I saw A Spell for Chameleon on a shelving cart the other day and realized two things. First, that I'd read it before and enjoyed it, but had forgotten it completely. Second, that the author was Piers Anthony, who's been described as an outrageous sexist even among sci-fi/fantasy writers. So I picked up a copy, for nostalgia's sake but also to see if Anthony was so bad (he couldn't be, right? I mean, I liked this before...). And after reading it again, all I can say is...HOW DID I MISS THIS? HOW?On the second page--second. page.--we get this:"Bink looked at the girl beside him as she stepped through the slanting sunbeam. He was no plant, but he too had needs, and even the most casual inspection of her made him aware of this. Sabrina was absolutely beautiful--and her beauty was completely natural. Other girls managed to enhance their appearance by cosmetics or padding or specialized spells, but beside Sabrina all other females looked somewhat artificial. She was no enemy!"Atrocious writing aside ("absolutely beautiful"--damn it, man, at least TRY), the whole thing oozes creepy pervert syndrome. A female introduced by referring to her effect on the protagonist's penis? Check. The emphasis on "natural" beauty, as if it was some sort of personal accomplishment and not just the luck of the draw? Check. Reference to undesirable women (i.e., those who've put on make-up/padding/whatever, aka artifices taken on to please men, how dare they) as the "enemy"? Check.And that's just page 2. Without spoiling anything, Chameleon's entire character presents problems. A lady centaur's recital of Xanth's history is interrupted with infantile comments about her boobies. Aforementioned Sabrina will not give up everything she knows & loves to follow Bink into exile, and therefore she doesn't love him enough (another example of childishness, but it also shows how Anthony views women as less than people, more like accessories). Every married woman is either a shrew or a dried-up husk. Says protagonist Bink,"...the Sorceress Iris seemed beautiful, but I met others who weren't. Once they get old or married, they--" [...:]"'Women don't have to get ugly when they marry,' Fanchon said. [...:] 'Some start out that way.'" Got that? Married = ugly (applies to women only, of course). Wow.But that's not the worst moment. No. The worst thing about this book is that Anthony has, for no visible plot-related purpose, inserted a fake rape trial into his book so he can dismiss the idea of date rape. As the judge explains the "not guilty" verdict:"'Then I presume she would have fled him at the outset, had she disliked him--and that he would not have forced her if she trusted him.'"*emits primal scream*Everything's couched in such artless language, too, which just makes it worse. It's all "needs" "urges" "absolutely beautiful" "me tarzan, you jane." Even born mouth-breathers can write well (see: Lawrence Durrell, Henry Miller), so what gives?The only reason I can figure for my earlier positive impression (aside from being 12 at the time & clueless) is that I was taken in by Anthony's imaginative world-building & skillful plotting. Because--I'll give him this--he has entertaining ideas (e.g., tangle trees, conscious landscapes & buildings). I also, despite loathing Bink, remained curious about his particular power--Anthony strongly hints at it throughout the book without giving it away. There's enough good in this book that I wish Anthony was a better writer/thinker/person. But he's not.
The land of Xanth is a land of magic. Everyone has a magical talent, even some of the animals of the forest. Everyone, that is, except for Bink. And now that he's approaching adulthood, he has to find his magic...or face exile.I struggled with this one, but I read the first sixty pages before I finally gave up. The writing is entertaining, and the descriptions are vivid. At first, all the thinly-veiled innuendo was amusing, but it quickly went from amusing to annoying. When it began to seem like an Austin Powers movie, meaning that the protagonist becomes enamored with the next girl he sees, and ignored everything else...until he sees another girl who captures his attention...and repeat...and repeat. I finally just couldn't take it anymore. I don't mind some innuendo or "adult" situations in stories, but when the protagonist is basically a prisoner of his sex drive and his thoughts are usually rating all of the women in his immediate vicinity on a scale of how attractive they are, it just gets downright dull.I remember reading some of Piers Anthony's other books way back in middle school, and I enjoyed them quite a bit...but maybe that was because half of the innuendo flew right over my head back then. Either way, this was a challenge to read.The other thing I couldn't get into is the "everybody has one magic skill and that's it" thing - and many of the skills were unexceptional or useless at best. It seems so limiting, that I also found it annoying.But the last straw was the blatant sexism. Yeah yeah, I know, this book was written a few decades ago, but that is no excuse. The rape trial thing was so insanely offensive, I was sure I was reading it wrong...and I quite honestly don't like the message the author was trying to get across. In any of it.
