Eragon is the only feminist novel of the 00's

happy women's history month

Hi y’all,

When I don’t have time to read,¹ I listen to audiobooks. I listen during my commute, while I do chores, while I run errands, blah blah. I pretty much only listen to children’s fantasy books, because they’re easy to follow, and because I like them. While y’all are on the train listening to Sufjan Stevens and Pitbull and Danny L Harle, I’ve got an earful of talking dragons and elvish ballads. We are not the same.

So right now, I’m listening to The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini—the four book fantasy series that begins with Eragon, published twenty years ago in 2002, when Paolini was only nineteen (he wrote the book at 15). I’m currently on book three, Brisingr.

I was a huge fan when the books came out. I even went to the midnight release of Brisingr with Brooke at the Metairie Barnes & Noble in 2008. We were in ninth grade—weird enough to dress up as dragons² in honor of the event, but too cool for parents to attend alongside us³—and on the cusp of being “too old” for the series. I never read the final fourth book, Inheritance (2011). By then, I thought anything that wasn’t on the Time’s “100 Books to Read Before You Die” would be mortifying to have on my shelf.

Anyway, the books sorta faded from my memory thereafter. Maybe from yours too. The 2006 movie Eragon was a flop—a second movie was never made, Ed Speelers’ career never took off, and all that most people remember from it is the absolute banger that Avril Lavigne recorded for the musical theme “Keep Holding On.”

But I picked up Eragon again after finding a few truly stupid, reductive reviews of the first book.⁴ Y’all know me, I’m nothing if not a contrarian.

Eragon is a high fantasy novel about a boy and a dragon who save the world from an evil tyrant. Listening to it 20 years later, it’s mostly as I remember it: exciting, magical, quick, full of detailed world building. It’s a kids’ book that you wouldn’t know was written by a kid. It’s really good.

But what I find genuinely surprising: most of the significant minor characters are women. The leader of the elves, the only smith who can forge decent swords, an ageless weirdo witch, and a malicious prescient child. Alagaesia is a world populated by women who are objectively pretty fucking cool. And better yet, none of these characters are stock, implausible #girlbosses who could beat men x3 their size in battle—the type of lady who seems obligatory to include in many fantasy books nowadays. Some are warriors, sure, but most have their own skills—and elaborate motives, backstories, and thoughtfully drawn personalities.

And of course, several of the main characters are women too—Saphira the dragon, Arya the elf princess and ambassador, Nasuada the leader of the resistance. They’re all beautiful—but tbh, less beautiful than Eragon himself, who becomes really really hot in the second book, as readers are reminded repeatedly. Equality.

And this was all written in the early aughts, before people were really gassed up about the politics of representation. And it was all written by a guy in his late teens and early twenties. The way Paolini writes women (and all his characters, more broadly) would be impressive enough for any writer—male or female, young or old—but I find it kinda moving that at a fairly young age, he envisioned a world that women could control.

Even the romance of the book gets a refreshing, surprisingly thoughtful slant. Eragon’s love interest Arya rejects his advances through most of the second book. And although we are bummed for him (I know, that as a wee tween at my all girl’s school with pent-up hormones, I PINED for them to kiss), he’s like, “Damn, I need to learn boundaries, because chasing this girl who is wildly uninterested in me is (1) inappropriate, (2) unkind bc it makes her uncomfortable, and (3) going to ruin our friendship which I cherish.” Good takeaways for a young audience!⁵

Doing a deep analysis here because that would be besides the point. I just want to share my appreciation for a kids book with a lot of powerful women that isn’t self-consciously about girl power. Of course I want to read fantasy books that replicate and interrogate contemporary gender norms, or fantasy that purposefully turns those norms on their head. But I also really appreciate a fantasy book that imagines a world in which women are written purely as compelling characters rather than political symbols.

Idk, I also just love that Paolini sat down and was like, “Huh, what would it be like to be the only female dragon left in the world, and to know that the continuation of your race falls squarely on your shoulders?” And he settled on, “She’d be wise, proud, kinda vain, empathetic, but also lonely and bloodthirsty.” Yes. Agreed. I’d be lonely and bloodthirsty too.

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Well, I had work that I was supposed to finish tonight, but I guess this was a good use of my time too. Shoutout to Christopher Paolini, and shoutout to Eragon. If any series deserves a reboot on Netflix, it’s this one.

Don’t unsubscribe, I swear I’ll be back to my literary fiction soon.

xoxo
Book Notes

1. Okay, sure, I probably could manage my time better and read more. But in between all the working and the partying, some times a girl just wants to play Cities Skylines, not challenge her mind and write this blog.

2. I KNOW we took photos of this, but I can’t find them anywhere. It mostly involved neon monochrome green, LOTS of Urban Decay blue eyeliner, and capes. Maybe twenty other kids were there. We were the only ones dressed up.

3. I grew up in the suburbs, so this meant my parents had to drop us off at 11pm and drive back an hour later to pick us up at like 12:10pm. Literally, I have the kindest, most wonderful, most patient parents ever. I would never do that for a child. (Mostly bc are you fucking serious? Midnight book releases are so so fun and we should have WAY more of them. Do people still do midnight book releases? Bring them back!!!! If there was a midnight release of Franzen’s Crossroads I would’ve been there in a heartbeat, and maybe I would’ve even read the book by now.)

Other authors that should have midnight releases: Tana French, Caroline Kepnes, Murakami, Ben Lerner, Zadie Smith, Joan Didion (RIP). Can you imagine the crowds at those? The people watching alone would be terrific. The Fuccboi launch party was the closest I’ve come to the elusive joy of a midnight release. Please write in and tell me who else should be on this list.

4. Reading 2002 reviews of Eragon is funny in 2022. In 2002, a lot of adult critics found it really, really important for you to know that this fifteen-year-old author took his cues for his fantasy novel from The Lord of the Rings. Even in positive reviews, real adult authors had to waste their breath telling their readers that this work is derivative of the most important, influential, genre-defining fantasy novel of all time. See here. And here. And here.

These reviews were probably reacting to the heaps of praise Paolini was getting from the non-literary press. I’m sure Paolini got a glowing NYT profile. You know me: I’m down for a negative review of a beloved book. And maybe being unduly harsh on a novel is “taking it seriously.” But I have a feeling these adult reviewers were mostly just jealous of Paolini’s success. And I have to also laugh reading some of the reviews and knowing the direction that YA fantasy headed shortly thereafter.

5. That all said, I have a feeling they will kiss by the end of the series. Just a hunch.