It just seems incredibly odd for there to be so many lines in a book about gender insisting that there is no way to refer to someone (in the English language, at least) without implying gender. She even mentions the possibility of using „it“ at one point!
I’m liking the book otherwise, but every time the narrators ponder about pronouns without even considering „they“ I have to ask myself if there is any point in ignoring it or if she genuinely just forgot. I don’t think it’s possible for her to have not known about it considering how well-read she was and how long it’s been in use.
When my kid was still young enough to want me to, I would regularly read stories at bedtime, and one that we did was Adam-2 by Alistair Chisholm - and in that there’s a non-binary character who uses “ze” and “hir” pronouns.
Took me quite a while to get used to it, even though I was reading direct from the page. Was quite effective though, once I got past my brain’s hesitation.
Hmmm, I’ve never read that one, but I read an awful lot of SF and fantasy, and I’m fairly positive I’ve seen ze and hir used that way in another work. I don’t remember what though.
Ah ok, could be he’s borrowed it then 👍