Reading Wednesday

[sabotabby]

Just finished: Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman. This was good, but not great? I always feel bad when I'm mildly disappointed by a book by a promising writer. It's an important book, and well-written, but there's sometimes a gap between realist fiction and sci-fi and it fell into that gap. As a story about the horrors of colonialism, it worked really well. As a sci-fi story? Far less so.



The big twist is that the Natives are humans (of every ethnicity) and the Settlers are aliens (of the grey, amphibious variety). There were several sci-fi twists I could think of (Natives are a different species, Settlers are humans, Settlers are brain parasites that infest humans, Settlers are AI lifeforms that we created and they got out of control) but this was the most likely one, and I saw it coming. It's not a bad premise, but it means that this story has to stand amid many other stories with the premise of "what if aliens treated humans like Europeans treat Indigenous people, what then?"

The thing is, the twist is revealed about halfway through the book. That is too late to reveal it. In order to make it a twist, the author has to conceal a lot of information about what's happening—everything from the types of weapons being used to the names of characters (all of the Settlers introduced at the beginning have normal human names). It also deals a heavy blow to the worldbuilding, because the aliens have apparently recreated the Catholic Church but later it's revealed that they don't have art forms of their own.

And then you get "the alien invasion solved racism, and all humans are just human." Which. I don't think that would happen. Based on the pandemic, which ought to have brought us all together as a united species, you'd still have people throwing their lot in with the invaders, or denying that it's real, or throwing other groups of humans to the wolves.

Like most good-but-flawed books, I felt a strong temptation to retroactively edit it, have the reveal happen at the end of the first chapter, delve into ways that alien invasion isn't a one-to-one metaphor for colonization, etc. It needed to either lean into the sci-fi or lean into the literary, and it kind of didn't do either.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo. This is actually the first one in the Singing Hills series (I'd read and loved the second one, not realizing that it was the second one in a series). This is a story about a woman from a defeated Northern kingdom who is married to the Emperor, bears him a son, and then is exiled once she's done that. Her only ally is one of her loyal servants, who loves her but in an extremely messy way. It packs a lot into what felt like a very short novella, but like When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, every word is a glittering jewel. Really great read.

Currently reading: The Strangers by Katherena Vermette. If it's not obvious, I'm reading this during silent reading periods at work. But my kids are terrible about reading, so it's going very slowly. I should probably just take it home and finish it.

The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom by Felicia Rose Chavez. This is obviously work-related, but I'm getting a lot out of it. I have exactly zero patience right now for "decolonizing the [insert basically colonial institution here]" but as a guide to making writing workshops less alienating and traumatic for BIPOC students and more creatively nurturing for everyone, it's really good. I'm finding myself taking a lot of notes, even though it's geared towards MFA and Clarion-type workshops, which are far less of a thing here. I do think that the author is self-indulgent in places—her ideas are good and I trust that her workshops and classes are as well, so I don't really need to read student feedback about them. But overall I'm finding it very useful.

Comments

[ioplokon]

hm yeah the idea that alien invasion will bring us together is one of the most eyebrow-raising sci-fi premises? and just seems kinda wishful thinking/unaware of um. actual colonialism? idk i think it's worth it if it's like, it was a lot of work to make alliances and keep them but often it's treated as a given (the Ozymandius mistake).

otoh i do think the alien species angle is kind of interesting to talk about some things, like the impossibly of conducting diplomatic negotiations with a culture that doesn't see you as people.

[minoanmiss]

and just seems kinda wishful thinking/unaware of um. actual colonialism

Word. One of the tools of colonialists is divide and conquer, because humans are divisible and conquerable.

[sabotabby]

Right? And it gets very glossed over in a way that I feel shouldn't be.

[sabotabby]

I get that this wasn't the story she wanted to tell, but it to me is impossible to untangle from the rest of the story.

It's very unclear as to whether the aliens see humans as people. They definitely claim that they don't, but they're able to communicate, have government offices and negotiations and such. Part of the issue is that the alien culture is transparently just Europe, but it's sometimes contemporary Europe and sometimes historical Europe.

[lizbee]

Coleman is one of Australia's most promising Aboriginal authors -- she is of the Noongar people -- but consensus among my writer friends is that she's been let down by the lack of SF publishing in Australia. She's published and edited by lit fic people with no genre knowledge, and it shows.

[sabotabby]

I had no idea about the lack of SF. I thought she was published by Small Beer (who did the extremely genre-aware Cass Neary books by Elizabeth Hand) but looking at the wiki, nope, it was an Australian press and Small Beer are just the American distributors. She's obviously got hella talent—this felt like an editorial issue more than a writing issue.

[frenzy]

>How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom

Just 150 pages of LAND BACK over and over and over, please.

[sabotabby]

HAHAHAH. That would rule.

But I don't want to make fun of it because she has some solid, practical suggestions that I can absolutely use in my classroom, making it hands-down the best book on education I've read since the one on multicultural art a few years ago.

[brittdreams]

I've had Chavez's book on my work bookshelf for over a year. I really should read it, shouldn't I?

[sabotabby]

It's really good. I just finished it last night, absolutely recommended.

[brittdreams]

Thanks. Any key chapters or sections you think are worth reading right away? (Figured I'd ask since it'll likely be December or January before I can read the whole book)

[sabotabby]

Oh, I don't know. It wouldn't occur to me not to read a book in order. It's a very quick read.