That's actually how I became aware of her as well. I want to love this book so bad, because it sounds like everything I should love and yet. And yet.
I find it very hard to voice what I want to say, because this is very much one of these things that We Do Not Talk About. Part of it is that I find it very odd that everyone is including her in Diverse SFF lists and whatnot, because one more aristocrat voice is exactly what we need (not). And trust me when I say that, in my experience, her name being "de Bodard" far outweighs her being half-Vietnamese. part of it is that I saw her refer to l'Ile aux Cygnes in a way that seemed to imply she'd never been there (it's roughly 35 feet wide. IT'S ALL BANKS) and looked at her name again and went "ten to one she went to a private school and/or to school in the 16ème, then did Sciences po/l'ENA/l'X" and lo and behold, she went to a private school in the 16ème and did l'X according to her French Wikipedia page. Just. OF COURSE SHE DID. (EDIT: Polytechnique and l'X are the same thing.)
I have read the first chapter, btw and I am also side-eying the mention of the Periphérique [sic], because not only is should it be Périphérique (although I would personally call it le périph) but that didn't exist until 1956. If the book is set during the Belle Epoque, it should be l'enceinte de Thiers. And if "devastated countryside" is referring to what I think it does, wooooooooooooow (and I suddenly feel like quoting Starmania). There are also two different comparaisons to a serrated knife/serated knives in this chapter alone, which doesn't give me great hope for the editing, between that and the Periphérique [sic] issue.
That said, I might just be over critical because I am melting in the sun and I did want to find out what came next, but I had even more issues than what I mentionned above.
I appreciate that you're letting me talk about this, but I really don't want to harsh your squee so I wold totally understand if you told me to shut up.
(EDIT2: I have no idea how coherent this is, sorry.)
no subject
I find it very hard to voice what I want to say, because this is very much one of these things that We Do Not Talk About. Part of it is that I find it very odd that everyone is including her in Diverse SFF lists and whatnot, because one more aristocrat voice is exactly what we need (not). And trust me when I say that, in my experience, her name being "de Bodard" far outweighs her being half-Vietnamese. part of it is that I saw her refer to l'Ile aux Cygnes in a way that seemed to imply she'd never been there (it's roughly 35 feet wide. IT'S ALL BANKS) and looked at her name again and went "ten to one she went to a private school and/or to school in the 16ème, then did Sciences po/l'ENA/l'X" and lo and behold, she went to a private school in the 16ème and did l'X according to her French Wikipedia page. Just. OF COURSE SHE DID. (EDIT: Polytechnique and l'X are the same thing.)
I have read the first chapter, btw and I am also side-eying the mention of the Periphérique [sic], because not only is should it be Périphérique (although I would personally call it le périph) but that didn't exist until 1956. If the book is set during the Belle Epoque, it should be l'enceinte de Thiers. And if "devastated countryside" is referring to what I think it does, wooooooooooooow (and I suddenly feel like quoting Starmania). There are also two different comparaisons to a serrated knife/serated knives in this chapter alone, which doesn't give me great hope for the editing, between that and the Periphérique [sic] issue.
That said, I might just be over critical because I am melting in the sun and I did want to find out what came next, but I had even more issues than what I mentionned above.
I appreciate that you're letting me talk about this, but I really don't want to harsh your squee so I wold totally understand if you told me to shut up.
(EDIT2: I have no idea how coherent this is, sorry.)