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

[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.