Yeah, sometimes it's hard to get past some of the blunter stuff in his stories.
I think part of the inconsistency was deliberate--in all the prologues you get a different version of the story, and some of it is embellished or rearranged. Other times he just dismisses it, though--Polgara the Sorceress often describes the exact same scenes from Belgarath the Sorcerer in very different ways, and she just says, "He got it wrong!" It actually amuses me.
The sexism and his moralizing are the hardest things to come to grips with, but I can do it. I do get bothered by how there is a firm divide of attitudes toward things depending on sex--all women disapprove of alcohol, and all men love it, that sort of thing. But Pol is awesome anyway, even if her ultimate reward for 3000 years of badassery is motherhood. *sigh*
The Ulgos weren't the only ones with a different language! The ... uh ... let's see ... um ... oh, look, the Marags have a different language, too! Ha! So there. ;) (I liked how he did it in the Tamuli saga: "Hold still. I'm going to magic-teach you another language." "What?" POOF! "Hey! I can understand Tamul/Trollish/Atan now!")
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-01-18 09:17 pm (UTC)I think part of the inconsistency was deliberate--in all the prologues you get a different version of the story, and some of it is embellished or rearranged. Other times he just dismisses it, though--Polgara the Sorceress often describes the exact same scenes from Belgarath the Sorcerer in very different ways, and she just says, "He got it wrong!" It actually amuses me.
The sexism and his moralizing are the hardest things to come to grips with, but I can do it. I do get bothered by how there is a firm divide of attitudes toward things depending on sex--all women disapprove of alcohol, and all men love it, that sort of thing. But Pol is awesome anyway, even if her ultimate reward for 3000 years of badassery is motherhood. *sigh*
The Ulgos weren't the only ones with a different language! The ... uh ... let's see ... um ... oh, look, the Marags have a different language, too! Ha! So there. ;) (I liked how he did it in the Tamuli saga: "Hold still. I'm going to magic-teach you another language." "What?" POOF! "Hey! I can understand Tamul/Trollish/Atan now!")