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

[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.