A Goodreads user
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I really appreciate how your male main characters are non-traditionally masculine. Penric is probably the best example of this. In Mira's Last Dance, he seems fairly comfortable as Mira. I was worried it was going to be transphobic, but it never was. Would Penric consider himself gender-neutral or gender-fluid in today's parlance?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Pen would consider himself straight. So is 10/12ths of Desdemona. (Or 8/10ths, if one declines to speculate on the gender identities of the lioness and the mare.)
Balancing these competing views is one of Pen's many tasks in accommodating his demon.
Also playing in is Pen's deep medical education and experience. When one of your jobs is teaching anatomy to medical students through human and other dissection (a winter course, back in Martensbridge), you pretty much get over any kind of body-consciousness. Between the long medical careers of Amberein and Helvia, and his own shorter but extremely intense one, Pen has pretty much seen it all by age 29, and must sometimes remind himself that other people are shyer or more prudish. "Anyone with their skin still on looks dressed to me," as I believe he phrased it once.
Ta, L.
Balancing these competing views is one of Pen's many tasks in accommodating his demon.
Also playing in is Pen's deep medical education and experience. When one of your jobs is teaching anatomy to medical students through human and other dissection (a winter course, back in Martensbridge), you pretty much get over any kind of body-consciousness. Between the long medical careers of Amberein and Helvia, and his own shorter but extremely intense one, Pen has pretty much seen it all by age 29, and must sometimes remind himself that other people are shyer or more prudish. "Anyone with their skin still on looks dressed to me," as I believe he phrased it once.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Melinda
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
In nearly all your books, you use only a single Point of View character, and generally I really love your close third person style. Recently, though, I was rereading The Warrior's Apprentice, and it occurred to me that Elena has a huge personal story that we don't get to see much of. Did you ever consider using a dual POV for this book, or otherwise consider letting us see the world through Elena's eyes?
John Kirk
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
As an author, how do you feel about content/trigger warnings? Some of your books have unpleasant things happening to characters (e.g. Elena Visconti). I really like those books, but I've recently been adding my own warnings while recommending them to friends. Would you be happy for an editor/publisher to add official warnings at the start of a book, or would that be treading on your toes?
Maureen Wynn
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I saw a question asking you for the meaning of Miles' line "I am the man who owns Vorkosigan Vashnoi" but I had to sign off before I could read your answer, and now I can't find that question in Goodreads - no frelling search function! I have my own ideas what that line means to Miles, but I would love to know what you meant by it? My apologies for repeating a question that has already been answered!
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May 25, 2019 07:33AM · flag
May 11, 2023 02:04PM · flag