Antidote to the Empty Continent

[morgan_dhu]

A platform-spanning discussion of Patricia Wrede's new book, Thirteenth Child, which originated at on tor.com with a review by Jo Walton, is taking place.

The discussion focuses on the ways in which the book, an alternate history fantasy in which First Nations people never arrived in the Americas, leaving the book's analogues for European peoples the luxury of settling in reality the Empty Continent that so much North American literature and popular culture seems to assume was there anyway (thus "vanishing" whole nations of indigenous - i.e., first arrival - peoples).

I have a suggestion for readers of fantasy who want to look at the other side of the Empty Continent trope. First Nations (Cherokee) author Daniel Heath Justice has written a trilogy of fantasy novels from the perspective of a people who have been colonised. It is heavily influenced by his own heritage. I've only read the first volume so far (the other two are sitting on my TBR shelf), but not only did I enjoy it, it made me think. My own review of the first volume can be found in my book journal, here.

Comments

[lavendertook]

Thanks for the rec--much better than the wreck I'm seeing form Tor. I'll look for it.

[morgan_dhu]

I stopped reading the comments at Tor once the derailers got into full swing. I've been meaning to go back and look at the discussion again, though.

I'm not a particualr fan of Wrede's work, so aside from the basic "she did what? Where was her brain at?" response, I'm not as conflicted as I was over the issues with Bear's books.

However, I have adored Bujold for some time, especially becasue she deals with disability/physical difference issues in ways that few other SF writers do. She turned a fragile disabled young man into a galactic heros, and it was so wonderful to read... and now she goes and makes the kind of comments that she did over at Tor, and I'm flabbergasted.

[aquaeri]

Huh. I used to be on rasfc, and I remember when Patricia Wrede was still making appearances and mentioned this book she was working on. My own awareness of racism and colonialism issues was just starting to creep up on me at the time, so while I had thoughts along the lines of "white settlement of NorAm with no indigenous inhabitants? are you sure that's a good idea?" I didn't say anything out loud.

Thanks for sharing the news.

[morgan_dhu]

Apparently she wanted to write a book about humans arriving in the Americas and having to deal with megafauna, with magic in it. My first thought is, why not write a fantasy about the humans who actually did arrive in the Americas and did have to deal with megafauna, and let them do the magic?

That's a story I'd like to read.

Alternately, a story about what happened in northeast Asia because there was no land bridge or conveniently narrow waterway to provide an escape valve for population pressures. And how that might have affected the historical pattern of peoples moving west out of Central Asia into Europe.

Would the peoples who became the ancient Greeks, for instance, have migrated west and south at the same time? Would the whole Graeco-Roman underpinning of the European society we know have been altered because there was no way to migrate eastward out of Asia? Would there have been more wars in Central Asia over the centuries and the Silk Road even less reliable? That's an alternate history I'd have been interested in reading, too.

[aquaeri]

Yes, I get lost thinking about all the other stories we could get to read if these authors could just inch out of their comfort zone, and we could get more authors whose comfort zones are entirely elsewhere.

[morgan_dhu]

Yes!

I want all the stories that aren't written for the white, middle-class primarily male, mostly straight, largely derived from the British literary tradition and the British imperialist/colonial experience audience. I'm tired of mypoic visions.

[sami]

Ooh, that looks awesome.

*makes note for checking out after semester*

[sauscony]

Ugh, I knew one of my favorite authors would end up racefailing, I just knew it. I'm not sure if Lois has redeemed herself or not, but at least she's thinking, which is more than I can say for most of the authors involved in the first round of Race Fail (or well, not really the first round, but the one that made the most impact?).

[morgan_dhu]

I really haven't followed the discussion once all the derailing started. Has Bujold made some new comments that indicate she's taking the criticism of the concept of this book to heart?

I guess I should go look at the discussion again.

[keeva]

She sorta has, but it's still kinda ... problematic. Apparently the lot of us need to go and donate to American Indian charities.

[morgan_dhu]

::Blink::

OK, that's... an interesting attempt at being helpful.

[sauscony]

On second thought, not really because she just compounds her error in later comments. I can't read this discussion anymore without wanting to post all of my Bujold books on swap sites and it makes me want to cry.

[morgan_dhu]

It's really hard for me to see Bujold doing this because her treatment of disability and physical difference issues is so good, and so rare in SFF - and that's something in her work that I value very much.

[skywardprodigal]

Thanks for the series rec.

[morgan_dhu]

There were a lot of good recs made during earlier RaceFail discussions - I'm hoping that the same will happen this time - and as many times as necessary - until the books that tell stories that aren't from a white, Eurocentric, imerialist, colonist, settler perspective are just as well known and as readily available.

[allburningup]

Thanks for the book rec, it looks really interesting. One thing I'm wondering about, though. If the story is supposed to parallel European conquest of the Americas (is it?) then is the story conflating Human with European? What's your take on this?

[morgan_dhu]

I read it as being very much rooted in the European invasion/conquest of the Americas - and in particular, the experiences of the Cherokee nation.

I was very much struck by the author's decision to make the Kyn - the analogues of the indigenous people in the trilogy - distinctly non-human and the invaders distinctly human.

I don't know why the author chose to write the story this way, but I have several ideas why a First Nations author might make such a decision. He might be underscoring the white cultural assumptions that the Eurpoeans were the civilised humans and the indigenous peoples "inhuman" savages in order to subvert them. He might be making a conscious use of the SFF trope that often has aliens standing in for people of colour when an author wants to discuss race without being too "real" about it. He might be making a comment on internalisation of white cultural sterotypes by indigenous peoples. He might have been drawing on indigenous spiritual traditions, which from my limited understanding, do not always make the kinds of concrete distinctions between humans and other animals that European tradition generally does, in order to create diversity among his Kyn characters.

And there's probably a number of other possible reasons for such a choice that haven't occurred to me.

This is actually one of the artistic choices made by the author that fascinated me - I know there is something behind this choice, and part of the gift the books offer is the opportunity to work it out.