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Today I continue my series on ReaderCon with notes on"The Real Middle Ages." Part I focused on medieval Europe, while Part II focused on the world outside of Europe. Both panels talked about how the Middle Ages have been misrepresented in popular narratives, and how we might go about writing stories that are more faithful to history and to different cultures.
I've paraphrased the panelists' words, and apologize in advance for any mistakes or mis-representations - let me know by leaving a comment and I will fix it. Part I (Also check out Paul Weimer's notes on the panel.) Panelists: Charles Allison, Robert Killheffer, Chelsea R. Miller (moderator), Jess Nevins, Faye Ringel Description: Medieval Europe was a hotbed of interaction among people of different cultures and ethnicities, so there’s no reason for fantasy novels with medieval-like settings to be blandly homogeneous. Panelists will discuss how popular narratives of medieval Europe misrepresent known history, how these narratives serve white supremacist movements, and how writers can do better by readers by basing their worldbuilding on Europe as it really was. Highlights from panel discussion: Inventing the narrative of the Middle Ages CA: The image of Europe as a sequestered place during the Middle Ages, not influenced by other lands, is absurd. A simple version of history is an agenda. CM: Medievalism in pop culture tells us less about medieval world, and more about the ecology where it’s written. Check out Shiloh Carroll’s book on medievalism in A Song of Ice and Fire. FR: The Middle Ages is always being reinvented to mirror what people are looking for at the time. The very idea of “middle” started as pejorative. It was coined during the Italian Renaissance, to imply all the “middle” stuff between them the Roman empire was bad. On the flip side, countries often use their “history” in the middle ages for the sake of nation-building, for example, the Kalevala from Finland. CA: Saying that Mongols are oppressors is a simplistic narrative. A lot of Russian and Muscovite culture comes from Mongol/steppe influence. As James Halper said, even hostilities require a degree of intimacy. “You sacrifice accuracy for a narrative you find compelling… Fantasy is a key part of history.” RK: Rulers create backstories for their countries to legitimize their rule. The idea of “national types/characters” is that the place a person is from tells you something about them. CM: There is a history of European national leaders abusing their historical stories for nationalistic purposes. For example, Francesco Franco invoked the memory of Spain’s medieval past. JN: Check out the book Inventing the middle ages. RK: Mythmaking is not unique to 19th century Europe. Early Anglo-Saxons rulers made up genealogies to include Jesus and Caesar. CA: Europe got heavy cavalry from steppe cultures. This runs counter to the standard white nationalist narrative of a sequestered Europe. CM: What ways are white supremacist transforming the past? What are ways writers and readers can respond? FR: The name King Arthur Flour came from the association of medievalism with whiteness, purity, and strength. The KKK saw themselves as descendants of noble Scots clans and dressed with what they imagined as 15th and 16th century clothes. JN: The white nationalist website Stormfront gives a history of the white race, leaving out everyone who’s not white; it constructs a reactionary version of the middle ages. The son of the cofounder read up on the middle ages and defected from his family and the movement, getting a degree in medieval studies. RK: Respond using facts! Anyone open to facts will have to change their mind; facts overwhelm simplistic stories. CA: Check out primary sources from other countries interacting with medieval Europe. A great book is The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition by Al-Nuwayri. Open to any page and it’s fascinating; you see a historical account of a battle, or how to cure a hangover, or erotic poetry next to an article denouncing erotic poetry. Q: Tell us about another culture that has interacted with medieval Europe. FR: I want to point out the Jewish contribution. When I was starting grad school, nobody was writing about it. There are huge amounts waiting for translation to be accessible, such as the Yiddish King Arthur story, and the story of the Jewish troubadours. RK: Arabic literature had a large influence. Research in the 1990’s and 2000’s revealed the extent of the interaction. JN: I’m fascinated with individuals who cross borders. In 1102, a Sudanese man accompanied crusaders to North France, and became the hangman of Lyon, France. He was even more Black Adder than Black Adder. The crusader was killed by a mob, and there was no evidence of what happened to the hangman (named John). He was wandering around Northern France. Someone needs to write this story! CM: I like to focus on places with intercultural interactions, like the Mediterranean and North Africa. Part II Panelists: Charles Allison, Carolyn Ives Gilman, Anna Kashina (moderator), Chelsea R. Miller, Walt Williams Description: Writers looking for alternatives to cod-medieval European settings don’t need to look far. The years 500 to 1500 C.E. were times of tremendous cultural and technological change around the world. Novelties of that period included Islam, paper money, and fast-ripening rice; the Incan Empire, Great Zimbabwe, and the Tang Dynasty flourished. Which non-European settings of the 6th to 16th centuries have been successfully used as the basis for fantasy lands, and which might writers find particularly inspiring? Highlights from Panel Discussion: CG: The origin of science fiction and fantasy can be traced to travel literature of the Elizabethan era; it similarly evoked a sense of wonder. Some non-European settings CA: There is a range of contradictions and varieties in a small area. For example, going from Yucatan to the border with Texas:
How do you approach research? WW: I look at the literature of people I’m writing about. This gives the internal view. I recommend Cynthia Ward and Nisi Shawl’s book Writing the Other. CM: Stay abreast of recent scholarship. Folks are trying to make it broadly accessible. CG: There is no substitute for visiting the people themselves. Find differences in attitudes, in the way people look at the world. CG: Non-western civilizations have different ways of telling stories, different narrative structure and language; it’s non-Aristotelian. Western readers find it deeply unsatisfying. Just by transforming them to stories satisfying to Western readers, we are distorting and colonizing them. CG (?): My research is on Brazil. I find a ton of stuff searching in Portuguese on YouTube. People film their local festivals. At the local market there will be someone selling DVD’s. They’re wicked good.
