Evaristo, Bernardine - Blonde Roots

[oyceter]

In the world of Blonde Roots, the people of Aphrika have enslaved people of Europa, which lies in the Southern Hemisphere. The Middle Passage runs from the Cabbage Coast of Europa to New Ambossa and Little Londolo in the West Japanese Islands, and then back to Aphrika, particularly the United Kingdom of Great Ambossa.

Doris Scagglethorpe was kidnapped from her home and sold into slavery; she has since borne several children, all whom have been torn away from her, and is currently trying to escape. While Doris is the main character, the focus is Evaristo's worldbuilding. Europa is the Gray Continent; whytes try to flatten their noses and perm their hair to emulate blak standards of beauty; skience says the prominent jaw of blaks indicates their forward nature while the flatter skulls of whytes indicate smaller brains and less capacity for emotion. "Beating the hide of a Caucasoi is more akin to beating the hide of a camel to make it go faster."

It's a great concept, and sometimes the way Evaristo turns about tropes is brilliant. I particularly love the way Europa is exoticized and made Other, from cabbages to clothing to religious rituals to superstitious beliefs. The book is set in the past, I think, although there are the occasional mention of skateboards and trains, but it reminds me more of the deliberate anachronisms in The Emperor's Babe. But because it's set in the past, I feel the point might not get through to some readers, that they too will look at things like witch-burning and drawing-and-quartering and corset-wearing to be foreign and Other, and it will be all too easy to miss how those views and cultures shaped the views and cultures we have now.

On the other hand, I really don't know what Evaristo could have done about that, given that when Doris is at home in Europa, there's also a sense of familiarity instead of Otherness for me, probably just because of what I grew up reading. And there are some pitch-perfect moments, like when the whyte slaves sing old songs from their homeland such as "Happy Birthday" (a song once sung to celebrate a child's entrance into the world) and "Auld Lang Syne."

The narrative itself is brutal in parts, but not surprisingly so, given the subject matter, and the ending was actually happier than I thought it would be. I also love Evaristo's voice, which slips between historical and modern (more frequently modern), and is both tongue in cheek and dead serious at the same time. I wish I knew how she did it.

I don't think the concept entirely succeeds, but honestly, this is the best version of the black/white flip that I've seen, and I say that as someone who is not sure the concept will ever entirely succeed (not because of authorial skill, but just because of how difficult it is to Other the familiar and the multiple levels and complications that have to be addressed to not simplify things or to make it so "Oh, anyone can be racist!"). It's a very impressive reconstruction of the institutions of slavery, not just story of one slave.

Comments

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

But because it's set in the past

I'm not sure I agree with that. In Londolo they have Barbie dolls, a working Underground system, and "Coasta Coffee" shops, among other things, such that taken as a whole the world felt to me very much like a mash-up of past and present. In a sense, that telescoping of everything into one moment is the real trick of the novel. I'd go so far as to say that if anyone read this book and didn't get that point -- how the institutional oppression of the past led to our present -- then they must have read it while half-asleep. If anything I felt slightly worn-out by how often the point was being made; I thought the novel was stronger when it focused on the specifics of Doris's experience, and left that message implicit.

I also didn't think the ending -- as outlined in the postscript -- was happy, though I suppose it could still be happier than you thought it would be. (I liked the postscript because it undercut what seemed to be an improbably happy ending.)

I do think you're absolutely right that the voice Evaristo has created for Doris is a large part of what makes the book work.

[oyceter]

In Londolo they have Barbie dolls, a working Underground system, and "Coasta Coffee" shops, among other things, such that taken as a whole the world felt to me very much like a mash-up of past and present.

Part of my reading of it as the past may be influenced by The Emperor's Babe, which also has elements like brand name fashion (and others that I can't remember right now), although it's set in AD 211. And despite the presence of those elements, I thought the very time-specific references to the beginnings of the Middle Passage indicated that it was set in the past (Doris is a first-generation slave, and although there are slaves who have been there for generations, it felt like the slave trade had not fully been set up where she lived). Also, there are references to New Ambossa as still being a colony, and the middle section written by Bwana very specifically references notions from the Scientific Revolution.

how the institutional oppression of the past led to our present

While I do think Evaristo is pointing out how slavery and colonialism have formed our world today, especially her pointing out beauty standards, I think she's largely critiquing the past, due to the reasons mentioned above (the look at the skience of race, the economy of the colonial world and the Middle Passage). I thought if she were looking at racial issues and institutional oppression today, she would be more closely examining things like white flight and gentrification, the equation of "black" with "urban" and violence and crime, the subtler white-domination of the media, immigration and racism, and the fallout from the colonial period, in which countries ravaged by colonialism are still oppressed by global structures even as they are trying to lift themselves out of poverty.