What do You think about A Spell For Chameleon (1977)?
Despite what people say about the author's sexism, his fondness for puns (a greater crime in some people's eyes) and the juvenile nature of some of the storytelling, this book has many good qualities, most of which reviewers haven't really talked about.The central premise here is this: which is preferable, a very beautiful, very dumb woman, or a super smart, wise but ugly woman? You can probably tell from this that a) the book is aimed at young men, and b) women might find the question, never mind the answer, to be offensive.And I don't deny that some of his conclusions, even though they are wrapped up inside a lighthearted fantasy story, are a bit chauvinistic, but that isn't the point.The fact that he would attempt to deal with these issues in this setting (and not in a sneaky, subtle way but right out in the open) is something to be lauded. I'm not saying he's right, although he certainly isn't the only guy to think women who are both very beautiful and intelligent generally aren't very nice people. What I'm saying is Fantasy as a genre is often reduced to wish fulfillment, and that is by far the more juvenile approach.The 'not all that attractive but plucky' farm girl who the prince falls madly in love with for no apparent reason is more sexist and offensive, in my mind, than anything in this book.And for young guys to consider the themes here, even if they end up agreeing with som eof the author's rather wayward thinking, is a much healthier thing (at least they have the opportunity to disagree with him) than a young woman reading a sad 'one day my prince will come' piece of pseudo-erotica.That said, this is an early book in the writer's career. It's a little episodic and characters aren't as well developed as they might have been. The way he brings things together and how he keeps the theme present though gives a glimpse of a writer operating well above the norm.
—V.
A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony, first in the Xanth series, was to be my quickie 49th book on my list. It proceeded to keep me delayed for days.This book is toxic.From a scene where it's explained how horrible it is for men to be convicted of rape and how women make up accusations, to two scenes where the main character is sexually attracted to fourteen year olds, and the fact that the main character could not think or look at a woman without thinking about their fuckability factor, the creepshow going on in this book was unending.The worst, however, is near the end, where he's with a woman who for reasons I won't explain currently had the intellect of a very stupid child where he thinks 'no, I won't tell her what sex is, her mind is too young' and then proceeds to have sex with her in the next paragraph. Seriously. This is what's going on.Looking up Piers Anthony, I found his preoccupation with teenage or younger and the intellectually challenged being molested was a big thing with him. From ages five and up, with the child being the 'instigator'.I do not recommend this book. It's the first one to get an F on my list.Why did I read it? When I was a preteen, I was majorly into the Xanth books after reading Dragon On a Pedestal in the school library. I stopped reading as a teenager when he wrote the ridiculously stupid The Color Of Her Panties, so I thought I'd revisit my childhood. Instead I spent most of it sick and disgusted.On a side note, if Piers Anthony could have turned off the badtouch for at least a few chapters, there was actually an interesting story going on in the book. Unfortunately he ruined it by writing with his dick, not his hands.
—Benedict Jones
Very original and with good storytelling, this is a good fantasy by an excellent writer. Bink is at first banished from Xanth for apparently not having a magical talent until it is revealed that he does have a very unique magical quality.The element of this book that I still remember today ( I read this in HS more than 25 years ago) is the magical characteristics of Chameleon. Her beauty and charisma runs inversely to her intelligence, similar to a menstrual cycle. So as the month goes on, she gets more and more attractive while she gets less and less intelligent. Then, the cycle reverses, her IQ waxes as her beauty wanes, until she is a near genius hag! Only a man would think of that and then could pull it off, I still laugh thinking about it.
—Lyn
