Life mimicking Art

/ 1221bookworm

Yesterday was #nationalpiday, so I hope you had the chance to enjoy a slice or two!

Now, this got me to wondering, if I was in any fictional world of my choosing, would I find anybody baking pies to celebrate?

Unfortunately, if there were, they probably wouldn’t be from the YA Fantasy genre.

Ok, maybe I should take that back. Not all women in fantasy have an aversion to cooking. My question is why so many do? Why do strong female leads have to renounce any and all aptitude for cooking? Is this a case of life mimicking art or art mimicking life?

While I might not be able to answer the question, I can present strong female characters who aren’t ashamed to cook:

Scarlet Benoit, The Lunar Chronicles: We meet Scarlet Benoit in chapter one of Scarlet. In chapter two, we get an entire scene of Scarlet cooking breakfast for herself. A real breakfast. Coffee. Eggs. Toast. She’s having an internal conversation throughout the scene, but we get a mini cooking lesson in the process. She ends the series by baking a lemon cake for her friends.

Alissa Meson (Hirdune), the Truth Series: cooking and food is an underlying theme throughout most of this series. And tea. And Alissa makes the best candied apples. Which take three days to make and which also make excellent bribes.

Izumi Curtis, FullMetal Alchemist: Master Alchemist. Skilled Martial Artist. Business owner. Occasional Alchemy teacher. How does she introduce herself?

Caption: “I’M A HOUSEWIFE!!!!!”

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s character recap. Now it’s time to eat more pie!

4 thoughts on “Life mimicking Art”

  2. In Heartless by Marissa Meyer, the MC’s main ambition is to bake. So that’s one.
    Also another favorite is Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest chronicles. Cooking is not something princesses are supposed to do, but Cimorene does a lot of things princesses are not supposed to do! (Have you read these, I highly recommend them. They are older YA, so less edgy, and more what YA used to be. Sherwood Smithish.)

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    • I think I’m beginning to see a pattern from Marissa Meyer. She does a great job of combing characteristics to make characters everyone can relate too.
      Patricia Wrede has been on my TBR for a very long time. I wi have to bump her up higher.

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