Libba Bray's Done It Again!

For this week, I read Rebel Angels, the sequel to Libba Bray's New York Times Bestseller, A Great and Terrible Beauty which I read for the unit on girls. I found the sequel equally as compelling and as rewarding a literary experience. Again, this is a book I would consider teaching in a classroom but for some very specific reasons. How I would go about teaching it, and I know this would be geared more toward college instruction, but I would probably give the students a week to read it. (I read it in two days, so a week should be no problem) Basic plot and characters would be put aside to discuss some of the pervasive issues in the novel. As with the first of the series, Angels follows the girls through winter vacation during their first year at boarding school in 1895 London. The Christmas holiday is met with a continuation of parties, balls, and dates all of which reinforce the salient gendered expectations of the era. As a cultural lens, I would use this book as a means to investigate the plight of women around the turn of the century. Because this text is written by a British woman (as is of course, Harry Potter) I feel there is something more to this book than would be present in a similar text were it written by an American. I don't know: perhaps we Americans fail to see the value of social commentary and rely too heavily on plot and dialogue to motivate the plot. Don't get me wrong. While there is certainly a great amount of dialogue (and consequently very little prose) to this book, Bray offers insights into the discussions of interracial marriage, class struggles, fate vs. agency, and of course, women's authority. Without giving too much away, the blanketing theme of both novels revolves around the idea that women have the power to enact change, but this power is something feared by conventional ideologies and thus is hidden and deemed evil. In the book, this power takes the literal form of magic and rather than being subverted by patriarchy, this power exists within the Realms: a secret land accessible only to those who "have the power." Clearly, the fantastical elements dominate much of the discourse of the characters, but this fantasy differs from science fiction insofar as there is little or no science whatsoever in the text itself. Rather, fantasy defies science. Examining this from another--albeit far too graduatish angle-- Bray equates science and masculinity while equating fantasy with femininity. Certainly, she is not the first to make this leap, but the distinction between the two remains a fundamental component in her text especially with regards to identity formation. Does CS Lewis compromise gender boundaries by writing primarily of fantasy as opposed to science fiction? Jurassic Park, the story of genetically engineered dinosaurs almos has to be written by a man, or so it would seem because of its strict loyalty to the scientific rhetoric. Whereas Harry Potter would seem more likely written by a woman. How do these gender assumptions influence the lengths to which authors write in the genre of fantasy/sci fi? Bray's agenda is clear: she chooses fantasy neither by default nor due to the cultural hegemonic influences dictating such a genre. Instead, she valorizes fantasy as an expression of feminine authority. With The Realms comes great power and authority. A great and terrible beauty, if you will. So great, in fact, that a tribe of gypsy men must guard the gateway so as not to allow any women to enter and realize the potential inside. In this case, fantasy is used as a tool for cultural awakening: very much a call for reform. Troubling, however, is the fact that while Bray uses fantasy as beacon for female agency, Rowling's protagonist is a young boy. How does this effect my notions of gendered genres? Oh bother, to bed with me.