Two Topics Related by One Book

[anicalewis]

Today's two writing-related topics are steampunk (yay!) and cover whitewashing (boo!).

How do these things relate? Well, Jaclyn Dolamore's debut novel, Magic Under Glass, is YA steampunk. (I have heard some arguments for calling it "Victorian fantasy" instead. Haven't yet read it, so I'm going by what the various categorizing entities say.) It

Comments

[toastedcheese]

I just got Soulless, which is on that list - it's technically my roommate's birthday present but I will be reading it first. :) It is Very Silly Indeed, and technically a paranormal romance - but the semi-love interest is a werewolf whereas the main vampire character is a flamboyantly gay fop with a monocle

[miss_maxine]

LeGuin, I believe, commented that when writing the books that she didn't reveal that Ged had dark skin until rather late in the first book, because she didn't want to put off her publishers right away.
Seriously? When I read it I remember every other page was like, "Ged's dark face..." "his dark skin.." or whatever. This was in the context of a class on fantasy lit, so we discussed the whitewashing of the covers that occurred despite all this, and of the issues surrounding Earthsea as a groundbreaking fantasy novel in featuring nonwhite protagonists and all of that, but my impression was she definitely erred on the side of NOT being subtle about it. (Which is fine, considering the context, and that plenty of people willfully missed it anyway (and we did watch clips of the horrible miniseries, which we groaned over as a class).)

[toastedcheese]

I must be remembering wrong (and/or she was being a bit disingenuous in her quote) - it's been a couple years since I read it.

[miss_maxine]

I'm guessing the latter. She strikes me as the disingenuous sort. Not intentionally, but...hmm, have you ever read any of her essays where she discusses (the trainwreck known as) Tehanu?

[miss_maxine]

*poke* You still need to give me your current address so I can send you the galley I found at ALA.