Compare the amount of interactions between men, and the substantiveness of the male roles which interact.
And it would be an easy fix. Making Oscar female and Mhari bi, or making Basil or George female, etc.
]]>Removal of Angleton had to happen since Bob is leveling up, and needs to do without his mentor/backstop/trump in both magic and office politics.
And I don't get the feeling that Mo/Bob is permanently broke, or at least I hope not.
Having said all that, I seriously hope the next book will be the first in the series with a proper Bechdel test pass.
This is something I know Charlie cares about:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2008/07/bechdels_law.html
Obviously Bob's scenes can't be passes unless he overhears women talking about stuff, but we've had female viewpoints intercut for a while now, and still no substantive pass.
This book was actually a technical pass (Mhari tells the cleaner Sara to sit down and go to sleep so they can feed on her), but I would hope our host can do better than that.
The Mhari/Mo standoff is static and silent, I think, and not-Marianne only talks to men.
And I was very sad that we had 1/3 of a book of BASHFUL INCENDIARY without her having any meaningful conversations with other women. I can't remember if it was a technical pass or not - does the handmaiden / secretary who directs her to the toilet have a name? - but the pregnant woman who can only blink is the next closest candidate and doesn't either say anything or have a name.
I know Modesty the original had female friendships and female adversaries, and various other interactions with women on her adventures, so the gap here was particularly striking.
So anyway, I really hope the Mo book is stuffed full of interesting women for her to interact with.
Charlie, is this still something you are conscious of when you write, and if so, what gives?
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