thoughts of this, fanfic recs of that
I'm currently watching season 2 of Carnival Row - for non-watchers, a fantasy series set in a vaguely Victorian/Edwardian AU with fairies and other mythological beings as refugees/minorities in fantasy!America (or Fantasy!Britain), and incidentally, I do love how the wings of the fairies really feel like an expressive part of their bodies -, and in s2, it turns out that Fantasy!Russia is in the throws of revolution. Where apparantly they went directly from the October Revolution to the Stalinist purges. (Where you can become an Unperson who has never existed overnight.) Guys, thought I, even George Orwell gave it more time in Animal Farm.
(Just as not to give a false impression, the series doesn't glorify fantasy capitaliism, either, not least because the faries, being refugees, get exploited as cheap labor.)
Anyway, this reminded me again that the Anglosphere seems to divide between bad revolutions (the Russian one, and also in most cases of fictionalisation, both in straightforward historical fiction and in fantasy or sci fi analogues, the French Revolution) and good revolutions (aka the American once, and also in the majority of cases the English Civil War one). Except that in sci fi or fantasy analogues, the later is usually not called a revolution, it's called a rebellion. Prominently in Star Wars, but not just there. Whenever someone uses the term "comrade" or "citizen", and it's a narrative product of the Anglosphere, you can bet this revolution will not turn out to be a good one, but it will be called a revolution.
Now I seem to recall that even old Adams and old Jefferson in their letters to each other post reconciliation referred to the event they participated in as "our revolution" - at least they're quoted this way in John Adams -, so it's not like there has always been an abhorrence to the term among native English speakers. (Being not one but a German, I have somewhat different associations with the two terms anyway. "Rebellion" to me implies it didn't succeed in the end, whereas a "Revolution" did succeed.) And of course I noticed that the latest Star Wars tales, most prominently Andor, do make an effort to complicate the Rebellion and show it as something consisting of different factions and starting in different ways from different causes. But it's baked in the premise that you don't have to consider whether or not compromise with the Empire is possible because the Empire is evil, and of course there won't be executions because this is Star Wars (and now it's Disney, too). I still suspect that by and large, English language sci fi and fantasy will continue to signal that Good Revolutions happen against Evil Empires which are uniformly exploitative, that at no point terms like Citizen or Comrade will be used by the good revolutionaries, and that we won't get to see the good revolutionaries as the people in power having to govern thereafter except possibly in a quick epilogue. Notable and glorious exception: The Expanse, tv version (since I haven't read the books), while offering Earth and Mars as flawed systems doesn't code either as the Evil Empire and does show how the parts of the Belt that gain independence fare therafter are doing. (Doesn't mean there aren't revoltingly evil deeds going.) What I'm trying to get at: The Expanse strikes me as an exception because it shows struggle for independence as a messy continuous work in progress, and one where revolutionaries, even if successful, afterwards have to live with, negotiate with, compromise with the previously established powers. (Who also have to change.) And I find that both close to various rl examples and uncommon in English language fantasy and sci fi.
On another note, two fanfic links in different fandoms:
Babylon 5: Signa Ex Diris: which is a brief yet great AU take featuring a female Londo and Cartagia, and how Londo's fate would have played out then. andraste comes to an amazingly ic and logical solution.
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: So Wide A Sea: Galadriel at two very different and yet related points of her long life.
(Just as not to give a false impression, the series doesn't glorify fantasy capitaliism, either, not least because the faries, being refugees, get exploited as cheap labor.)
Anyway, this reminded me again that the Anglosphere seems to divide between bad revolutions (the Russian one, and also in most cases of fictionalisation, both in straightforward historical fiction and in fantasy or sci fi analogues, the French Revolution) and good revolutions (aka the American once, and also in the majority of cases the English Civil War one). Except that in sci fi or fantasy analogues, the later is usually not called a revolution, it's called a rebellion. Prominently in Star Wars, but not just there. Whenever someone uses the term "comrade" or "citizen", and it's a narrative product of the Anglosphere, you can bet this revolution will not turn out to be a good one, but it will be called a revolution.
Now I seem to recall that even old Adams and old Jefferson in their letters to each other post reconciliation referred to the event they participated in as "our revolution" - at least they're quoted this way in John Adams -, so it's not like there has always been an abhorrence to the term among native English speakers. (Being not one but a German, I have somewhat different associations with the two terms anyway. "Rebellion" to me implies it didn't succeed in the end, whereas a "Revolution" did succeed.) And of course I noticed that the latest Star Wars tales, most prominently Andor, do make an effort to complicate the Rebellion and show it as something consisting of different factions and starting in different ways from different causes. But it's baked in the premise that you don't have to consider whether or not compromise with the Empire is possible because the Empire is evil, and of course there won't be executions because this is Star Wars (and now it's Disney, too). I still suspect that by and large, English language sci fi and fantasy will continue to signal that Good Revolutions happen against Evil Empires which are uniformly exploitative, that at no point terms like Citizen or Comrade will be used by the good revolutionaries, and that we won't get to see the good revolutionaries as the people in power having to govern thereafter except possibly in a quick epilogue. Notable and glorious exception: The Expanse, tv version (since I haven't read the books), while offering Earth and Mars as flawed systems doesn't code either as the Evil Empire and does show how the parts of the Belt that gain independence fare therafter are doing. (Doesn't mean there aren't revoltingly evil deeds going.) What I'm trying to get at: The Expanse strikes me as an exception because it shows struggle for independence as a messy continuous work in progress, and one where revolutionaries, even if successful, afterwards have to live with, negotiate with, compromise with the previously established powers. (Who also have to change.) And I find that both close to various rl examples and uncommon in English language fantasy and sci fi.
On another note, two fanfic links in different fandoms:
Babylon 5: Signa Ex Diris: which is a brief yet great AU take featuring a female Londo and Cartagia, and how Londo's fate would have played out then. andraste comes to an amazingly ic and logical solution.
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: So Wide A Sea: Galadriel at two very different and yet related points of her long life.