Anderson, M.T. - The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: The Pox Party

[oyceter]

First of all, if you don't know anything about this book, I would suggest reading it just like that. If you do know the premise, it doesn't spoil the book at all, as the book is brilliant, but I think the extra frisson of discovery would be awesome. I'm still a little sad that I saw the Library of Congress categories the book was in when I checked it out on the library catalogue.

Second: read this. It's a look into 18th-century science and the American Revolutionary War and a critique of that war. It's also a brilliant pastiche of letters and diaries and, of course, Octavian's diary. Also, just in case you were confused like I was, it's definitely not about Roman senators. It's also much more than all the elements above, but saying what it is would be ruining the surprise.

Spoilers for the book

I figured out fairly early on that Octavian and his mother Cassiopeia were slaves being experimented on, not aristocrats with classical educations, mostly because the LoC keywords included "slavery" and "African Americans." Even so, it was wonderful watching Octavian gradually realize how he was different from the philosophers and scientists teaching. Octavian's emotional distance is particularly disturbing; at first we think he's a good scientist, but later, we realize he's distancing himself from trauma, keeping himself from feeling.

And there's so much about his mother's lost heritage, how she disguises the story of her coming to America to make it more palatable, how she has been renamed by the scientists and how they continue to try to learn and appropriate Oyo songs. I love her rage when she reads to Octavian from the Bible to explain why she will not sing for them anymore, and how even reading from the Bible happens because they have taken away her religion as well, taken away almost everything that marks her as a princess of the Oyo Kingdom.

There's also, of course, Octavian's own name and the spooky parallel between his own (after a Roman emperor) and the slave Bono's, named "Pro Bono" because he came free with his mother, much as Octavian did. Both Latin roots, both equally mocking.

The book's also just incredibly creepy; the pox party makes sense from a scientific standpoint, but it reminds me of Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" in the reference to plague, the rich sequestering themselves away, the gaiety with hints of feverish insanity. Cassiopeia's death is particularly creepy; the objectivity of the scientists is shown to be even more horrible with the autopsy report and the later letter praising the report because Gitney had been crying at her side. I'm not phrasing this right, but it was so monstrous and distant, just a logical extension of what they had been doing with her and Octavian in life.

The hints at words under Octavian scratching out pages of writing was particularly chilling.

I love that after seeing Octavian through white eyes in the section with documents and letters, we go back to Octavian, and he lambasts the soldier who helped him for not seeing other slaves, for being blind to their condition as a whole, for helping the individual but being able to ignore the rest. And oh man, when I figured out the cover wasn't a helmet, but rather a mask for slaves? Chills.

This is just an incredibly effective book about slavery that goes beyond the usual "liberal white person helps poor black person escape! Yay!" I especially love how it took on the skience of race and how much of that was huge in the scientific revolution and how little of that is recognized today. I love how it strips away the supposed objectivity of the scientists and the notion of an objective stance; they (and we) are all products of our societies. I love how even when Octavian and his mother are being treated well, they're still slaves, and they know it. And of course, how quickly it can turn. I love that it's set in Boston, not a Southern plantation, among the supposed liberal set.

I love love love the biting critique of the American Revolution and the focus on liberty and property -- but liberty only for a few, and only if they are allowed to keep their slaves-cum-property. I love Anderson's portrayal of how blind and easy privilege is; like the well-meaning white soldier, they can feel bad for an individual, but it does nothing about the system.

Anyway, great book, and I don't think I even covered half of it.

Links:
- buymeaclue's review (spoilers)
- minnow1212's review (spoilers)
- tenemet's review (no spoilers)

Comments

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly! Especially the depiction of science and scientists; there's something really postmodern about the way the book exposes the possibilities of horrible bias in the name of objectivity and science. It's just such a fantastic book.

[oyceter]

Yes! It's so awesome! I want to make more people read it, but I can't figure out how to do it without spoiling them!

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

YES!

Volume II due Fall 2008.

[oyceter]

Cannot wait! And oh man, I feel like I left out so much!

[keilexandra]

I found this book a while back through random means (i.e. so I didn't know the LoC keywords, though I still figured out the premise pretty early), but it's strange: reading your review, the book sounds like just my thing. Yet when I read it, I wasn't hooked by the narrative at all. I appreciated the themes of the book, loved what it was trying to accomplish--but it didn't work on the entertainment level.

I had not planned on reading Book Two, but I may after all to compare with a more recent opinion.

[oyceter]

Hey, YMMV as well! I suspect sometimes reactions just depend on mood and time and lots of random things.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

It is a BRILLIANT book.

[oyceter]

I know! It is so excellent! I want to make everyone read it!

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

I just -- it's SUCH a good book. Unlike the other commenter, I felt it worked on every single level -- as entertainment, as critique, just, everything. That particular view of the American Revolution especially is fantastic. The last book I'd read about the American Revolution, when I was about 7, went on about Paul Revere and courageous farmers etc. etc., so this was enlightening.

the later letter praising the report because Gitney had been crying at her side.

I actually read Trefusis's letter (it was Trefusis who sent it, right?) as being savagely ironical, pointing up the inhumanity that lies in crying by a woman's deathbed and then dissecting her. Perhaps am being too inclined to read this stuff in a positive light.

[oyceter]

I actually read Trefusis's letter (it was Trefusis who sent it, right?) as being savagely ironical

Oh, interesting! I couldn't remember who wrote the letter; if it ended up being the guy who helped Octavian in the end (that was Trefusis, right?), your reading makes sense!

And just... yeah. The book is just so good! On so many levels!

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

Octavian's emotional distance is particularly disturbing

Yes, this. I've seen reviews criticizing the distant voice, but I think Anderson conveys brilliantly that it's not the distance of non-emotion, but the distance of repressed emotion, due to trauma (and makes it particularly clear in the sections Octavian has scratched out).

Really, really astonishing.

[oyceter]

Yes, what you said. I cannot wait for book two to come out!