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by Holden Lee
Today I continue my series on ReaderCon with notes on the panel "Latinx authors break down the wall." The panelists discussed their experiences growing up, the history of immigration to the US, the community's struggle with racism, and the role of fiction in helping combat racism and break stereotypes. Below, I'll share some of the highlights from the discussion. I've paraphrased the panelists' words, and apologize in advance for any mistakes or mis-representations - let me know by leaving a comment and I will fix it. Panelists: Lisa Bradley (moderator), Carlos Hernandez, José Pablo Iriarte, Julia Rios Description: Isolationist governments portray immigrants (and citizens perceived as foreigners) as vectors for disease, crime, and terrorism. Currently, the U.S. administration is demonizing Latinx immigrants in this fashion, and oppressing asylum-seekers from Central America. How can authors dismantle anti-immigrant myths while portraying immigrants in all their human complexity? Led by Lisa M. Bradley, Latinx writers will discuss their work regarding borders and immigration, providing historical context and exploring possibilities for future stories. Highlights from panel discussion: CH: After Fidel Castro took power, the US had the wet foot dry foot policy: If a Cuban could put one foot on American soil, they were allowed in and embraced, and if they were caught on the strait, they were sent back. (The policy was recently rescinded by the Obama administration.) After Castro came to power, Cubans went from being perceived as exotic like other Caribbean people, to being perceived as freedom fighters. This gave Cubans a position of privilege compared to other Latin Americans, though they still faced racism. White is not a color; it is an ideological position. The Irish were not considered white for a long time. JPI: There are differences in status within the Miami Cuban population - people divided themselves based on who had left the country earlier. JR: My father is from Mexico, but in our family we internalized the idea that the best way to be successful is to be as white as possible. My parents didn’t want to teach us Spanish. My dad wanted me to know my heritage without being part of it. LB: Where we settle in the US has an effect on how we’re treated. CH: Florida is its own brand of weird - ask Google to auto-complete “A Florida man.” I grew up in Sarasota. The average age is deceased (older than the average life expectancy). It is the high school drinking capital. Even within the Latinx community, people have set up microwalls with each other. There is homophobia and different levels of racism based on skin color. JR: There’s a difference between rural and urban communities. Los Angeles has a giant Mexican population, with more Mexican-Americans than whites. It still feeds to white privilege, but urban communities benefit from having a big community, through newspapers, festivals, and activism. Rural communities don't enjoy those privileges. We moved to rural Southern California. It is very red and has a significant Latinx population, much of which was farm workers. White people own farms, and Latinx people work. I picked strawberries in the summer. Latinx workers were devalued and paid little. People who were much better at picking than me were likely paid less because the owners thought I was white. LB: Children of immigrants are part of two different cultures. What kinds of conflicts and identity issues arise? JPI: I keep writing about children of immigrants “stuck between two cultures.” We are expected to honor our heritage, but it conflicts with the dominant culture. I grew up in the “shadow of Havana,” in its re-creation in Florida. I have never been to Cuba, and if I traveled there, it would be as a tourist, but I feel a loyalty to the culture, and obligations to the land. CH: I visited Cuba in 1997 as part of an educational exchange (and brought back $200 worth of cuban cigars, legally). I saw the devastation of Havana. It looks like a slow-motion bombing had happened over four decades. The Cuba that existed is preserved in Miami now - the idealistic version, with money. It’s said that the “three failures” of the revolution are breakfast, lunch, and dinner. JR: I’m half-Mexican; my mother is white and Protestant. I didn’t fit with either side of my family. People who spoke Spanish as their first language were often defensive, lashing out at anyone who didn’t speak Spanish. When you feel powerless, you gain the only power you can, by lashing out at other people. I took Spanish in high school. My father yelled at me when I made mistakes; I had a big mental block from learning the language for a long time. JR: My ideal world is a world without borders. Open borders create economic prosperity. After Brexit, people didn’t actually want to leave, because no other deal looks good; they need immigrants for industry. There was a community meeting on immigration policies in Somerville. The major said: we love immigrants, and we need you to work in the hotel and casino that’s opening. The meaning was: We want you here - and out of sight. JR: We need fiction showing Latinx characters being human, and we need a variety of voices, for a chorus effect. JPI: Studies show that readers are more capable of empathy; they learn to live outside themselves. Marginalized communities get value from seeing themselves in print. Non-marginalized readers get value from seeing us in print and identifying with us. JR: People change when they see others who don’t seem to share an identity with - and then see themselves in those people. CH: Fiction plays the long game. A book here now can keep talking 75 years from now, reverberating and inspiring others to write things. There are things to work on inside our communities: the bullshit machismo that permeates the culture, homophobia, and position against women. I grew up on the show Salvador Gigante, which had naked women dancing around onstage. JPI: Criticism is easier to take from people within the community. JR: Racism is not just a problem in the US; it’s also in Latinx countries. When a country is colonized, being like the colonizer is ideal, so people prized whiteness. “Limpia de la sangre,” purity of the blood, is racism based on how much Spanish/Indio heritage one has. Check out Polloman, a Mexican mythology comic coming out in 2020. by Holden Lee
