November, Sharyn, ed. - Firebirds Rising

[oyceter]

This was a bit of a mixed bag for me; but then, short-story collections invariably are as I'm not the biggest short-story fan in general.

I liked Diana Wynne Jones' "I'll Give You My Word" for the wordplay, I liked the oddness of Kelly Link's "The Wizards of Perfil," and I liked the view of a house through three different eras in Tanith Lee's "The House on the Planet."

My favorites ended up being Kara Dalkey's "Hives," which reminds me a little of Scott Westerfeld's YA SF -- the combination of social science and science fiction, with an extra dash of trendiness from So Yesterday. The story is about girl cliques and girl social dynamics, as brought into focus by the use of cell phone implants that make it sound like people are talking inside your head. I'm still a little wary about nearly everything involving girl cliques because of how it always plays into the "girls are catty!" stereotype, whether it means to or not, and this story didn't do enough with the trope to act as a commentary on it instead of a straight-up illustration of it. On the other hand, I loved the narrative voice of the POV character, and I loved that it was something that wasn't about white, middle-class girls. (More on this later.)

The other one that I loved the pieces was Ellen Klages' "In the House of the Seven Librarians," in which an old library ends up closing itself to the world, and seven librarians raise a girl. There is so much book love in this story that I couldn't not love it. I'm not sure what to say about the story, except that it so much sums up my feelings toward libraries and books and things like the Dewey decimal system versus Library of Congress, obsessive-compulsive categorization, nooks and crannies, and booksbooksbooks.

And now, back to white middle-class girls. Most of the authors in the collection were women; most of the stories were about girls. Both of these things make me happy. And yet...

I swear I don't go looking for this stuff. I don't know if there are any writers of color represented, and out of the 16 stories, four potentially star girls of color. Two definitely have girls of color; the other two I'm guessing about due to cultural cues or just not knowing (Kelly Link's story, which feels vaguely Middle Eastern because it has an outdoors market, and Pamela Dean's Liavek story, which I am just picking up for the names). As mentioned above, Dalkey's story is about a Latina Veronica Mars, whom I love very much.

Then I realized the story was set in a vaguely grungy Bladerunner-esque future in which urban centers have lots of crime, are generally lower class, etc. Emma Bull's "What Used to Be Good Still Is" also has a Latina in it; she's the mover of the piece but not the POV character. This one is also set in a lower-class environment, only more rural than urban, more in the past than the present. And I seriously doubt Bull or Dalkey were writing to stereotype, but when the majority of stories in the collection are about middle-class white girls and when the two stories definitely about girls of color also have them as lower class...

I will give props in that there were other POC as side characters in the stories; Tamora Pierce's in particular had a lot of them. Unfortunately, since her heroine was white, the other POC were largely villains, as those were the only spots open in the story.

Again, no ill will. And yet, there's still that larger pattern. Dalkey and Bull's stories wouldn't have been problematic at all if the collection had been chock-full of girls of color, but because it wasn't, they were.

Comments

[sarahtales.livejournal.com]

Diana Wynne Jones and librarian love! I must have this short story collection!

Also I would like to say a general thank you: this blog has really helped me challenge the default-white world in books and I so needed that, because I grew up in Ireland, which really is (or rather, was when I was a child - with the country growing more prosperous we have a growing number of refugees and to my eternal shame we are generally hideous about them) default white. I deeply needed a pop upside the head that this shouldn't be the case in books.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Tortall in general seems fairly full of random PoCs -- they're not native to Tortall, but they show up not uncommonly as recent immigrants from Carthak or wherever.

[coniraya.livejournal.com]

Yeah the stories would not be problematic if we had a spectrum of PoC. Unfortunately when all portrayals play on well worn stereotypes it is a huge problem.

[estara.livejournal.com]

"There is so much book love in this story that I couldn't not love it. I'm not sure what to say about the story, except that it so much sums up my feelings toward libraries and books and things like the Dewey decimal system versus Library of Congress, obsessive-compulsive categorization, nooks and crannies, and booksbooksbooks."

Have you already discovered http://www.unshelved.com ? I really like that library comic strip, and they have a POC children's librarian and most of the librarians are female. Although the storyline with Doreen's adopted Chinese daughter is probably not very well thought into.

Then again the males definitely get sent up as much as the females. When they had a recent sale I ordered the print versions and I don't rue it at all (it helped that they even offered free shipping to Germany).

[oyceter]

Oh! Thank you, and it is good to know that people are reading and thinking and it is Not Just Me.

[oyceter]

The Pierce story was actually set in modern times, but I do think in general Pierce has been trying to include more POC in her works. I just wish more of them were the protagonists, because when they aren't, you get the unfortunate white savior trope.

[oyceter]

Yeah.... I, um, actually wrote Sharyn November about it b/c the book intro said she read all the emails from her readers, but am not sure if that will have any effect at all.

I just keep thinking that I should have had lots and lots of stories starring girls of color to choose from growing up (and now!), but it was basically impossible to find myself reflected in the fantasy stories I loved.

[oyceter]

I haven't, thanks for the pointer!

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Wow. I have mostly drifted away from fantasy in the last couple of decades, and have only very recently started even dabbling the tiniest toetip back into that and/or YA stuff...rather depressing to hear the more things change, etc.

I do hear you on the lack of reflection; it was doubly weird for me being biracial and growing up where I did, because books and media set on the mainland were full of folks who looked a little bit like me, but were living in this strange world full of alien things like fireplaces and snowsuits and galoshes and weird foods like mashed potatoes; and folks like my mother, or most of my friends and neighbors, just were nowhere to be seen. Or if they did show up, their ethnicity was a big deal; they didn't get a chance to just be shown as normal and everyday just like all the other characters.

In retrospect, I find myself wondering if this may not have been a part of why I turned so strongly towards historical stuff, or fantasy and SF, when I was a young reader. The realistic, modern-day-setting YA girl stuff was almost always a mix of the mundane familiarities of school and parents and TV, but with just enough of a cultural disconnect that it didn't entirely feel like my life or the life of anyone I knew. But even if they were just as whitewashed, something in a more thoroughly alien setting of the distant past or an imaginary world was somehow easier to make the imaginative leap into, rather than something that was almost but not quite like everyday life...

[coniraya.livejournal.com]

WooHoo! Well done, I'm really glad you emailed her. We should all be able to find representations of ourselves in the fiction we love, that we can't or that all the representations have some stereotype attached to them is beyond fucked up. It's even more fucked up that the people in charge rarely attempt to open their eyes and see it from our position.