laceblade

• What are you currently reading?
Right now I'm reading The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson. I'm on page 68, and I'm struggling really hard. It's set in Heian Japan & written by a white woman from the US, and I just have a really hard time getting past this cultural appropriation. I feel weird reading it. I keep thinking of a post by yeloson's post: When you cut away the wrapper, appropriation is telling other people's stories for your entertainment & profit, not theirs.

I bought this book & Fudoki a while ago, used. I've read some of Kij Johnson's short stories and I liked her writing style quite a bit. I think the short stories were more recent than these books, though.

This kind of reminds me of Cat Valente's Yume no Hon. What's up with contemporary US sf/f authors appropriating Japanese culture? idk.
Anyway, I'll try a little harder. I'll also give Fudoki a chance at some point, to see if it's better.
I'm not sure if I'll be finishing The Fox Woman. I'll likely be selling it.


• What did you recently finish reading?
Buffy season 9, #16 (?) Whatever the most recent issue is: Still feeling pretty "meh" about things. Glad to see things swoop back to these characters, but overall meh.

Radical Reinvention by Kaya Oakes, which I blogged about here.


• What do you think you'll read next?
Young Avengers Presents is waiting for me at the library, so I'm going to get that.

A few weeks ago, I erupted over drinks with friends when they revealed they'd started a book club to discuss Anna Karenina & not invited me. It turns out they haven't actually met yet, so I have time to read part I & join them for their first meeting. I'm reading the most recent edition, as specified by JacquelynGill, who tells me it makes a huge a difference.

While a little despondent the other day, I stood in the library plucking random books from shelves: a few by Alison Wein, Henry James's The Wings of the Dove, Geraldine Brooks's March. idk if I'll read them or when.

In comics, I have a new Saga to read & need to read the two most recent issues of Captain Marvel.
When asking my comics guy if it's too soon to add the new X-Men comic by Brian Wood about girls to my pull list, he said, "You know Brian Wood's been writing a storyline already, right?
I hadn't!
He had been about to mark a bunch of them down to $1, so I got X-Men issues 30-35 with Brian Wood as the author. I guess some of the characters in this story will appear in the new X-Men that I want to be reading? WE'LL SEE.

This quartet seems to have mixed reviews....I remember someone telling me that they were bad, and not as good as the Song of the Lioness Quartet. Yet, sasha_feather was adamant that these were her favorite ones, being more realistic. Having acquired them for free at Bookmooch.com, I decided to go for it.

I read Song of the Lioness in fragments spread out over a few months, and I'd have to read it again for style, but I think that Protector of the Small was better written. I definitely liked Kel better as a protagonist.

I like how hard Pierce makes Kel work. I feel like I'm there for every blow, every muscle strain, of her training to become a knight. I remember this being true in the Song of the Lioness Quartet, too. I like that Kel had to deal with bullying/hazing. She didn't tattle, but got stronger and made sure it didn't happen to others. I have so much respect for her strength and personal code of honor. I think these will be comfort books for me in the future!

I like how Kel ages throughout the four books, both physically and emotionally. Everyone around her changes, too, even the way characters view each other and the world. Pierce is really good with her viewpoint characters - while some characters appear in many of her books, they are viewed differently by the people telling the story. I like her consistency, and the obvious thought she gives to viewpoint and the backgrounds people are coming from.

I like that it seems Pierce realized how "easy" Alanna had it in Song of the Lioness - and so Kel has no magic. I found this quartet less annoying than SotL. Kel doesn't have magical powers, a magical pendant, a magic Goddess-voiced cat, a magic horse, or whatever else. The Prince of Tortall is not her best friend. I like that Kel has to do without the Gift, that some things don't come naturally to her. As much as Alanna's life sucked sometimes, I feel like Knighthood/etc. came a bit too easily/naturally for the protagonist, like it was ordained. I found it a lot easier to relate to Keladry.

( Spoilers! )



So, I say all of these good things with a grain of salt. What makes Kel somewhat special in comparison to her peers is that her father was the Tortallan diplomat to the Yamani Islands for 6 years of her childhood. Thus, Kel is not only adept at interacting with people hailing from the Yamani culture, but is also trained in Yamani fighting styles and weapons. After making it through Tortall's training for knighthood, she uses her weapon of choice: a glaive.

It's extremely clear that the Yamani Islands are meant to be Japan. Women wear kimonos secured by obis. Kel refers to her weapon with the "Yamani" (see: actually Japanese) word naginata. In the text, Yamani people bow by placing their palms flat on their thighs and bending forward. Honor is taken very seriously by warriors, and death is viewed as preferaable to surrender or capture.

But in the first two books especially, Pierce makes a narrative choice that I find pretty weird. Whenever Kel hides her emotions, she is described as acting in a Yamani manner. Not just once, but almost ad nauseum. When she smiles but is actually upset, it is a "Yamani smile." When she struggles to keep her countenance free of emotion, she is keeping it "Yamani-blank." When she defers to cultural manners as a way to interact with others, her face becomes "a Yamani mask of politeness."

It might be true that Japanese culture looks less favorably on a selfish outpouring of emotions than, say, U.S. American culture, but it just smacked of painting too broadly with one brush for my tastes.

Also, some of the names were a little improbable, such as "Chisakami" and "Shinkokami," and sort of sounded like an anime fangirl writing some AU fanfiction, making up names.

Of course, some aspects of it were nicely written, and helped bring the Quartet as a whole into focus.. Women in the Yamani Islands are given much more weapons training than women in Tortall (equivalent of France/England) because men are often away when towns/etc. get attacked by pirates. As a child, Kel is 5 years old and with her mother in a temple when pirates attack. And her mother is bad-ass with a glaive, cutting people down and saving some Yamani relics. Thus, it's fairly natural to both Kel and her family that she would want to train to become a knight.



I really want to read Terrier.....I want to see things from a lower-class character. But I've already got Trickster's Choice checked out, and I own the first two of the Immortals Quartet (yeah, I skipped it and went right for Keladry's quartet instead). I'm thinking that I will love Terrier a lot.

What are Melting Stones and Will of the Empress about?

In regards to addressing my own white privilege, I am very much still in the "STFU and listen" phase.

So, while I don't have anything much say, I just thought I'd say that rydra_wong has been doing link round-ups of the on-going online discussion regarding Cultural Appropriation, and points to both people who struggle with white privilege and people who write great posts.