Reading Wednesday
Aug. 24th, 2022 08:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabby Just finished: Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman. I loved this and am screaming about it to everyone.
A few scattered thoughts on it beyond what I've written already. Awhile back, a friend (trans, not disabled) and I (disabled, not trans) had a discussion of the similarities and differences in the SFF metaphors for trans and disability experiences, and how they can sometimes butt up against each other in complicated ways when used only as metaphor. Which is to say that the endpoint of disabled liberation in SFF is "adapting to being the thing" whereas the endpoint of trans liberation in SFF is "becoming a different or new thing." That can lead to some confusion or disappointment when it's just a metaphor (i.e., why I found books like Victory Greater Than Death and A Memory Called Empire viscerally horrifying in ways that she didn't).
Dead Collections is fascinating to me for reasons other than that it is very well-written. It is very well-written. But it's also doing interesting things in terms of dealing with both trans and disability experiences simultaneously, as both a literal thing and as a metaphor through vampirism. I think—generously speaking, more on that later—this is why it didn't work for some readers. It's a complex balancing act. I think Fellman pulls it off splendidly but he's dancing on a knife's edge.
The other element that I have to note about it is the degree to which it's grounded in a particular era that's as remote from the present day as the 70s were for me when I was growing up. Vampirism, as well as being about sex and sexuality and addiction and disability (in this book it's all of the above) is also a metaphor for nostalgia and being stuck in time, and look, this book packs a lot into its story, which makes it very layered and interesting as the book isn't very long.
As you can probably tell, my response to this book is overwhelmingly positive. The response on Goodreads was...divided, shall we say. And not for the reasons I'd expect (i.e., transphobia)—there were presumably trans and lesbian folks on there complaining that it was Not Good Representation. Which. It's pretty universal that if a queer author writes something deemed Not Good Representation I'll probably like it a whole lot. I would guess that the breakdown in whether it's a five-star or a one-star book is based on "the reader is over 40" and "the reader is under 40." As a Certifiable Old it felt messy and authentic and ambitious, and I am absolutely here for that.
Currently reading: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. NGL I follow her on Goodreads so the second she drops a new book I can put a hold on it now. I don't even check to see what it's about because it'll be good so why not be surprised?
Predictably, this is extremely good so far. It's Doctor Moreau set in 1870s Mexico against the backdrop of a Maya uprising. The aforementioned daughter is Carlota, who grows up sheltered and spoiled amongst Moreau's creations. Montgomery, the English mayordomo for Moreau's estate, participates in the experiments while unsettled by the power dynamics at play. It's an ambitious retelling that emphasizes the colonialist and racist dynamics at the root of our Western understanding of science. It's dark, atmospheric, and layered, once again featuring Moreno-Garcia's trademark Difficult female protagonists. I'm loving it.
A few scattered thoughts on it beyond what I've written already. Awhile back, a friend (trans, not disabled) and I (disabled, not trans) had a discussion of the similarities and differences in the SFF metaphors for trans and disability experiences, and how they can sometimes butt up against each other in complicated ways when used only as metaphor. Which is to say that the endpoint of disabled liberation in SFF is "adapting to being the thing" whereas the endpoint of trans liberation in SFF is "becoming a different or new thing." That can lead to some confusion or disappointment when it's just a metaphor (i.e., why I found books like Victory Greater Than Death and A Memory Called Empire viscerally horrifying in ways that she didn't).
Dead Collections is fascinating to me for reasons other than that it is very well-written. It is very well-written. But it's also doing interesting things in terms of dealing with both trans and disability experiences simultaneously, as both a literal thing and as a metaphor through vampirism. I think—generously speaking, more on that later—this is why it didn't work for some readers. It's a complex balancing act. I think Fellman pulls it off splendidly but he's dancing on a knife's edge.
The other element that I have to note about it is the degree to which it's grounded in a particular era that's as remote from the present day as the 70s were for me when I was growing up. Vampirism, as well as being about sex and sexuality and addiction and disability (in this book it's all of the above) is also a metaphor for nostalgia and being stuck in time, and look, this book packs a lot into its story, which makes it very layered and interesting as the book isn't very long.
As you can probably tell, my response to this book is overwhelmingly positive. The response on Goodreads was...divided, shall we say. And not for the reasons I'd expect (i.e., transphobia)—there were presumably trans and lesbian folks on there complaining that it was Not Good Representation. Which. It's pretty universal that if a queer author writes something deemed Not Good Representation I'll probably like it a whole lot. I would guess that the breakdown in whether it's a five-star or a one-star book is based on "the reader is over 40" and "the reader is under 40." As a Certifiable Old it felt messy and authentic and ambitious, and I am absolutely here for that.
Currently reading: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. NGL I follow her on Goodreads so the second she drops a new book I can put a hold on it now. I don't even check to see what it's about because it'll be good so why not be surprised?
Predictably, this is extremely good so far. It's Doctor Moreau set in 1870s Mexico against the backdrop of a Maya uprising. The aforementioned daughter is Carlota, who grows up sheltered and spoiled amongst Moreau's creations. Montgomery, the English mayordomo for Moreau's estate, participates in the experiments while unsettled by the power dynamics at play. It's an ambitious retelling that emphasizes the colonialist and racist dynamics at the root of our Western understanding of science. It's dark, atmospheric, and layered, once again featuring Moreno-Garcia's trademark Difficult female protagonists. I'm loving it.
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Date: 2022-08-24 03:18 pm (UTC)Re: ***
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Date: 2022-08-25 02:24 am (UTC)it's interesting too bc the ada actually specifically excluded transvestitism, transexualism, and gender identity disorder. the judge said that basically, being trans isn't a disability & that's what was excluded, but gender dysphoria is/can be & needs accomodations.
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Date: 2022-08-27 02:20 am (UTC)Oh, that's so good. That really brings it into focus for me. And it does something to my understanding of the way (avoiding spoilers) the archive damage works, which felt a bit weird to me without this lens.
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Date: 2022-08-27 03:14 am (UTC)It’s an example of what I think might have pinged people’s Problematic radar except that there is nothing in the book that feels like a one to one allegory. If that makes sense.