From chapter 3 of The Will to Change (join the book club!) while she's discussing how mass media reinforces partriarchal norms onto boys and young men

  • Z_Poster365 [none/use name]
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    20 days ago

    I’d say the Bartimaues Trilogy is a decent replacement to the latter Harry Potter books (3-7) if I recall correctly. The first 2 Harry Potter books are for a younger audience and are more childlike.

    Nathaniel, one of the 3 POV characters of the series, is a chauvinistic asshole, but it is shown as such and the book frames him negatively as he develops these traits and goes down the dark path of becoming a government sorcerer fascist. He then redeems himself by abandoning all that baggage and conditioning and aiding the revolutionaries.

    The other 2 POV characters are a revolutionary woman who is basically a straight up anti-mage communard, and a witty and sarcastic demonic entity that is actually just a tortured spirit that wants release. I seem to recall themes of equality and fighting oppression and unlearning prejudices and it was generally pretty judgmental of the oppressive world that sorcerers made and their wars, their entire system of magic is made out of summoning and enslaving spirits and they are tyrannical against non-magical ubermensch, and this entire thing is overthrown.

    • abc [he/him, comrade/them]
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      20 days ago

      I’d say the Bartimaues Trilogy is a decent replacement to the latter Harry Potter books (3-7) if I recall correctly.

      Hell yeah I never thought I'd see the Bartimaeus books being mentioned on Hexbear. Loved those books growing up and you're right, they were immediately one of the series I bounced to in between like Half-Blood Prince & Deathly Hallows. That trilogy, basically Garth Nix's entire bibliography at the time (what I would give to read Sabriel and Abhorsen again for the first time...s/o to Keys to the Kingdom too I remember those being decent), stuff like Kate Constable's Singer of All Songs series, and Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness & Circle of Magic series; all 58 of the Animorph books - shoutout The Solution and the other 2-3 David books; I would've trapped him as a rat too - based Rachel I will always remember the part where she went "yeah I'll stay with him to make sure he gets stuck in the rat morph, his tears won't affect me" and then she fuckin used that bald eagle morph to fly his rat ass to the desert and leave him there.

      GOOD YOUNG ADULT FANTASY BOOKS - MY CHILDHOOD!!!! Shoutout to Firegold by Dia Calhoun too because that fucking book and the golden apple that plays a role in it have been stuck in my head since like 2005 because I was sitting in the library like 70 pages into it and going "oh...wait...this is a horse novel? i thought it was gonna be about wizards or something" trauma

    • HomoSexualTransStalinist [she/her]
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      19 days ago

      I read those books so many times as a kid, absolutely loved them.

      there's also a cool fourth book set way thousands of years before the events of the trilogy when Bartimaeus was serving Solomon the Great btw