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
Vicky Ayech Ayech
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Thank you, I just finished the Flowers of Vashnoi and loved it, as all the Vorkosigan books. Please carry on writing them :). Some authors spoil things when they go on and on but yours continue to delight. I loved Gentleman Jolie too. Not really a question, more a hope?
Georgy Iliev
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hi Lois, as I recently saw a youtube series about "The Truth about Space War" - the channel's name is Because Science - I came to realize I think I've read that somewhere in the books. In Mirror Dance I remember Mark recalling "The weapons were supposed to cook everyone neatly, like eggs in their shells". Considering he's from a universe in the future how scientifically aimed was that statement?
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