September 2012

I am currently taking a graduate-level course on Asian-American literature, which includes a considerable amount of theory, criticism, historical documents, and so on.  While reading the preface to Aiiieeeee!, an anthology of Asian-American writers edited by Frank Chin, Jeffery Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada, and Shawn Hsu Wong, I came across the following quote: Seven generations of suppression under legislative racism and euphemized white racist love have left today’s Asian-Americans in a state of self-contempt, self-rejection, and disintegration.  We have been encouraged to believe that we have no cultural integrity as Chinese or Japanese-Americans, that we are either Asian (Chinese or Japanese) or American (white), or are measurably both.  This myth of being either/or and the equally goofy concept of the dual personality haunted our lobes while our rejection by both Asia and white America proved we were neither one nor the other.  Nor were we half and half or more than one than the other.  Neither Asian culture nor American culture was equipped to define us except in the most superficial terms. (viii) What interests me about this quote is how relevant it is to all the stuff going on in my little world.  For example, in my Introduction to Literature course, I had my students read Trying to Find Chinatown by David Henry Hwang.  The play deals with two young men, a Chinese man living near Chinatown and a white man trying to find his father’s childhood home somewhere nearby (he was adopted by Chinese parents).  Ronnie, the first man, takes issue with Benjamin’s, the second, take on ethnic identity, calling Benjamin out for what he perceives to be racist stereotyping of Asian-Americans.  In many senses, Ronnie is right, but what he perhaps fails to realize is that he isn’t talking to an everyday white man, but rather a white man raised by Chinese parents who feels a deep affinity to the legacy of his Chinese heritage.  Both characters misunderstand one another to a certain degree, which is really the point of the play:  to question our notions of ethnic identity. Likewise, the news that Ken Liu won a Hugo Award for his short story, “The Paper Menagerie,” links up with these very questions.  I recommend reading the story, because is is quite good.  At its most basic, “The Paper Menagerie” is about the troubled relationship between a young, interracial male (Chinese, I think, but please correct me on this) raised in America and his Chinese mother who married an American and moved from her home country, but never fully integrated into American culture.  The tension, then, lines up with the quote above, with all the emotional resonance you would expect.  I won’t say anything else about it, though.  There are some clever uses of magical realism and the fantastic, and the development of the characters is worth exploring.  In fact, the more I think about this story, the more I love it, and the more I’m glad to see it win a Hugo. And that’s really all I have to say.  Hopefully you all will take something from this…

And the winners are… (Disclaimer:  Most of the reactions below are “initial” reactions.  Easily offended people will probably be offended.  Such is life.  😛 ) Best Novel  Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor) A Dance With Dragons, George R. R. Martin (Bantam Spectra) Deadline, Mira Grant (Orbit) Embassytown, China Miéville (Macmillan / Del Rey) Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey (Orbit) I’ve heard good and bad things about Among Others.  Personally, I don’t have anything against it, but I do think Mieville’s work often deserves more recognition from an awards standpoint than it receives.  He’s one of the few writers actually experimenting with form / concept / etc. these days.  That, in my mind, keeps the genre fresh.  Keeps it growing. But I guess you can’t win them all… Best Novella  Countdown, Mira Grant (Orbit) “The Ice Owl”, Carolyn Ives Gilman (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) “Kiss Me Twice”, Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s) “The Man Who Bridged the Mist”, Kij Johnson (Asimov’s) “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary”, Ken Liu (Panverse 3) Silently and Very Fast, Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA) Note: 6 nominees due to tie for final position. And here comes the big MEH from me.  I have not liked anything I’ve read by Kij Johnson.  Her writing is often stilted, uninspired, and overwhelmingly heavy-handed (I’ve rolled by eyes and contemplated throwing computers after trying to read some of her work).  I’d love to be proven wrong, but after getting burned so many times, I doubt that will happen.   The award should have gone to Ken Liu or anyone else.  