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language: English
country: USA
year: 1978
form: novel
genre(s): science fiction
series: Dragonriders of Pern, #5
dates read: 2.8.13-3.8.13, 20.6.18-22.6.18, 5.8.24-13.8.24
The White Dragon concludes the “original trilogy” of Pern books (Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and TWD) with the coming-of-age story of Jaxom, who is born in the first section of Dragonflight and at the end of The White Dragon officially takes charge of Ruatha Hold.
in some ways it’s good — Jaxom is tied with Lessa for the second-best/second-most characterization in the series (following Menolly). Ruth, his unusual small, white dragon, is in most ways delightful (though there’s one scene that ruins that delight for me). the plot is oddly pensive but more evenly paced than Dragonquest (where almost all of the major plot elements happen in the last 100 pages).
Jaxom is also, however, incredibly frustrating, because he has a weird inferiority complex, and we’re apparently meant to sympathize him because…what, some of his feudal subjects who, when he comes into his full political status, he will have the power to exile without trial tease him about his dragon being small and unusual? you will forgive me if I don’t have a ton of sympathy for feudal aristocrats! I have some more sympathy for Jaxom’s unusual upbringing — he’s still, after all, a child, and to grow up with Lytol as your guardian must have been somewhat challenging.
this doesn’t, however, excuse the way he takes sexual advantage of a young woman at the Hold, Corana. on the one hand, in fairness to McCaffrey, Corana does seem to be genuinely attracted to Jaxom; on the other hand, even Jaxom’s perspective — and Jaxom has no real concept of “consent” as such, or at least not a robust one — recognizes that his relationship with Corana is grounded first and foremost in the fact that he is her Lord Holder, with absolute authority over her, her family, and the land they work. it’s no wonder that when he meets Sharra — the sister of a prosperous and high-ranking Holder from another Hold, and so a more politically and socially suitable match — he immediately forgets about Corana, except once later in the book when he’s horny and thinks about going back to visit her.
mostly, however, I’m frustrated because of the haunting mating flight scene in the middle of the book where Jaxom is desperate for Ruth to (want to) participate and also panicked by this sudden confrontation of his desire to fully be a dragonrider with the homophobia he has internalized growing up in a Hold. Jaxom so clearly wants the mating flight, wants to participate in weyr masculinity — and so, on some level, wants to have sex with another man — but cannot allow himself (and is not allowed by the narrative, since Ruth has no interest in dragon mating) to pursue this desire. when he and Ruth talk about it later Jaxom has a multi-page breakdown about the fact that Ruth didn’t want to mate. hello??? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
anyway, this is also the scene that ruins Ruth for me: Jaxom is under the influence of the mating dragons, who project their horniness telepathically onto anyone and everyone in their vicinity. this psychically-induced horniness is incredibly strong, and Jaxom is barely resisting the urge to act on it in some way. he explicitly instructs Ruth to take him to the ice-cold mountain lake where they like to relax, so that he can literally cool down; instead, Ruth essentially dumps him on Corana, at which point Jaxom is unable to control himself and, through Jaxom, Corana is also affected by the telepathic horniness, so they have wild, dragon-horny sex.
now, I don’t think Ruth has any more conception of consent than Jaxom does (in fact, I think he has decidedly less); he’s more intelligent, perhaps, than other dragons, but still in the ambiguous not-quite-animal position that all dragons are in. nonetheless, this scene very much does boil down to Ruth overriding Jaxom’s explicitly expressed non-consent and so violating both Jaxom and Corana. I hate it! no wonder Jaxom finds himself wanting to break things off with Corana afterwards (though of course he rationalizes this in classic misogynist fashion rather than identifying the incident as a violation, because dragons love their riders unconditionally and can do no wrong, and anyway Ruth is the specialest little boy dragon that ever lived).
there are good things about the book, though — I have, in fact, a lot more to say about it (I haven’t even touched on the archaeology!). but it will have to wait for another time…
moods: adventurous, horny