I got "A Door in the Hedge" in the mail today. What a trip down memory lane. It's very, very apparent how much McKinley has matured. The stories are good, but they very much have the flavor of sweetness that characterized her early works.

Robin McKinley describes herself on her website as “intransigent,” and relates the story about how her sensibilities were completely outraged when she read The Sheik, a gripping tale of white slavery and the harem life in the romantic desert.

Quoted from alibris dot com: “The Sheik,” the basis for the famous movie starring Rudolph Valentino, this 1919 novel tells the story of a haughty Englishwoman who is captured in the Algerian desert by a handsome prince, who rapes her, after which she promptly gives up her imperious ways and becomes a loving, surrendered wife.

The idea that woman requires that man master her like a horse or other domestic animal stuck in McKinley’s craw and pissed her off. (Alert readers may reference my earlier rant about domestic violence upthread). This feeling became part of her urge to write stories about heroines who were more than pliant sex recipients. Thus the world got to read about the mythic adventures of Aerin and Harimad-Sol, who are heroic in their own right (and get to have The Sex, off-screen).

Today, I live in a world where I’ve seen Xena, Buffy and Zoe stride across my screen and take care of business; a world where Princess Leia is no longer the only spunky heroine. I have come a long way from the disappointed four year old I once was, who sadly decided that the stories she was making up had to be about boys, since there were no stories about girls doing anything interesting. Girls only had pretty clothes, which bored me. I don’t think I can express the amount of satisfaction this trend in fiction gives me.

The idea that woman requires that man master her like a horse or other domestic animal stuck in McKinley’s craw and pissed her off.

Really? Has she re-read her own Beauty recently? I did, and it was like a Stockholm Syndrome extravaganza.

I'm all for spunky heroines, but perhaps my definition of 'spunky' is a little more out there than hers.

There was a time in the late 40s when movie heroines, at least, were damned spunky. Barbara Stanwyk has the greatest line, but I don't know what hte movie is. Typical ganger situation, she's lounging in the boss' office. Visitor to the office gives her the once-over, then says to the boss, "Is that your girl?" Barbara gives him a sneer: "I'm my mother's girl."

That's sassy. Spunky is kicking the visitor in the nuts.

Never mind the kick; I'd expect Stanwyck to just shoot the mouthy bastard.

And then straddle his bleeding body, and purr at him "Oh, honey! Was it as good for you as it was for me?"

Mmmmm. Stanwyck.

"Beauty" is a pretty limp heroine IMHO, McKinley's version or no. Even if she is a bibliophile.

Speaking of spunky heroines, a friend of mine told me that the original Nancy Drew books had Nancy as a much more independent heroine, and that they were watered down when republished in the '60s. Has anyone here heard anything about this? My friend has forwarded some Snopes-disproved stuff in the past, so I don't know how much to credit this theory. I suppose I could ebay some Nancy Drew first editions and compare them to later reprints, but I'm not quite at that level of curious.

The 30s and 40s were actually a very good time for spunky/sassy heroines. I think the post-WWII "the men are home from the wars, time for the women to get back to womanly things" trend was what changed things. IE, the 50s.

There are definite differences between the various reprints of Nancy Drew (I remember once finding a few different versions of the same title and comparing them -- it wasn't just small changes, but entire scenes were changed), but I really can't remember enough to say whether the original was more independent or not.