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furyofvissarion) wrote2010-07-17 06:12 pm
furyofvissarion) wrote2010-07-17 06:12 pm
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Tam Lin - Pamela Dean. Zillionth-time reread. I adore this novel (I think it's tied w/Popco as my favorite). Every time I read it, I discover some new charming bit. It's the ballad Tam Lin adapted to a small liberal arts college in Minnesota in the early 1970s. It's kind of a fantasy of how you might've wished your college years to be, if you were a bookworm geek/English major: people just spout literary allusions when they open their mouths; there are beautiful boy theater-major types (though I am still amused that the cover copy says they actually are theater majors; they're not, & the issue of whether or not to be a Classics major is a big part of the book). There's a healthy dose of the disorientation college students often face: where all the choices (from what to major in to what gym class to take to where to eat lunch) feel huge & nothing makes sense & everything feels a bit too intense & unreal.
Guardian of the Dead - Karen Healey. Reading this YA novel immediately after Tam Lin was odd in some ways, because there are so many similarities: dorm life (though this takes place in high school), Shakespeare & the drama club, mention of a cold hillside, the issue of whether to study Classics. That's not to imply unoriginality, just serendipity.
There was a lot to like here: the writing was solid, the plot intriguing & lots of genuine moments of tension.
But there were a few small moments in the book that really ruined it for me. The protagonist, Ellie, is a tall, strong girl with a black belt in tae kwon do. She worries about being fat, in a way that made me wince (there's a really good post here about the strong reactions fat readers may have to Ellie's self-flagellation).
Another character is Iris Tsang. She's little & stylish & cute. I can fully understand why Ellie would feel resentment towards Iris, for fulfilling certain dictates of femininity in a way that Ellie does not. However, why does Healey have to racialize it?
Am I supposed to feel happy, as in some reviews I saw online, that Ellie knows her thoughts are racist? That she goes on to basically say, hey, it's racist, but I can't help it, look at her, she really is a China doll! What's the takeaway from that for me? That racist stereotypes are pernicious even when you are aware of them? Thanks, I had no idea. What's the takeaway for people who are white like Ellie? That it's okay to describe people in creepy fetishistic terms as long as you're aware that you're doing so? That, as Avenue Q says, everyone is a little bit racist, so you might as well just throw up your hands?
I swallowed hard & tried to read around that, but with every page I remembered it. 120 pages later, Ellie is discussing Iris with someone:
Oh look, Ellie can't help it! But at least she doesn't say it out loud, right? Give her a cookie!
And then ten pages later:
Iris Tsang. With a Chinese name, described at one point as cursing in Chinese. China doll. Japanese Sumo wrestling. ALL LOOK SAME. At this point I almost threw the book across the room. Having Tam Lin so recently in my memory, I was wagering with myself as to whether I could crack the book's spine.
This shit happens all the time, so much that I can't even keep track. Throw in an Asian character, give them a name that sounds Asian-y, & then throw in some other hasty characteristics or references that are Asian, doesn't matter if they're actually from the same country or culture. Have a vampire with a Chinese name? Make jokes about the yakuza. Etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum. & yes, there are intercultural, interAsian things that go on, people who have roots in more than one Asian country, things that happen across multiple Asian countries. But this pattern of casual interchanging of Asian cultures & people? Happens all the time. It's unthinking, it's common, it's Hollywood casting Asians interchangably, it's people asking anyone viewed as Asian whether they speak Chinese/Japanese/fill in the blank, it's a zillion things. All part of this pattern. It's not a recognition of cultures crossing boundaries but part of a long history that fails to recognize any difference between them.
And yes, there are obviously many worse ways that this could've been handled, overt racism, exoticism, fetishism. At least Ellie recognizes her thoughts as racist, right? Yeah, that's a start, but what does it serve the narrative--or the reader--to keep throwing the China doll thing in? If it's a meditation on the difficulties of multiculturalism & the ingrained nature of racism, it seems to me to fail.
In the post I linked above, about visceral & difficult reactions to Ellie's view of her body, there is this:
And, yeah. This rings true to me about the way the narrative treats Iris' race. Yay if Ellie has some learning white person moment, I guess, but it's on my back. I've read lots of things with racial slurs in them--including ones against Asians--that didn't hit me in this way, that didn't seem gratuitous & vicious. There are smart moments in the book, that critique cultural appropriation & such, so it made the slaps to my face about Iris all the more puzzling & disappointing.
I read the rest of the book warily, waiting for the narrative to spit on me again, but conveniently Iris exits stage left after a while, so I could stop holding my breath. It's a shame, because the story is exciting and interesting, but after the Iris stuff, it also made me unsure if I could trust Healey's use of Maori culture and myth (something which I don't know enough about to judge).
