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• F I V E • The Heroic Lesbian Narrative: Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon and Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place It is the story that makes the difference. I t is the story that hid my humanity from me, the story the mammoth hunters tol d abou t bashing , thrusting , raping , killing , about th e Hero . Th e wonderful , poisonou s stor y o f Botulism. The killer story. —Ursul a K. Le Guin, Dancing at the Edge of the World In the feminist Utopias some of the words that fall into disuse because they no longer signify are "prostitution," "father," "rape, " "heroism, " "love, " "madness, " "homosexuality ." —Fra n Bartkowski, Feminist Utopias The heroic lesbian narrative is one of the most popular o f contemporar y lesbian literar y forms , whether i n the story of the dashing single heroin e of Rita Mae Brown's Ruby fruit Jungle o r the Utopian lesbian communit y in Katherin e V . Forrest' s Daughters of a Coral Dawn. A s a single , "severely literal " heroi c figure , th e lesbia n characte r i n popula r lesbia n fiction offer s a sense of powe r an d possibilit y t o hungr y lesbia n reader s who hav e encountere d littl e eithe r insid e o r outsid e o f schoo l whic h portrays the m wit h anythin g bu t disdain . A s coul d b e expected , thes e stories ar e satisfying becaus e writers assig n th e active narrative rol e to a self-conscious lesbia n wh o make s he r ow n decision s an d decide s he r own fate . I t is a role tha t mos t lesbian s se e as their chose n o r unchose n role in life, an d the y want i t given heroic status. It is satisfying, then , t o read Ann e Cameron' s Wester n adventur e tha t allow s tw o lesbian s t o make thei r journe y westwar d an d t o defen d themselves , gun s an d all , 137 138 • Th e Heroic Lesbian Narrativ e against the menace not of Indians but of men. In The Journey, Ann e and Sarah als o play out gender roles as they travel through th e early West t o win a home of their own. Anne hunts; Sarah cooks. Their adventures ar e replete wit h th e tension s o f violenc e tha t structur e th e singl e narrativ e trajectory o f th e heroi c story . Thi s nove l end s triumphantly , makin g i t what Catharin e Stimpso n woul d cal l a lesbia n nove l o f "enablin g es cape " ("Zero " 244) . It is also satisfyin g t o rea d abou t Sandr a Scoppet tone 's lesbia n detective , Laure n Laurano , whose eas y acceptanc e o f he r homosexuality an d whos e deductiv e skill s lea d he r throug h a maz e of conflictin g evidenc e i n Everything You Have Is Mine. Scoppetton e minimizes gende r stereotype s excep t t o giv e he r heroin e typica l mal e detective qualities, fitting her into the recent rash of male-defined wome n detectives like Sara Paretsky' s V . I. Warshawski an d Su e Grafton's Kin sey Millhone. The new woman detectiv e is able to go where she pleases, accomplish task s o n he r own , an d engag e i n violenc e whe n necessary . The detectiv e novel , lik e th e adventur e story , relie s o n th e traditiona l heroic paradigm , filled a s i t i s wit h th e narrativ e tensio n whic h move s the reade r t o a n inevitabl e an d satisfyin g closure . These lesbia n figures are heroic because they overcome the same obstacles that th e male her o would encounter an d accomplish thes e tasks by taking on the traditional characteristics o f th e mal e hero . Lik e Riple y i n Aliens, thes e heroines , this tim e lesbian , flouris h i n a singl e narrativ e trajectory , i n par t bein...

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