wildbill@ucbvax.ARPA (William J. Laubenheimer) (07/28/85)
I would also consider \\The Ophiuchi Hotline// another important exception
to your proposed rule that Varley tends to use primarily male ``villians''.
Regarding ``villain'' as meaning ``antagonist(s) plus cohorts'' (which is
not really the same thing), I would only designate Boss Tweed and the
Vaffas as villians. Vaffas come in either sex, about 50-50. Tweed, although
masquerading as male, is actually somatically (and I believe genetically
as well) female and sexually neuter.
But is Tweed (or any member of his gang) really a ``villain''? Tweed is
acting quite reasonably by his own lights; it just so happens that the
things he is trying to accomplish, and the means necessary to accomplish
these ends, are drastically contrary to the laws and prejudices of the
Eight Worlds. Tweed also does a number of things (although admittedly for
his own purposes) which are quite beneficial to Lilo. So is he really
a villain? I think not.
This brings up another point regarding Varley's characters and situations,
one which I feel is quite important. In my opinion, Varley has managed
quite successfully to break away from the hoary old space-opera tradition
of the protagonist as hero in brightly shining armor vs. antagonist as
villain blacker than deepest space. In many of his stories, including
most of his best, the pattern is more along the lines of people being brought
together by some circumstance. They meet, events occur, and lives are
changed, sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse. It's an entirely
different model, which is one reason why he is one of my current favorites.
Bill Laubenheimer
----------------------------------------UC-Berkeley Computer Science
...Killjoy went that-a-way---> ucbvax!wildbill