I think she shows the beginning of that in Europa, from the enslavement of Doris' family along with their landlord, but it feels very much like it is still in the early stages, unlike the state of post-colonial Africa today.

Much of my opinion is also because several other books that attempt to talk about racism frequently do so in context of times when the law is specifically racist (segregation, apartheid, Jim Crow, etc.), and very few of the books that I've seen that attempt to do this talk about aversive racism and the leftovers from these oppressive structures and how people try to ignore the problem exists even though the structures are gone (a la the "MLK marched! Racism is over!" thought).

I also didn't think the ending -- as outlined in the postscript -- was happy, though I suppose it could still be happier than you thought it would be.

Well, it was a slave narrative, so I was actually expecting something substantially more depressing. I don't think it was a happy ending, but I definitely did think it was happier than it could have been.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

re: setting: the thing is, the setting doesn't work in any kind of logical sense. I can't accept that it's set in the past if there are electric trains running around -- electric trains imply too much else. But equally, as you say, there are explicitly historical references and situations that can't be reconciled in the other direction. (If they've got electric trains, why are they still using sailing ships?) And on a larger scale, there are basic physical impossibilities -- the geography and the climate. So the conclusion I draw is that it's not meant to make sense in a traditional sfnal worldbuilding sense, that it exists purely as a warped mirror for us to look into.

I thought if she were looking at racial issues and institutional oppression today, she would be more closely examining things like...

I agree, it's not about those issues per se. But you said in your original post that it might be "easy to miss how those views and cultures shaped the views and cultures we have now"; and that I disagree with, because that sense of these institutions having consequences was something that came across very, very strongly -- at times, as I said, too strongly. And I think that's a consequence of the contemporary references. The commentary on beauty is a perfect example -- when Doris is taken from her home to Londolo she isn't just moving from one place to another, to all intents and purposes she's moving from one time to another as well, Evaristo literally knits together present and past. In other words I think, on one level, it's precisely about that process of institutional oppression shaping the world in which we now live.

[oyceter]

Yeah, the setting completely doesn't work in terms of sfnal worldbuilding in the traditional. Again going with previous knowledge of the author, I was taking it more as metaphor and less as what the sf/f community usually thinks of as worldbuilding; I think most of her other books (and this one too?) are shelved under general fiction. Although geography-wise, I thought it might have worked? At least in terms of the climate. I was really confused at first and thought she had flipped the map and put south at the top (I've seen other maps that do that as a critique of the way flat maps in the US usually have the US in the center and north on top). But the North America analogue is still to the west. So I think Aphrika is still at the equator, but Europa is below the equator, ergo still cold. Although this may not be what you're referring to at all.

You have a good point re: Doris moving not only from one place to another, but one time to another when she escapes Londolo.

But you said in your original post that it might be "easy to miss how those views and cultures shaped the views and cultures we have now"; and that I disagree with, because that sense of these institutions having consequences was something that came across very, very strongly -- at times, as I said, too strongly. And I think that's a consequence of the contemporary references. The commentary on beauty is a perfect example

Gotcha. I have a greater impression of all the non-Londolo scenes, possibly for the very reasons you mention. Although I do still think she could have tackled more in the Londolo/modern scenes: she takes a few examples and heavily emphasizes them as opposed to painting a complete picture of the world and how intertwined the effects of slavery are on almost everything. I didn't express myself well in the post; what I want is something like our world, in which the relative positions of countries on the development scale is directly related to how much colonization they have suffered or how they have benefited from imperialism, how richer countries can offshore things like environmentally harmful practices and hard labor, how almost everything we have—universities, the scientific method, capitalism, medicine, etc.—is built on this structure, and how this has happened so thoroughly that many people don't even think about it.

But then, I am not sure if it's even possible to do that in a book, because to have it there may be to draw attention to it, which already undermines how invisible and taken-for-granted these things are in our world.

