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

[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.