I came across the Bechdel Test in the context of a film review which decried the number of films which contained only a small number of token roles for women.
The test has three simple rules as follows:
1. The film has to have at least two women in it,
2. The women have to talk to each other.
3. They have to talk about something other than a man.
On this basis many mainstream/blockbuster films fail the test and this failure gives journalists the opportunity to write articles lamenting the number of decent roles for women etc.
What I had not realised until I looked it up was that the Bechdel Test has also been applied to literature. I've not carried out any detailed and wide-ranging analysis of this, but it did occur to me as I was reading Wyrd Sisters that the book passes with flying colours.
I'd struggled a little with Sourcery: it was great fun and really funny, but I've never been a massive fan of classic fantasy novels. However from its first page I could see that Wyrd Sisters was something different. I'd studied Macbeth (aka The Scottish Play if you are superstitious), but even without this extra level of understanding the plot simply whizzed along.
For me this is the novel that re-confirmed my plan to explore Discworld in sequence: I've started so I'll definitely finish..
The test has three simple rules as follows:
1. The film has to have at least two women in it,
2. The women have to talk to each other.
3. They have to talk about something other than a man.
On this basis many mainstream/blockbuster films fail the test and this failure gives journalists the opportunity to write articles lamenting the number of decent roles for women etc.
What I had not realised until I looked it up was that the Bechdel Test has also been applied to literature. I've not carried out any detailed and wide-ranging analysis of this, but it did occur to me as I was reading Wyrd Sisters that the book passes with flying colours.
I'd struggled a little with Sourcery: it was great fun and really funny, but I've never been a massive fan of classic fantasy novels. However from its first page I could see that Wyrd Sisters was something different. I'd studied Macbeth (aka The Scottish Play if you are superstitious), but even without this extra level of understanding the plot simply whizzed along.
For me this is the novel that re-confirmed my plan to explore Discworld in sequence: I've started so I'll definitely finish..
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