So I think I agree with you re: the unsubtlety, but I think that is because I wanted a broader scope and felt Evaristo was focusing on one or two things and not on a host of others, and because I think she focuses on what is already fairly obvious. I wanted to think more about the still-unconsciously racist ways I view the world, like the jolt of surprise I got from "Happy birthday" being sung as a folk song. I'm not sure if we are talking about the same things though?

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I think most of her other books (and this one too?) are shelved under general fiction.

Certainly in the UK they are (I haven't read them, but was aware of The Emperor's New Babe).

Although geography-wise, I thought it might have worked? At least in terms of the climate.

You're right about the equator! It's marked on the map in the UK edition. Can't believe I didn't notice that. That certainly helps, though I still don't think the shapes of the continents work with what we understand of plate tectonics -- I find it hard to extrapolate back to this world's Pangaea.

what I want is something like our world, in which the relative positions of countries on the development scale is directly related to how much colonization they have suffered or how they have benefited from imperialism

Ah, right. Yes, that would be different (and probably very interesting). Though I agree that I can't see how you'd do that without the point being to draw attention to it. It could be written with an oblivious protagonist, I'm sure, but that would be a way of drawing attention in itself, and might turn off many readers to boot.

I think that is because I wanted a broader scope and felt Evaristo was focusing on one or two things and not on a host of others, and because I think she focuses on what is already fairly obvious. I wanted to think more about the still-unconsciously racist ways I view the world, like the jolt of surprise I got from "Happy birthday" being sung as a folk song. I'm not sure if we are talking about the same things though?

I think we are now talking about almost the same things, yes. In the sense that you're talking about, I also had the sense that Evaristo was focusing on one or two things a bit too heavily.

What I really liked about the third part of the book is that, having been in Londolo, it felt like going back in time again to show the start of the process whereby a transplanted culture metamorphoses in response to that transplantation. Which in a sense is to say it felt more traditionally sfnally world-building. But the use of "Happy Birthday", and the other songs, was very striking.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Did you see Gwyneth Jones' review (http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2008/10/blonde_roots_by.shtml)? I like her take on it.

[oyceter]

I just did and spent all weekend thinking about my reaction to it. skywardprodigal's comment on the review crystallized things for me:

"How do you live with knowing that the precondition of your being is the rape, abduction, murder of your ancestors?

I don't. Because the shame is not mine. My question is how do YOU live with the knowing that your current existence is built on rape, war, and slaughter for obscene wealth?"

Like skywardprodigal, I had a big problem with the final paragraph of the review. I particularly had a problem with how it reframes the quote at the beginning from "what to do" to "how do you live." Because that implies that being a product of unwilling slavery and rape and abduction is a shame, and Skyward Prodigal gets it right when she says the shame is not hers. It reminds me a lot of the language used around rape and how it always focuses on the survivor (except they're usually called "victim" in the paper), how the rapist usually get erased from the picture. I am not, of course, saying rape and slavery are the same, but I do think the rhetoric surrounding them have similarities and that those similarities arise for the same reason.

I have problems with Jones' statements: "the exercise of taking the blame a release" and "Take a rest from the horrible burden of your innocence" for the same reasons. I really don't understand why taking the blame and being the enslavers and murderers and rapists is somehow a "release" from a "horrible burden."

I read the book largely as something meant to be educational to white readers—read about slavery when it's your customs and your history—and funny to black readers—I for one was vindictively pleased by how African culture is finally seen in a good light and the satirization of all the justifications for slavery, although I think that response is possible without also identifying with the enslavers. I am not sure about readers of other races; one of my main questions was if Aphrika had colonized India and addicted China to opium the way the British Empire did.

I read Jones' review as written by someone who hasn't had to think about being the product of colonization. Frex, I spent most of my adolescence and college years thinking about the colonization of China and why there was the very prevalent idea that it was "inevitable" and that China was "weak" and Britain was "strong" (again with the caveat that the colonization of China was nowhere near as devastating as the colonization of Africa). I liked the idea of inevitability and that no one was to blame very early on, because I had internalized that China was to blame for its own colonization. After reading more and learning more, I discovered that my anger and my sense of injustice and my outrage is leveled not at China for being colonized, but at the Western European, USian, and Japanese powers doing the colonizing.