Today I continue my series on ReaderCon with two panels on how to engage with the writing community. The first panel is about choosing a writing program or workshop, and the second is on joining or creating a local or online writers' group. Writing Craft and Mentoring Programs There are now more MFA and writing programs than ever before. This panel addresses the question: how to choose between them? The main distinction is between intensive workshops and credentialing programs (such as MFA’s). Intensive workshops develop critiquing facilities that you can turn onto your own work, as well as create instant community and give you a mutual support system. A credentialing (degree) program won’t do more for your editing skills than a workshop will, but is important if you want to teach writing. A degree program is like an apprenticeship, so if you decide to apply, pay attention to who you’re going to be studying with, and whether they are good teachers. Also consider what kind of program is right for you, such as whether you want a full-time or a low-residency program. Beyond the high-profile workshops (Clarion, Odyssey), there are many local workshops and classes, for example, Grub Street in Boston and Gotham Writers in New York, as well as online classes such as Odyssey and Writing the Other. The panelists also gave some recommendations for books on writing: Steering the Craft, Ursula Le Guin and Story, Robert McKee. Finally, Kenneth Schneyer offered some motivational words (loosely paraphrased): "Rejection is part of an artists’ life. Be accustomed to the experience without being crushed, and get used to resending things. I’m reasonably successful, and my acceptance rate is 9%." Making First Contact with Your Local Speculative Fiction Community ReaderCon and other national conventions are great, but how else can you connect with the writing community in the meantime? The panelists gave a lot of suggestions for connecting with the writing community, both locally and online. Here is a list:
by Holden Lee Last time, I wrote about the wonderful time I had at Readercon. Today I'll kick off a series of posts about specific panels and talks, with one on class struggle in science fiction and fantasy. I'll give a quick summary of the panel as well as highlights from the discussion. I've paraphrased the panelists' words, and apologize in advance for any mistakes or mis-representations - let me know by leaving a comment and I will fix it. Panelists: Malka Older, Sarah Smith, Cadwell Turnbull, Catherynne M. Valente, T.X. Watson (moderator) Description (from program): With rising economic inequality and class struggle ever more visible in America, how are these issues being explored in SF/F? Is the pessimism of YA dystopias (from Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, published at the start of the Great Recession, to M.T. Anderson’s Landscape with Invisible Hand in 2017) emblematic of changed views of the American Dream? How do recent works differ from their 20th-century forebears (Nancy Kress’s Beggars in Spain), and how are they tackling the intersection of class and other identities? Summary: The need to have a hero in a story can bias a story towards middle and high-class characters, and means that a large portion of the human experience is left out. It is also not faithful to reality, because actual history is more often shaped by a large group of people rather than a single hero. Many mundane acts of heroism are also systematically ignored. Stories have to follow individual characters, but we can show them embedded in their organizations or communities and focus more on those dynamics. Stories need to be engaging, but that also means we can talk about difficult issues through “vampires and robots.” The stories that we consume affect the way that we see the world, for example, through hero worship. It’s a double-edged sword. Highlights from panel discussion:
CV: As genres, science fiction and fantasy often have trouble dealing with class because the hero is often the one who has enough spare time to pursue a plot or mystery. People who are not part of the elite (e.g., the nobility or technical elite) don’t have time to figure out what’s going on, only the time to face things as they come. Fantasy especially has trouble with this because the nobility are the “movers and shakers of history”; at best you get the middle class (“fat hobbits”). CT: A novel has to follow a person or small group to some climax, but actual history is seldom shaped by a few people. It’s more often shaped by a large group, including many people who don’t get named. Speculative fiction could do a lot to explore movements: how large groups of people work together to change society. The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin