Tortall and Colonialism

[spheralunaris]

As any reader of the Tortall books knows, the discussion of race, colonialism, and imperialism improves as TP herself grows and improves as a writer. One drawback of published work is that you are stuck with your early mistakes, so the somewhat simplistic world-building of early Tortall ‘verse could not be scrapped as TP’s ideas clearly became more

Comments

[team_fen]

I keep erasing things I type. Fraught topic, indeed. I'm just going to avoid talking about this: colonized peoples brought to submit to their conquerors by legitimizing through religious ritual the rule of a white man who literally becomes their effing *voice*?! WTF TP!, except to say, yes, exactly

[spheralunaris]

Well, see, this is just it--this is why I hate thinking about hard things. It's like responsibility of TP's bad idea falls on Jon and either you are stuck making him a white man's burden asshole or an unabashedly scheming, exploitative asshole (or some combination of the two) and I don't want to make him a villain, or at least that sort of villain. Ugh.

[anait]

Thank you for making this post. It was amazing to read, because it sounds like you are on the same page with Tortall as me right now. Though I would argue with this:

As any reader of the Tortall books knows, the discussion of race, colonialism, and imperialism improves as TP herself grows and improves as a writer.

With the best of intentions, I don't think that her later, more-researched, more 'aware' books are any less fail-y than her early ones. The early ones bother me less, because it is ignorance pure and simple, and her ignorance was and is shared by many; it was probably published unchallenged at that time. I think, I hope, that greater awareness has changed standards in publishing a little since the Alanna and Daine books were first published. Yes, to everything that you said about the Bazhir, and also: why, in a fictional fantasy world, must the escaped slaves from Carthak be black???

But her attempts in the later books make me cringe so much more because she put more thought and research into these matters. And I

[spheralunaris]

As soon as I read your comment, I agreed with you intellectually, but part of me still felt that new books were much better about race, but considering the extreme marginalization of non-white characters, I couldn't figure out why I felt that way. And then I realized it was because I have a bad habit of creating canon-in-my-head and forgetting to separate it from actual canon. What TP improves in significantly I think is world-building wtr race

[anait]

Sorry for the delayed reply! I've been away for a few days.

creating canon-in-my-head and forgetting to separate it from actual canon.
Yes, I do this all the time. It's fun! (But confusing, when I realize that the things that I made up are not actual canon details).

But because she does give us these throwaway non-white characters at all (who is there in the early books beyond the token Bazhir?) and at least provides a hint of backstory, it spawns amazing fic.Hmm. I've read the story you linked to, and it is very imaginative. I liked it a lot. I appreciate the fanfic that takes the non-Tortallan countries and characters and builds on them creatively wrt culture and worldview, but it is kind of rare. Heather, Hanakazari/Skyscope, Trisana McGraw and Picassini are all writers who do this well. I wish there were more

[spheralunaris]

I feel like Onua is just waiting for a good fic to be written about her, well all of the Saren characters really and I agree--the potential is there but not very many fic when you start looking (maybe Goldenlake needs to promote an "immigration/emigration" drabble series--I think the concept applies to just about every single character in Tortall 'verse including the main cast!)

re: Jon--this is just my problem. As soon as I start thinking about colonialism and appropriation and the Bazhir I cannnot *cannot* like Jon in the insufferable sort of way I usually do and I think this is why for the longest time I haven't wanted to think about it and just wanted the books to be "fun".

building characters from the inside out Yes. Damn, you make me want to write this fic. I seem to keep having my own TP plotbunnies sicced on me lately

[zahrawithaz]

Hey--I clicked through from your comment on anait's criticism of Merlin 2.03, and I really liked this piece and the discussion here. I've only read the 4 Alanna books and don't know anything about Tortall fandom or the later books (except to sense that there's a general All About the White People vibe), but I really love seeing other people take this issues of colonialism and imperialism and race in fantasy as seriously as I do. Thanks for posting this!

[spheralunaris]

Thanks for reading!

In my opinion, those first 4 Alanna books are really the worst I think when it comes to racefail. TP does get better, so you shouldn't give up on the series because of my rant (sorry, couldn't resist the shameless plug for a fandom I enjoy!). I know I'm just barely scratching the surface here though, but it's hard to take a work you enjoy and try to begin figuring out how you can still salvage portions of it even if other bits are too awful for words if you begin to allow yourself to think about them.

[zahrawithaz]

So what books of TP's would you recommend? I do have that strangely-shaped salvaging muscle you mention (I enjoy the Percy Jackson series, for instance, despite its truly terrible racial problems, because it's so very good with female characters), but it's been feeling overtaxed by various forms of racefail lately.