When the Author Doesn't Get It
Apr. 6th, 2026 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
noelfigartSo Andy Weir says his writing isn't political. *head scratch* Clearly Project Hail Mary is deeply so. One of the biggest moments in the movie is about freedom of choice and consent and when it can be overruled.
To anyone reared as an American, that's about as political as you can GET. (And Weir is an American in my generational cohort, so... Yeah)
I self published a novel many years ago, and whenever men read it, one of the invariable comments on the novel is that it is a feminist novel.
That wasn't my intent. My intent was low-fantasy with a legal code and culture sorta kinda inspired by Hammurabi's code. The society in the novel is deeply, DEEPLY sexist. Women are mostly property with a bit of leeway for the upper classes... but not much.
Yes, is it a feminist novel? Well, the female characters are PEOPLE. They have as much agency as their society allows, think, and have flaws just like any male character would have that don't necessarily revolve around the use of sex as a way to any power.
Probably anything I write is feminist because, well, I think women are people. It's so basic to my own thinking, I can't see anything I do as feminist qua feminist, yet... It's almost impossible for anything I write to be otherwise.
Circling back to Weir. I am pretty convinced that he has something similar going on. He feels like a lot of his views of power, life, and how people interact are Just How Things Are, so he CAN'T see it as political, even though it totally is.
To anyone reared as an American, that's about as political as you can GET. (And Weir is an American in my generational cohort, so... Yeah)
I self published a novel many years ago, and whenever men read it, one of the invariable comments on the novel is that it is a feminist novel.
That wasn't my intent. My intent was low-fantasy with a legal code and culture sorta kinda inspired by Hammurabi's code. The society in the novel is deeply, DEEPLY sexist. Women are mostly property with a bit of leeway for the upper classes... but not much.
Yes, is it a feminist novel? Well, the female characters are PEOPLE. They have as much agency as their society allows, think, and have flaws just like any male character would have that don't necessarily revolve around the use of sex as a way to any power.
Probably anything I write is feminist because, well, I think women are people. It's so basic to my own thinking, I can't see anything I do as feminist qua feminist, yet... It's almost impossible for anything I write to be otherwise.
Circling back to Weir. I am pretty convinced that he has something similar going on. He feels like a lot of his views of power, life, and how people interact are Just How Things Are, so he CAN'T see it as political, even though it totally is.