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language: English
country: USA
year: 1934-1939
form: short fiction
genre(s): fantasy, science fiction
dates read: 31.3.22-21.6.22
I finally — three months later — finished C.L. Moore’s Jirel of Joiry, a collection of linked short stories published between 1934 and 1939. the stories follow the title character, a warlord-noble in ca. turn of the 16th century France (we get the date 1500 in “Quest of the Starstone”, although tbh that feels about two centuries too late) as she travels into cosmic horror otherworlds, haunted citadels, and miscellaneous pocket dimensions to defeat her enemies.
overall I liked this quite a bit. Jirel is an interesting counterpoint to the stereotypes of both sword and sorcery (which someday I will read) and cosmic horror (of which I have read a great deal), by virtue of being a woman — atypical for both genres — and by virtue of being extremely committed to killing things with swords — decidedly outside the norm for cosmic horror. the result is something that on the one hand is quite conventional and on the other hand turns sword and sorcery’s interest in the body in a very different direction by virtue of Jirel being a woman who is, primarily, fighting men (or male-presenting inhuman entities). the stories are, as such, by necessity, sensitive to the power dynamics of gender, even as Jirel subverts some of them — in particular, the threat or actuality of sexual violence (although usually somewhat oblique beyond unwanted kissing and/or (literal) manhandling) is central to several of them.
imo Moore did a better job than Lovecraft usually did in conveying the inhumanity and incomprehensibility of the otherworldly entities Jirel faces — I was also particularly interested in the non-horrifying (but still inhuman and incomprehensible) entity that appears in “Quest of the Starstone” (which I’m also wondering if perhaps there are echoes of in Delany’s Fall of the Towers and, in a very different way, in McKillip’s Fool’s Run). I liked the style generally — this was more poetic/high register than Doomsday Morning but still with a kind of directness, thanks to Jirel’s pretty straightforward sword-and-sorcery approach to the world, and I think it worked.
all of this said, I also found the collection extremely slow going, notwithstanding the fact that I read half of it today. I had to force myself through the first few stories even though I was enjoying them. not sure what to make of that. I also think the fact that “Quest of the Starstone” is from Northwest Smith’s point of view and not either Jirel’s or — as seemed like it was going to be the case — split throughout was a bad choice, especially given the ending. surely that’s a significant moment for Jirel, one it would be worth showing through her eyes.
moods: adventurous, emotional