More on Jay Kristoff and Stormdancer

[karenhealey]

A brief follow up to my previous post, because dammit I really do have lots to do today:

From this interview:

How much research did you have to do with regards to authenticity?

Less than people seem to think. It's kinda odd - I've had people ask if I did a degree in Japanese studies, but the closest I've come is reading all six volumes of AKIRA in a week. Maybe I'd picked up a lot of detail through film and manga that I've consumed down through the years, but Wikipedia was really my go-to-guy. I have a friend who lives in Japan who I bounce ideas off too. I pay him with the promise of booze.

Good lord.

From a review that talks (among other things) about some of the misuse of Japanese language conventions, which would bounce me right out of the book even if the rest of it were superb and I had never read these interviews:

Let's start with my primary nails-on-a-chalkboard issue, the usage of the words "hai" and "sama", shall we? Here are a few examples of these words in action in Stormdancer:

Sama:
"That is more than fair." [...] "Ameterasu bless your kindness, sama."
"I want for nothing. Thank you, sama."
"He slew Boukyaku, young sama. The sea dragon who consumed the island of Takaiyama."
"Honor to you, great sama."
"What is Raijin song, sama?"
"Forgiveness, sama."
"Apologies, sama."

So. Yeah.

Comments

[recessional]

OH GOD.

*hides from second-hand embarrassment*

[starlady]

OMFG. And we're done.

[owlectomy]

I am writing (hahahah still) a book that's set in a Japan-inspired fantasy world.

I have read... a lot of books. I have read books written in Japanese, in the 1920s, about working conditions in silk factories. And I am still very concerned about what I'm okay with changing (because it's fantasy, not real Japan) and what I'm okay with simplifying and what I'm okay with not knowing.

I want to give this guy a good yelling-at.

*headdesk*

[lirazel.livejournal.com]

Look, you know I'm not always the most clueful person in the room, but this is just... too outrageous to have words assigned to it.

I mean, if research is so (and you know I don't use this word lightly) goddamn hard for the poor boy (and the barely-concealed scorn for writers who, like, you know, WORK and stuff is a whole 'nother rant), all he had to do was to take careful note of how the Avatar dudes dealt with martial arts to get the idea that maybe, just maybe, a teeeensy bit more respect would make the book better.

[ironed_orchid]

Wow. Poster child for doing research wrong.

[lemon_badgeress]

Oh my god. Thank you. I was going to pick up that book and look at it, and I would have regretted doing so for the rest of my life.

[lauredhel]

I had just put that on my TBR, too. *off to Goodreads*

[kateelliott]

As a data point, I note the novel received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and from Kirkus Reviews. Not that I'm cynical, but the white male viewpoint seems to be comforting for many readers (and even reviewers!).

[hawkwing_lb]

Unasked, St Martin's sent me a review copy. I have been side-eyeing it for over two months, wondering whether my instinctive "..." reaction to "Japanese-flavoured" steampunk by non-Japanese guy was justified.

Yeah. Yeah, I think now probably it is, in this case.

[kateelliott]

Sadly, there is probably some non Japanese guy who can write an interesting. thoughtful, well researched, and not particularly appropriative Japanese steampunk book. Maybe one question is: would that guy get starred reviews if it doesn't fall into preconceived notions of and exotification of Japan? While the other obvious question is: will a Japanese guy even get an English language publication with all the push this guy is getting?

[drcuriosity]

I'd love to see Japanese-authored Steampunk. The only stuff I know of going on over there at the moment is the band Strange Artifact, though.

[hawkwing_lb]

Sigh. Yes, and I can't help thinking that the answers to those questions are going to be on the dispiriting side.

[karenhealey]

I have a couple of those too (and you do also, I believe, and if not you certainly ought to!) And I KNOW I did stuff wrong, and I actually did a buttload of research. I think a lot (not all!) of the established print reviewers are just perhaps not equipped to notice (or maybe care). But established print reviewers aren't really who I think of when I write.

And yeah, agreed about the comfort factor of the white male viewpoint, because that's what we're culturalised to see as the normative, and that is the very essence of comfort - the cosy sense of the familiar.

[kateelliott]

I've been thinking a great deal lately about how much REAFFIRMATION influences comfort levels with fiction, and perhaps has a deal to do with which books reach the widest audience. The old business about "greatest common denominator" tended to privilege "elite" readers at the expense of the "common" readers, but more and more I am coming to believe that all levels of readers can, if they do not stop to examine how they are reading and with what assumptions and desires they are reading, feel most comfortable with the fiction that reaffirms what they already believe to be true. I mean, I know *I do*.

So a book for a US/UK audience that exoticizes what I'll call a Disney/Hollywood version of Japan and which retains a male gaze despite being told from pov of a girl, will as you say retain that comfort factor. "The very essence of comfort" indeed.

Data point: My novel King's Dragon got a starred review in PW in 1997. That's my only one (Kirkus hasn't reviewed me in the 21st c). But I have to say that the rise of social media has given me the chance to see and sometimes interact with the readers who care and who get it. I value that so much.

[karenhealey]

Data point: My novel King's Dragon got a starred review in PW in 1997. That's my only one

Okay, that's just fucking ridiculous.

[deborah]

I am ... surprised. Both Kirkus children's/YA reviewer stable in general and our editor in particular are usually primed for noticing all the red flags (and I haven't read this book, but that misuse of sama and hai, as well as the sarariman, made me cringe). We tend to be more sensitive about appropriation and misuse than many of the other journals, in my observation. That being said, any group heavily populated by American children's and YA librarians is going to have cultural biases and blindnesses of our own, and our editor is the first to admit to that. I shudder to think of what's made it past my radar as a reviewer.

[oyceter]

ARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

[karenhealey]

IT'S LIKE FINGERNAILS ON THE BLACKBOARD OF MY SOULLLLLLL

[genarti]

Nnnnnnnnngh.

Well, that answers that. Egad.

From the FAQ on his website

[birke]

"I've tried to be as accurate as possible with my use of Japanese terminology and honorifics, and recruited a dirty posse of badass Japanese speaking folks to help me with my translations. But I did co-opt a few terms for my own nefarious reasons, and I am gaijin at the end of the day. Hopefully no offense is caused. This is fantasy folks, not international frackin' diplomacy."

My dad is an international diplomat. He helps organize cultural and academic exchanges -- including fellowships for writers to do research in other countries. It's quotidian stuff, no high-level save-the-world negotiations. But it's the kind of thing that Kristoff could have benefited from, and it's the kind of thing that creates the understandings that make saving the world unnecessary. Engaging with other countries, even through art, is essentially an act of amateur diplomacy, and it helps if you realize that's what you're doing instead of assigning responsibility to the professionals. That tends to result in them having to clean up your mess.

[carrie_ironhorse]

Oh, ow.

Not knowing what came before you is a really excellent way to look like a fool. Not doing your research, likewise. But this lack of awareness, sensitivity, and give-a-damn is almost impressive in its magnitude.