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oblomov 's review for:
She: A History of Adventure
by H. Rider Haggard
When his orphaned ward Leo comes of age, scholar Holly gives him his only inheritance, a mysterious family artifact. Perplexed and curious, they journey to Eastern Africa to encover the truth of Leo's ancestors, and there they find a dark and enigmatic lost world ruled by the terrible She.
Considering I read a lot of older books, they tend to be filled with older prejudices. I'm starting to feel even mentioning it is becoming a little redundant, as we shouldn't expect particularly nuanced depictions of women from a time when they were still considered a biblical curse on humanity, and sometimes I just try to accept it and concentrate on other, less awful factors of the book I'm reading. But bloody hell, what else can I even do with this novel?
This is the Book of Incel. Our narrator Holly is incredibly intelligent, but no woman wants him because he's ugly, something which he repeats so often he seems to be proud of it. Leo is a bit dim witted and overly trusting, but everyone wants to bed him because he's a gorgeous Adonis, and even Holly can't stop talking about how sexy his ward is to a frankly worrying degree.
And then there's She, who has lived for thousands of years through the power of twisted and diabolical magiks. She is a woman of such immense beauty she has to keep her face covered, lest any man involuntarily stain her carpet at the sight of her, and even self-proclaimed misogynist Holly finds himself close to fainting from the briefest glimpse.
She can have decent debates with Holly and intellectually they're equals, but that doesn't matter to her as she only wants the handsome Leo, because women are shallow and only care about bone structure and I'm a nice guy, damn it! And there's some tosh about Leo being a reincarnation of the only man she ever 'loved', who was also the only man who refused to sleep with her, because you must ignore women to get their affection, as every slimey pick-up artist will tell you.
Aside from being an antithesis to feminism, this whole thing is also a shrine to Orientalism, complete with cannibals, corpse desecration and the novel's tribe, the Amahagger, all worshipping She, the one white woman there.
Let's find some good points about this book, shall we?:
She as white Queen of the natives may be a clever denouncement on the 'white man's burden', as she's not a benevolent ruler. She's capricious, selfish, keeps her subjects in control through fear and does nothing to 'better their lives' like some colonist apologists claim about the scramble for Africa. There's also rather progressive views on marriage. The Amahagger tribe women pick their own husband and divource is obtained rather easily, allowing a freer love that seems to work just bloody great for Leo and Ustane, his Amahagger girlfriend. The casualness of the bond doesn't seem to affect the intensity of affection either, with Ustane fully devoted to her chosen lover,.
Despite my criticisms, this is actually a fun read, with good prose, action scenes, ludicrous ideas and She is so outrageously hammy it's difficult not to like her. If you can repress your gag reflex then there's stuff to enjoy here, but this is very, very much a product of a time I'm glad we no longer accept.
Considering I read a lot of older books, they tend to be filled with older prejudices. I'm starting to feel even mentioning it is becoming a little redundant, as we shouldn't expect particularly nuanced depictions of women from a time when they were still considered a biblical curse on humanity, and sometimes I just try to accept it and concentrate on other, less awful factors of the book I'm reading. But bloody hell, what else can I even do with this novel?
This is the Book of Incel. Our narrator Holly is incredibly intelligent, but no woman wants him because he's ugly, something which he repeats so often he seems to be proud of it. Leo is a bit dim witted and overly trusting, but everyone wants to bed him because he's a gorgeous Adonis, and even Holly can't stop talking about how sexy his ward is to a frankly worrying degree.
And then there's She, who has lived for thousands of years through the power of twisted and diabolical magiks. She is a woman of such immense beauty she has to keep her face covered, lest any man involuntarily stain her carpet at the sight of her, and even self-proclaimed misogynist Holly finds himself close to fainting from the briefest glimpse.
She can have decent debates with Holly and intellectually they're equals, but that doesn't matter to her as she only wants the handsome Leo, because women are shallow and only care about bone structure and I'm a nice guy, damn it! And there's some tosh about Leo being a reincarnation of the only man she ever 'loved', who was also the only man who refused to sleep with her, because you must ignore women to get their affection, as every slimey pick-up artist will tell you.
Aside from being an antithesis to feminism, this whole thing is also a shrine to Orientalism, complete with cannibals, corpse desecration and the novel's tribe, the Amahagger, all worshipping She, the one white woman there.
Let's find some good points about this book, shall we?:
She as white Queen of the natives may be a clever denouncement on the 'white man's burden', as she's not a benevolent ruler. She's capricious, selfish, keeps her subjects in control through fear and does nothing to 'better their lives' like some colonist apologists claim about the scramble for Africa. There's also rather progressive views on marriage. The Amahagger tribe women pick their own husband and divource is obtained rather easily, allowing a freer love that seems to work just bloody great for Leo and Ustane, his Amahagger girlfriend. The casualness of the bond doesn't seem to affect the intensity of affection either, with Ustane fully devoted to her chosen lover,
Spoiler
and it's ultimately 'sanctity of marriage' raised Leo who forgets his darling five seconds after She declares she wants himDespite my criticisms, this is actually a fun read, with good prose, action scenes, ludicrous ideas and She is so outrageously hammy it's difficult not to like her. If you can repress your gag reflex then there's stuff to enjoy here, but this is very, very much a product of a time I'm glad we no longer accept.