danlo wrote:hmmm...now you got me going Joy!
I agree with you on Unworthy--but if you don't watch out I'm going to start a "danlo wants Joy to explain in detail why she fells certian SRD short stories are soapboxes" thread. So start explaining and naming Lady!
Danlo, you're asking me to write in a post, what calls for a monograph. You're looking at a day-and-a-half job. I don't have a free day and a half on my calendar for weeks yet.
Not that I wouldn't drop just about anything for SRD, but really...
Ok, take another look at these, mostly in publication order:
Daughter of Regals and Reave the Just both urge women to empower themselves.
Including Gilden-Fire in the collection was a thumb in the eye of a publisher who was gouging his readers with unrealistic prices.
Mythological Beast is a defence of people who are different -- persecuted for being better.
Lady In White is mostly a story, not a message. It does show the futility of men who go chasing after appearances, but I'm not sure that was as important to him as the story.
Animal Lover speaks to animal rights.
Unworthy Of the Angel we talked about.
The Conqueror Worm comments on the stupidity of a family fight that got out of hand.
Ser Visal's Tale draws a parallel between the Inquisition and other evil forms religion sometimes takes.
I'm mentioning Penance out of order here because of the similar message: holy persecution.
The Djinn Who Watches. He says he wrote it for his career, and what I mostly remember is that it was funny. His hero did make an issue of loving a woman for her wisdom rather than her looks.
The Killing Stroke explores the implications of various martial arts philosophies. His culmination is "There is no killing stroke," a rather esoteric concept that I thought he clarified well.
The Kings Of Tarshish. I've read the suggestion that this is a description of the creative mind at work. That's the best interpretation I've heard. It's also well disguised.
The Woman Who Loved Pigs. I don't see a message in this. I see a story in which he successfully miniaturized the epic sweep of his multibook novels. My top favorite SRD short story.
What Makes Us Human is a story his Intro attributes to ego. Not particularly memorable for me, maybe because I didn't understand the physics -- or maybe because he didn't understand the physics.
It does praise unpredictability.
By Any Other Name. The hero's mantra is: "It is the place of every honest citizen to name injustice whenever it occurs, and to reject it honestly."
Satisfied, Danlo?
Does that give you enough discussion points?
Let us not forget, the storyteller makes his points, the points don't make the story. I don't think I've spoilered a single plot.