Meh. Best Novelette  “The Copenhagen Interpretation”, Paul Cornell (Asimov’s) “Fields of Gold”, Rachel Swirsky (Eclipse Four) “Ray of Light”, Brad R. Torgersen (Analog) “Six Months, Three Days”, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com) “What We Found”, Geoff Ryman (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) I have nothing to say here.  It’s not a category I’ve paid enough attention to for judgment. Best Short Story  “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”, E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld) “The Homecoming”, Mike Resnick (Asimov’s) “Movement”, Nancy Fulda (Asimov’s) “The Paper Menagerie”, Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) “Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue”, John Scalzi (Tor.com) Thank God!  If one of these had to win, it was Liu’s emotional fantasy about a young man’s rejection of his mother’s “foreign” culture, and the toll it takes on her and their relationship (I say “foreign” here because it can probably translate well enough to a lot of different cultures).  A good piece of writing, if not flawed.  I’m just glad folks did not destroy the awards for good by picking Scalzi’s joke piece… Best Related Work  The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Third Edition, edited by John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls, and Graham Sleight (Gollancz) Jar Jar Binks Must Die…and other Observations about Science Fiction Movies, Daniel M. Kimmel (Fantastic Books) The Steampunk Bible: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Imaginary Airships, Corsets and Goggles, Mad Scientists, and Strange Literature, Jeff VanderMeer and S. J. Chambers (Abrams Image) Wicked Girls (CD), Seanan McGuire Writing Excuses, Season 6 (podcast series), Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Jordan Sanderson This is another of those categories that I’m not terribly pleased about.  I still think Writing Excuses belongs somewhere else, and many of the other works just don’t appeal to me.  That is except the winner, which is a nifty project and all, but one that, I think, needs to ferment for another year.  But that’s about as much passion as I have for this category… Best Graphic Story  Digger, by Ursula Vernon (Sofawolf Press) Fables Vol 15: Rose Red, by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham (Vertigo) Locke & Key Volume 4: Keys To The Kingdom, written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW) Schlock Mercenary: Force Multiplication, written and illustrated by Howard Tayler, colors by Travis Walton (The Tayler Corporation) The Unwritten (Volume 4): Leviathan, created by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, written by Mike Carey, illustrated by Peter Gross (Vertigo) I have no favorites on this list because I cannot afford to read graphic novels on a regular basis, and nobody sends them to me for review.  Hooray for Vernon.  That is all. Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form  Captain America: The First Avenger, screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephan McFeely; directed by Joe Johnston (Marvel) Game of Thrones (Season 1), created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss; written by David Benioff, D. B. Weiss, Bryan Cogman, Jane Espenson, and George R. R. Martin; directed by Brian Kirk, Daniel Minahan, Tim van Patten, and Alan Taylor (HBO) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, screenplay by Steve Kloves; directed by David Yates (Warner Bros.) Hugo, screenplay by John Logan; directed by Martin Scorsese (Paramount) Source Code, screenplay by Ben Ripley; directed by Duncan Jones (Vendome Pictures) I’ve already said what I think about Game of Thrones being on this list:  it does not fucking belong.  It’s a T.V. show.  It aired as a T.V. show.  Nobody would call Game of Thrones a “really fucking long movie” for the simple fact that it is a T.V. show.  So while I love Game of Thrones, it really should be in the short form category as a single episode (or many), which would mean it would win the award there and not here. The award should have gone to Hugo, which is perhaps one of the best fantasy films (and children films) of the last decade.  But, alas, certain individuals decided Game of Thrones is really a movie or single-string-production-whatever, not a collection of hour-long episodes.  Meh.  Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form  Doctor Who, ”The Doctor’s Wife”, written by Neil Gaiman; directed by Richard Clark (BBC Wales) “The Drink Tank’s Hugo Acceptance Speech”, Christopher J Garcia and James Bacon (Renovation) Doctor Who, ”The Girl Who Waited”, written by Tom MacRae; directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales) Doctor Who, ”A Good Man