Guardian of the Dead - Karen Healey. Reading this YA novel immediately after Tam Lin was odd in some ways, because there are so many similarities: dorm life (though this takes place in high school), Shakespeare & the drama club, mention of a cold hillside, the issue of whether to study Classics. That's not to imply unoriginality, just serendipity.
There was a lot to like here: the writing was solid, the plot intriguing & lots of genuine moments of tension.
But there were a few small moments in the book that really ruined it for me. The protagonist, Ellie, is a tall, strong girl with a black belt in tae kwon do. She worries about being fat, in a way that made me wince (there's a really good post here about the strong reactions fat readers may have to Ellie's self-flagellation).
Another character is Iris Tsang. She's little & stylish & cute. I can fully understand why Ellie would feel resentment towards Iris, for fulfilling certain dictates of femininity in a way that Ellie does not. However, why does Healey have to racialize it?
I knew that "China doll" was racist, even just in my head, but I couldn't help thinking it. Iris had skin like fragile porcelain, dark eyes that tilted sweetly under a delicate fold of eyelid, and that gratuitously gorgeous hair.
Am I supposed to feel happy, as in some reviews I saw online, that Ellie knows her thoughts are racist? That she goes on to basically say, hey, it's racist, but I can't help it, look at her, she really is a China doll! What's the takeaway from that for me? That racist stereotypes are pernicious even when you are aware of them? Thanks, I had no idea. What's the takeaway for people who are white like Ellie? That it's okay to describe people in creepy fetishistic terms as long as you're aware that you're doing so? That, as Avenue Q says, everyone is a little bit racist, so you might as well just throw up your hands?
I swallowed hard & tried to read around that, but with every page I remembered it. 120 pages later, Ellie is discussing Iris with someone:
"Can she fight?"
I tried to imagine Iris flinging her handbag away and settling into a stance, which rapidly became an image of Iris falling out of her shiny three-inch heels. "I really doubt it. And she's--"a China doll"--little. Iris Tsang, you know?"
Oh look, Ellie can't help it! But at least she doesn't say it out loud, right? Give her a cookie!
And then ten pages later:
Iris slipped off her shoes and planted her tiny hose-clad feet on the floor with all the deliberation of a Sumo wrestler.
Iris Tsang. With a Chinese name, described at one point as cursing in Chinese. China doll. Japanese Sumo wrestling. ALL LOOK SAME. At this point I almost threw the book across the room. Having Tam Lin so recently in my memory, I was wagering with myself as to whether I could crack the book's spine.
This shit happens all the time, so much that I can't even keep track. Throw in an Asian character, give them a name that sounds Asian-y, & then throw in some other hasty characteristics or references that are Asian, doesn't matter if they're actually from the same country or culture. Have a vampire with a Chinese name? Make jokes about the yakuza. Etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum. & yes, there are intercultural, interAsian things that go on, people who have roots in more than one Asian country, things that happen across multiple Asian countries. But this pattern of casual interchanging of Asian cultures & people? Happens all the time. It's unthinking, it's common, it's Hollywood casting Asians interchangably, it's people asking anyone viewed as Asian whether they speak Chinese/Japanese/fill in the blank, it's a zillion things. All part of this pattern. It's not a recognition of cultures crossing boundaries but part of a long history that fails to recognize any difference between them.
And yes, there are obviously many worse ways that this could've been handled, overt racism, exoticism, fetishism. At least Ellie recognizes her thoughts as racist, right? Yeah, that's a start, but what does it serve the narrative--or the reader--to keep throwing the China doll thing in? If it's a meditation on the difficulties of multiculturalism & the ingrained nature of racism, it seems to me to fail.
In the post I linked above, about visceral & difficult reactions to Ellie's view of her body, there is this:
But I also wonder if there just maybe reaches a point where some of us are too wounded to read that kind of description without reacting to it negatively because of the memories it conjures.
And, yeah. This rings true to me about the way the narrative treats Iris' race. Yay if Ellie has some learning white person moment, I guess, but it's on my back. I've read lots of things with racial slurs in them--including ones against Asians--that didn't hit me in this way, that didn't seem gratuitous & vicious. There are smart moments in the book, that critique cultural appropriation & such, so it made the slaps to my face about Iris all the more puzzling & disappointing.
I read the rest of the book warily, waiting for the narrative to spit on me again, but conveniently Iris exits stage left after a while, so I could stop holding my breath. It's a shame, because the story is exciting and interesting, but after the Iris stuff, it also made me unsure if I could trust Healey's use of Maori culture and myth (something which I don't know enough about to judge).
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