Thinking about matriarchy and misery
Jul. 24th, 2011 04:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
loloteheIt was suggested to me that I watch The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virgina to watch a proper matriarchy. My friend Dan thinks that the Gaines family is missing this aspect.
I disagree.
I know that I have referred to Evie as "the matriarch" before, but that's more title than anything else. She was never in charge of the family or the business (left that to Ulan) and had no head for running things.
One of the major issues with the Gaines family is that they do not work well together at all. They are missing many of the family dynamics that we're used to seeing because of how they were formed. As they never had those experiences, they behave differently.
I may need a character to notice and remark on that.
This is also why the scattering by the Shipping Authority was never really objected to. Everyone wanted to be their own person.
Now, if they ever did get back together, they would be an awesome force to be reckoned with...if they didn't kill each other. Even in the first book, they didn't get along that well (helping to illustrate the conflicts within Evie), and became self-destructive. They can work together if there is a purpose to what they're doing; but at this point, it would be hard to get them to agree on a purpose.
What I really did get out of TWaWWoWV was that revolution on Ursus Major-47 is going to be a lot harder to pull off. If the people have no hope at all, they would never even think about revolution because they would never bother to make things better.
What I need to do right now is read some histories of coal-mining towns and worker uprisings there. I have been making things too simple.
I disagree.
I know that I have referred to Evie as "the matriarch" before, but that's more title than anything else. She was never in charge of the family or the business (left that to Ulan) and had no head for running things.
One of the major issues with the Gaines family is that they do not work well together at all. They are missing many of the family dynamics that we're used to seeing because of how they were formed. As they never had those experiences, they behave differently.
I may need a character to notice and remark on that.
This is also why the scattering by the Shipping Authority was never really objected to. Everyone wanted to be their own person.
Now, if they ever did get back together, they would be an awesome force to be reckoned with...if they didn't kill each other. Even in the first book, they didn't get along that well (helping to illustrate the conflicts within Evie), and became self-destructive. They can work together if there is a purpose to what they're doing; but at this point, it would be hard to get them to agree on a purpose.
What I really did get out of TWaWWoWV was that revolution on Ursus Major-47 is going to be a lot harder to pull off. If the people have no hope at all, they would never even think about revolution because they would never bother to make things better.
What I need to do right now is read some histories of coal-mining towns and worker uprisings there. I have been making things too simple.
