Book recommendations thread!
Apr. 24th, 2010 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kutsuwamushiSee if you can spot the pattern:
In Cameron's Avatar, Jake Sully, an outsider, becomes the champion of the Na'vi, and fights for them against his own people.
In Frank Herbert's Dune, Paul Atriedes, an outsider, joins the Fremen and becomes their tragic messianic figure.
In Robin Hobb's Shaman's Crossing trilogy, Nevare Burvelle, an outsider, becomes magically connected to the Specks, a people who are under attack by his government's attempt to build a road through their land.
In more Star Trek episodes than I can name, the crew of the Enterprise, outsiders, discover that their influence on cultures that they meet is doing them harm.
...
Okay, I'm sure you can spot more than one pattern here, but what I'm getting at is from whose perspective these stories are written. The protagonists are all part of the dominant culture in their universes, and the story of the marginalized culture whose struggle they join is told through their eyes.
Even when the setting is totally invented, when authors have the most freedom, this pattern is still everywhere. I know I'm not pointing out anything new.
Summer is coming up soon, which means that I have time to read books. But instead of reading more of the same, I'd like to read science fiction or fantasy stories where the other viewpoint is the neutral one.
So, does anyone have recommendations? I'm especially interested in stories where both cultures are invented.
[I erased and rewrote several times a tangent about how this is a subset of outsider stories, which don't always involve a conflict with the outsider's culture. Harry Potter would be a different story if the protagonist was a member of Wizarding culture to begin with; Harry's outsider perspective introduces Muggle readers to the Wizarding world with a sense of wonder.
But it's worth asking why one culture is viewed from the outside and the other from the inside so frequently when that conflict does exist. The benefits of an "outsider perspective" can carry their own assumptions, including that the marginalized culture, often "inspired by" real-world cultures, is the one that is the most exotic and most needing to be explained from the outside.]
In Cameron's Avatar, Jake Sully, an outsider, becomes the champion of the Na'vi, and fights for them against his own people.
In Frank Herbert's Dune, Paul Atriedes, an outsider, joins the Fremen and becomes their tragic messianic figure.
In Robin Hobb's Shaman's Crossing trilogy, Nevare Burvelle, an outsider, becomes magically connected to the Specks, a people who are under attack by his government's attempt to build a road through their land.
In more Star Trek episodes than I can name, the crew of the Enterprise, outsiders, discover that their influence on cultures that they meet is doing them harm.
...
Okay, I'm sure you can spot more than one pattern here, but what I'm getting at is from whose perspective these stories are written. The protagonists are all part of the dominant culture in their universes, and the story of the marginalized culture whose struggle they join is told through their eyes.
Even when the setting is totally invented, when authors have the most freedom, this pattern is still everywhere. I know I'm not pointing out anything new.
Summer is coming up soon, which means that I have time to read books. But instead of reading more of the same, I'd like to read science fiction or fantasy stories where the other viewpoint is the neutral one.
So, does anyone have recommendations? I'm especially interested in stories where both cultures are invented.
[I erased and rewrote several times a tangent about how this is a subset of outsider stories, which don't always involve a conflict with the outsider's culture. Harry Potter would be a different story if the protagonist was a member of Wizarding culture to begin with; Harry's outsider perspective introduces Muggle readers to the Wizarding world with a sense of wonder.
But it's worth asking why one culture is viewed from the outside and the other from the inside so frequently when that conflict does exist. The benefits of an "outsider perspective" can carry their own assumptions, including that the marginalized culture, often "inspired by" real-world cultures, is the one that is the most exotic and most needing to be explained from the outside.]
no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 03:22 am (UTC)I wouuld actually recommend everything by Octavia Butler, as it touches on this topic at least tangentially.