does a good job. MO: We act as if we’re past monarchy, but a lot of things in our world came from the Victorian age. For example, breakfast buffets in hotels are an aristocratic tradition. CV: We are still in a oligarchy; we are in a new gilded age. We have been “convinced as a culture to cheerlead capitalism, and specific players in capitalism.” Consider how much geek fandom is invested in the Avengers endgame. Disney doesn’t care about us! Media companies are making a ridiculous amount of money convincing us to consume their stuff as a fun hobby. Corporations are “making us complicit in our own oppression, and [making us] find it entertaining.” SS: It’s difficult to write a book about work, and about how politics works at a ground level. I think we can write more interesting novels if we can concentrate on how economic systems really work. Question: How do you address the fundamental difficulty that stories have to be about individual people, not about systems? MO: I’m fascinated by organizations, and group dynamics. Working as part of an organization, you can see yourself as a hero for a certain amount of time, but after a while you can’t keep tricking yourself. In stories, you need characters to identify with; I can’t be intrigued by abstractions. But we can show characters enmeshed in the organizations they’re working for. In the modern world we consume a lot of content. If I don’t have a stack of good stories within easy reach I get nervous. Consuming this much affects how our brains mediate the world, and frames our experiences. We put the popular narratives as frames on everything we see. This can both be a good and bad thing. We imagine people as heroes, because plots are built around individual heroes. We imagine romance where there isn’t any. What we think of as fundamental aspects of story are not fundamental - they’ve changed over history. Sometimes we’re right because others act on the same impulses, and so the story sense is a kind of intuition, but sometimes it’s false. We need to be critical of the narratives we’re consuming and imagining. CV: We are motivated to take the stories we read and bring them into the real world. Consider the amount of worship that people direct towards Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and other billionaires. Trump is a “real world Tony Stark” (from Iron Man). We want to live in a world where someone comes to save the day. Elon Musk has been terrible for the class struggle; he was born with privilege upon privilege; his claimed inventions aren’t invented by him. But he bends narrative energy towards him, so people see him as a way to live in a different story. CT: There’s a drive towards exceptionalism in stories: a super-competent hero saves the day. A challenge is to write normal people, facing something traumatic in their normal lives. MO: Consider people who are heroes in your and other people’s lives. It’s hard to find these heroes in the news; they are unknown or disappear immediately; it’s hard to anchor them in your head. The things we are told are heroic are not as heroic or exciting as the things we ignore completely. For example, pregnancy and childbirth are largely ignored in science fiction. But pregnancy is a heroic journey, and much more guaranteed to have pain than the journey of throwing a ring in the volcano. We think of it as mundane, unexciting, unremarkable. But this kind of heroism doesn’t have to be boring - think about the struggle to feed one’s family. CV: Pregnancy shows up in horror stories. But childbirth and early childrearing are ignored, and used as a way to get rid of a woman character. Breastfeeding is a class marker that has switched. It used to be that wealthy people used baby formula; breastfeeding was seen as vulgar and obscene. Now, it’s wealthy women who have the time to breastfeed, and the poor who use a formula because they have to go back to work. Even women don’t write about these things because they think it’s not novel-worthy. Similarly, war is worthy and education is not. (Though, education and childrearing are talked about in AI stories.) There is nothing in life that class does not permeate. Art has no obligation but to tell the truth, but if you are not involving class you are probably not telling the truth. Question: We eat nutritious food (stories tackling important issues) and pizza (popular fiction). Where capitalism booms, are we doomed to pizza? CT: Spinach pizza? If you create a beautiful thing, you can sneak in a lot of cool stuff and people will support it. CV: This is where science fiction and fantasy shine. We can write about class struggle with vampires and robots. It’s not fun without vampires and robots, because we read about it in the newspaper every day. But because we write in genres, it goes down easier, in a way that people will remember more, because they were not expecting to get a lecture on class struggle. MO: Fun is a highly underrated quality in literature. Writing about class, slavery, etc. doesn’t have to contradict fun; the writing and voice can be strong and enjoyable. Q: Does human nature make utopia impossible? CT: We need to get away from merit-based systems. The punishment for not winning the cherry-pie-eating contest should not be abject poverty. The bottom line should be nice and solid, so no one is falling through it. MO: There are many ways to organize society. We’ve designed society to incentivize certain ways of sucking. There are new societies we haven’t tried yet. We won’t know until we go out and try. |
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