unspeakable horror

[hermetic]

I've not read Patricia C. Wrede's Thirteenth Child, and I don't think I will.

According to Jo Walton writing over at Tor, it's "Little House on the Prairie with mammoths and magic," apparently. Which sounds awesome, and something I'd love to read. Only, one of its basic premises posits an alternate America ("Columbia") that's empty, where the

Comments

[sanguinity]

:: "Human life wasn't native to the Americas AND Native life wasn't human." ::

Yes. Both parts. And because commenters on this post are clearly getting the first part, I especially want to second the second one.

My first thought on reading the book's description was, "Oh, god, they've gone all the way. Instead of just making Indians into New World elves -- wild, free, mystical, see-sawing between the roles of "magical helper elves" and "will capriciously turn on you for no reason other than they're inherent and dangerous antipathy to proper humans" -- this book went so far as to make Indians over into dragons. Magical wild animals instead of magical wild people."

hermetic, you may be more sensitized to the one false narrative than the other, but the inclusion of dragons (which are often sentient or quasi-sentient, riding the gray area between human and animal) reads strongly of the colonialist narrative that Indians were magical, dangerous, quasi-sentient animals. Dragons may seem like a random, innocuous artifact of this book being published within the fantasy genre, but it does tie very closely with one of the dominant colonialist narratives about who Indians were. Wrede is getting rid of the guilt of having Indians in the Americas, while keeping the mystique of Indians in the Americas.

[skywardprodigal]

"Oh, god, they've gone all the way. Instead of just making Indians into New World elves -- wild, free, mystical, see-sawing between the roles of "magical helper elves" and "will capriciously turn on you for no reason other than they're inherent and dangerous antipathy to proper humans" -- this book went so far as to make Indians over into dragons. Magical wild animals instead of magical wild people."

That's similar to where I went too. Made me sick. It's a repeat of the 'solution' to the 'Indian problem'.

Dragons may seem like a random, innocuous artifact of this book being published within the fantasy genre, but it does tie very closely with one of the dominant colonialist narratives about who Indians were.

Particularly when various body parts of Indians are used as talismans and trophies to this day. White people and robbing Indian graves has been going on at least since, what, '76 in the US? I'm told there's even a bit in one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books where young Laura sees an Indian baby and pitches a tantrum because she wants to keep it.

[holyschist]

Yes, there really is. And it may or may not have actually happened--it's not clear how much Laura and her daughter made up when they wrote the books. I'm not sure whether it would be creepier as the sincere wish of a young child (young children often don't quite get that babies are people and work, and not extra-fun dolls until they've had younger siblings) or something adult Laura or Rose thought would be a nice touch.