So it feels to me as though Jones is still in the mindset that the colonized are weak and that innocence is somehow "horrible."

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

I do think you're absolutely right that the voice Evaristo has created for Doris is a large part of what makes the book work.

I agree with this. I didn't actually like Doris very much, and I think that was a good thing--she wasn't a martyr or a hero, just a person trying to hang on to her personhood in the face of incredible pressure. She's not always likeable, which makes her recognizable and easy to identify with, and makes the overall story arc stronger. Being nice isn't a prerequisite for being human and being treated as human.

[oyceter]

Being nice isn't a prerequisite for being human and being treated as human.

Yes, exactly! Also, I have to say, I really sympathized with her when she (spoilers!) pushed Little Miracle off a cliff. I don't condone murder in real life! But still... really sympathized.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Sounds cool, I hadn't heard of this one. Have you read Barnes' LION'S BLOOD? I dug out my copy in case anyone wanted to borrow it.

[oyceter]

I haven't! *reads summary* Ooooo, must see if library has that one...

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

Sounds horribly uncomfortable--I must read it!

[oyceter]

Hee! I didn't actually find it that uncomfortable, largely because I was enjoying analyzing what she was doing. And though I don't have a great grasp on slavery, I think I have enough of an outline to not be surprised by anything in the book.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I love stuff like this. Thanks for the review!

[oyceter]

No problem! Will be interested in what you think if you read it!

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

I liked the conceit of flipping the real-world paradigm, but I think that in the end, the conceit became more important than the story. Maybe if you didn't know how unrelentingly brutal the slave trade was, especially in the Caribbean, if you'd never read any slave narratives, it would have been eye-opening. I did like the idea of the familiar being othered, like you mention with the slaves singing "spirituals" that a modern reaser would recognize as traditional Anglican hymns, or the idea that the Aphrikans viewed monogamy as an example of selfishness. But Evarista did so much of the direct one-to-one parallel that it felt to me like the book turned into a game of "spot the reference".

Part of the problem is that I went into it expecting an alternate history where one thing changed, altering everything down the line. In Evaristo's alternate history, one thing changed--and for the most part, except for some name changes, everything else stayed the same.

By the end, I wasn't sure what the author's message was. There but for the grace of go you? It takes enormous courage to survive in a world where there's a concerted effort to strip you of everything, especially your humanity? Given absolute power over another human being, people will inevitably abuse it? All of those seemed blindingly obvious, so I was left feeling like I must have missed something.

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

I liked the conceit of flipping the real-world paradigm, but I think that in the end, the conceit became more important than the story.

I'm a reader that really enjoys meta-textual dorkiness like the conceit of the book. It does trouble me when authors get too into the meta jokes/references and lose sight of the actual narrative. Except when the point of the book really just is the meta-text (like the "Tuesday Next" books). Except that this book seems to actually be about serious business, not jokes. Which makes the lapse really frustrating.

Reading slave narratives completely blew my mind. To go from "well yes slavery was quite awful, let me show you some graphs and statistics" to someone telling you first person about the horrors is really a mind fuck.

[oyceter]

Definitely agree that the book might be more eye-opening for people with less knowledge about the slave trade (and I don't actually know that much about it either, only enough to know that most things portrayed in the book was the rule and not the exception).

By the end, I wasn't sure what the author's message was.

After thinking about it a while, all I can come up with is it's mostly a wake-up call for white people or an attempt to get them to sympathize. And for black people... a way to vindictively laugh when all the rhetoric excusing slavery is made Africa-friendly and Europe-phobic. Uh, or maybe the vindictive laughter is only for mean and petty people like me.

As for other non-white people/POC, I wasn't sure. I was really wondering if the Native American genocide had still happened and if Ambossa was still trying to colonize China (it seemed so, given the settling of the New World and the West Japanese Islands).

[shati.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is a silly comment about what sounds like a complicated book, but: omg, "skience"! I think that alone might be enough to make me pick it up once I have free time again.

[oyceter]

Alas! I don't think Evaristo ever uses the term "skience." I got it off the internet somewhere and have been using it to describe the "science" of race because I refuse to call it "science"!

[seajules]

This sounds really interesting. Thank you for writing it up!

[oyceter]

No prob!