Dear Piers –
We were really close once — I read all your books. Literally. Race Against Time (with its problematic racial politics), Ghost Ship (….with its problematic racial politics), Tatham Mound (with its problematic racial politics…), the Geodyssey series (with its problematic… gender? politics (yay?)), the Xanth series (with its problematic gender politics), Virtual Mode (with its problematic gender AND racial politics, wtf?). But, we grew apart. I discovered feminist and anti-racist SF/F and my heart grew three sizes that day. I left behind you, your weird Firefly book, the Roundear series, and any hope of a satisfactory resolution of the Proton/Phaze conundrum. Sure, I checked in every now and then, but we’d both moved on. You were busy figuring out the color of Mela the Mermaid’s panties, and I was busy with Harry Potter fanfic. I won’t apologize for moving on, so long as you don’t blame me for growing up.
But! This past week, I decided to finally close out on the Incarnations of Immortality series. I knew Orb was now the Incarnation of Nature from Being a Green Mother, Luna was now a high-powered senator, and that Orlene was now God. Yay! An Incarnation of Good who understood that one could be a suicide, a bastard, and a rapist (all men are potential rapists, unless it’s a feminist saying so, amirite?) and still be a good person. Throughout this course of events, Nox had been an unseen actor — the Incarnation of Night no one knew a lot about, mysterious and sexily dark. I figured, hey, why not read a book about Nox?
For old times’ sake?
But, like Disney says, you can’t step in the same river twice. Now that I’m older, and thirteen doesn’t seem fabulously mature, I really have to question your choice to begin the novel with a thirteen year old Karena and a magic pussy fixing dildo, that both makes one’s vag capable of accommodating any cock and also “fixes” vulva vestibulitis, thus making ANY pussy a magically awesome pussy. I also really have to question your repeated use of a sexually precocious, aggressive pubescent girl seducing an older male caretaker figure, a motif seen in nearly all of your series, and your insistence that Karena, one of the most talented witches in the history of EVER, would need to rely on her body in order to become the Incarnation of Night. Plus, your frequent declaration that men are simply different from women and have no self-control when presented with cute girls showing flesh is simple male apologism. I’m over it, Piers. I was hoping you were too. In a series including wonderful female characters like Orlene (who almost makes me forgive you for describing Vita as having “a touch of the Negroid” about her) and Jolie (who, honestly, deserves her own book, instead of the perpetual sidekick role to which she has been consigned), Under a Velvet Cloak is a boring, painful travesty. I’ve had paper dolls with more interesting sex lives, and My Little Ponies with more complicated adventures.
With lingering affection,
Maria
PS: WTF is up with your constant use of state-of-being verbs and the complete lack of action in this conclusion to one of your most epic series? For a book centering on a girl’s quest to rescue her beloved, Karena spent a lot of time on her back. Seriously — the climax of the novel included a “battle of the sexes” involving fucking, pink and blue clouds, and a really bizarre version of capture the flag. Wasn’t that part of the Game in the Adept series, anyways? Only more interesting, because Sheen wasn’t playing with her own body?
PPS: I’m also not sure why the Incarnation of Night’s fellow Incarnation was the Incarnation of Darkness, and that he was presented as the ultimate male principle to her ultimate female principle…. none of the other Incarnations WORK that way. They’re the boss of their arena (War, Time, Fate, etc) and don’t NEED opposites to work.
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IKR?! Like, wasn’t the point of Lolita that kids sometimes do things for attention and/or to try and figure out their place in a world where they are no longer children, but that DOESN’T make them sexual aggressors? And if you think that, you are actively a HORRIBLE PERSON who will/can ruin those children’s LIVES?? AND YOU DESERVE TO DIE???
OR MAYBE I READ A DIFFERENT BOOK.
AND WATCHED A DIFFERENT MOVIE.
Gena(Quote) (Reply)
…wut.
Gena(Quote) (Reply)
And live on a different planet, where grown men choosing to kidnap, rape, orphan, and psychologically abuse little girls until they are forced to run away to another abuser in order to escape is a sign of TRUE LOVE.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
I picked up Incarnations of Immortality at a rummage sale and found myself with time to read them all over the course of a couple of weeks. This had advantages as all of the plots were fresh in mind going from one book to another.
I must say that I can’t agree more with your comment: “I also really have to question your repeated use of a sexually precocious, aggressive pubescent girl seducing an older male caretaker figure, a motif seen in nearly all of your series”. I had reached the same conclusion. The sex theme, especially with under-aged (but astoundingly-mature) girls begins modestly in the first book and arcs upward through the rest of the series climaxing (I know, I know) in this last book. Piers really wants buy-in to the idea that men just can’t help themselves and any sexual mis-step, be it rape, insest, or (his apparent favorite) sex with an under-age girl is the woman’s/girl’s fault – an idea that only finds wide acceptance in the more socially primitive cultures. I absently wonder how he explained his point of view to the women in his family (with condolences to him and his family for their recent loss). Perhaps the explanation is that “it sells books”; much like the answer from rap/hip-hop artists when questioned on their sometimes profane and hate-filled lyrics: “It sells records” Maybe this is a formula devised to shore up book sales. I genuinely hope that’s all there is to it. I really don’t want to believe the repugnant alternative that he really sees the genders this way.
