastly more developed up to then. The historian tries to write history that is not Europeocentric. But in a footnote he says maybe historians got it all wrong when they try to understand the history of other cultures from the political/military/economic perspective of traditional Western history, that they should be deal with other cultures in their own terms and not projecting Western categories. From what you say, LeGuin -who is undoubtedly a marvelous writer- seems to have run into that conundrum of trying to write male political/military/economic stuff from a female PoV in a society where women were not even remotely involved in that.

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