Three things on a Sunday afternoon

[dolorosa_12]

This is one of those posts about unrelated things, none of which I feel really warrants a post of its own.

I stumbled across this excellent post by Ada Palmer on her blog. On the surface of things, it's about the two recent TV series about the Borgias, but what it's really about is being a professional historian (or someone who has deep historical knowledge about specific time periods), and learning to switch off that part of the brain when engaging with historical fiction. I really love the way Palmer writes — I haven't seen either series, but this doesn't matter, as her writing draws you in, no matter what the subject.

I've hit a bit of a reading slump, and it hasn't helped that the book I was reading, The Library of the Unwritten by AJ Hackwith, sounded cool in terms of concept (a librarian who spends the afterlife preserving and collecting all unwritten books, for the library of Hell), but really didn't work for me in terms of execution. It's the sort of book about books, stories, authors and bookishness that I think I would have adored fifteen years ago, but with which I am swiftly losing patience — the literary equivalent of Oscar-baity films about Hollywood. (Other recent examples of this subgenre of fantasy novel which I also found tooth-gratingly irritating include The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow, and The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (both of which were, indeed, pushed at me by Goodreads when I marked The Library of the Unwritten as 'read'.) I think it doesn't help that these types of stories have a tendency to be extremely twee — this wasn't as bad in that regard as Harrow's writing, but it was still too treacly for my tastes. I wanted more celestial and infernal politics, and less pontificating about the power of stories.

Talk to me about Yuletide! Who is planning to participate this year? What fandoms are you thinking of nominating? Nominations coordination in the comments is most welcome!

Comments

[dolorosa_12]

Re: tweeness, I find that there is a fine line between whimsical, and cloyingly sentimental, and a lot of authors who are currently writing fantasy novels about magical libraries, magical books, and the power of storytelling tip over into the twee, sentimental side of things. (A prime candidate would be Alix E Harrow's Hugo Award-winning story from last year, which was about witches who worked in public libraries, and made me so, so angry, because it wasn't just sentimental, it was patronising and white saviour-y, and barely any Hugo voters seemed to notice this.)

I haven't listened to any of Ada Palmer's music, but I have no doubt that it is as intricate, well thought out, and clever as the rest of her creative output!

That is such a vile thing to have happened to you in 2018 Yuletide — I can understand why you would feel burned by that. I had a pretty meh Yuletide last year (for reasons that had nothing to do with my my gift, which was fine), and avoided doing any other exchanges this year for that reason. Do you like the writing and gift-giving part of Yuletide as much as the receiving? If so, maybe signing up to be a pinch-hitter, or writing treats could be a low-stakes way to ease yourself back into things, without exposing yourself to the potential of a triggering gift.

[dhampyresa]

it wasn't just sentimental, it was patronising and white saviour-y
I don't think I've read that story, so I would love to hear your thoughts about it. You always have such interesting thoughts.

Afaik I know most (all?) of Ada Palmer's music can be found on Bandcamp.

yeah, it is was Unpleasant, to say the least! For the sake of clarity, that fic has since been deleted and the fic gifted to me in yuletide 2018 was a treat and the author did nothing wrong. I do like writing/gift-giving! I might try just doing treats this year, that's a good idea, thank you!

[dolorosa_12]

Okay, so the story in question is called 'The Witch's Guide to Practical Escape', and it's about a witch who works in a public library in the US who has a magical talent for getting the right book to the right reader. (For example, a working class black boy comes into the library, and she introduces him to fantasy literature, a teenage girl whose parents are fundamentalist Christians gets given books on feminism and abortion, etc.) Most Hugos voters seemed to go into raptures over this story, viewing it as an uplifting, heartwarming tale of the power and magic of libraries. But I found it extremely patronising — it is true that for many, many people (myself included), libraries were a haven and a magical place that unlocked or increased our love of reading. But to me it just felt smug and sentimental, as if the library patrons were helpless, uncultured lost souls, and the librarian knew their own needs and inner lives better than they did. (And with the black teenage boy in particular it felt like one of those stories about a 'troubled' youth who is saved by a nice, well-meaning, motherly middle class woman.)

Thanks for the link to Ada Palmer's music, and good luck with whatever you decide to do about Yuletide.

[dhampyresa]

Thank you for answering.

I'm curious, how would you write a story about the power of stories and/or libraries?

[dolorosa_12]

To be honest (and I'm sorry, this is kind of a boring answer), I don't think I'd even try. It's easy for me to find things to criticise, but I don't know what a well written story on that subject matter would look like. I think Garth Nix's latest book involves magical bookshops, and he's normally one of my favourite authors, so I'll see if he does a better job than the three books I've been criticising.

[dhampyresa]

That's an entirely valid answer! I was just curious.

Looking forward to hearing what you think of Nix's book.