Under Control(Quote) (Reply)
Uh, by socially primitive cultures, I hope you’re including the United States. While I was growing up in a world where juries were constantly expressing that even though rape had taken place, the bitch asked for it, so the man was innocent since men can’t control themselves and women are evil temptresses, I started sort of casually interviewing people about their, ahem, thoughts on this and have collected a shitload of anecdotal evidence over the years. Turns out the idea that men have control over their own bodies is embarrassingly new in human experience.
So in answer to your question, the women in his family probably agreed that women like the ones he was writing are evil temptresses and men can’t help themselves, as so many women do believe. Are you familiar with the fact that district attorneys try to avoid women on juries in rape trials, while defense attorneys seek them? That’s because women are so quick to judge female victims: it’s an unconscious urge to distinguish themselves from the victim, so they can go on merrily believing “I’ll never be raped because I’m a non-sexual good girl who doesn’t wear short skirts/go drinking alone at bars/flirt with strangers/whatever.”
I’m afraid this belief is far more widespread than it sounds like you’re suggesting. It’s painfully illogical, but then we haven’t exactly embraced critical thinking as a species.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
I assumed the poster was referring to Anthony’s own work with the socially primitive cultures thing. One of the things you see over and over again in Anthony’s work is that “primitive” cultures (like the Native Americans in Tatham Mound or the early versions of humans in his Isle of Man series) have a “healthier” relationship to sex (IE men are more comfortable and receive social approval for having sex with kids). Like Jon Norman in the Gor series, Anthony blames the “modern world” for making “healthy” sex/sexuality a taboo.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
Ah, okay. But the rest of what I said applies – there’s no shortage of women supporting Roman Polanski, calling his crimes “not rape-rape” or implying his victim was a “whore” or, you know, whatever rationalization supports the idea that women are responsible for everything men do with their penises.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
No doubt! That’s part of why I find authors like Jon Norman and Piers Anthony so strange when they criticize feminism or modern society’s beliefs about sex. It’s like, huh, so what you’re saying is, feminism has now so WARPED the world that teenage girls can act their age and not get accused of tempting men, sex is always consensual, and rape survivors are always believed, and it is now hard out there for the poor men? Have you LOOKED at a newspaper lately???
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
Think I should try the last two books of the Mode series? One of the main characters is a rape survivor and I’m trainwreck curious about how he concludes that character arc.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
Wonderful, wonderful article.
I, too, read all of Piers Anthony’s books in junior high. In my dim recollection, lo, those many, many years ago, I didn’t pick out the racial and gender politics problems. Like I said, it’s been a while.
Thanks for this review. It’s beautifully written and so astute. I might have been tempted to pick up those books again to re-read them for fun, but now I’ll stick to Harry Potter fanfic. (And, you know, other stuff.)
Ew. I almost stuck those Incarnations books (my favorites) back in my head. Ew. I’m a little creeped out to think that their influence might still be lurking down in the cobwebby basement of my brain.
TK
TK Kenyon(Quote) (Reply)
Replying to “Think I should try the last two books of the Mode series? One of the main characters is a rape survivor and I’m trainwreck curious about how he concludes that character arc.”
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. That was pretty awful, and that was even back when I didn’t have a clue about rape apologia and feminism.
Josie(Quote) (Reply)
No no! Don’t do it! I did it, and it made me simultaneously furious and in need of a bleach bath. Ewwwww.
Jess(Quote) (Reply)
Even the COVER looks squicky/sleezy. Generic Sexy Magic GURL is so bush-legue.
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
*bush LEAGUE, with an A. Whoops
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Former Piers fan here as well. Sometimes I wonder just how screwed up my world view might have developed into, as I first found his books during elementary school. I’d skip over the occasional sex scene, wrinkling my nose and hoping the teacher didn’t stop to see exactly WHAT I was reading in math class as opposed to the text book, and internalised the message from Firefly that buttsex would lead to immediate death. It kept me afloat through middle school where I was picked on, and high school where I began to inch away. Really, there was NO WAY I was gonna read The Color of Her Panties during lunch period in a high school.
Kalica(Quote) (Reply)
Coming back to this article to say I thought of something that I really hope isn’t as horrifying as I think it is.
Anyone else remember Letters to Jenny, a book that was made up of letters between him and a little girl in the hospital? I never got around to reading it when it came out, and now I’m looking at the premise of that book, looking at all the talk of girls seducing much older men, and…
OH DEAR GOD NO.
Kalica(Quote) (Reply)
I am certain that by this point, *everyone* has had My Little Pony characters with more interesting adventures…
Tobird(Quote) (Reply)
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