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isunshowerrecent read is Nisi Shawl's Everfair. This is an alternate history novel about "what if some socialists from 19th century England bought some land from King Leopold during the colonization of the Congo and turned it into a haven for those escaping the colonial violence?". It is, for the most part, pretty good. There's an overarching political intrigue kind of plot, but also it explores how world events are or aren't changed by the existence of Everfair and also just goes into key people in the creation of Everfair and how their personal lives get messy and effect their politics. There are parts of this that really get the gears turning in my brain: how the white colonists try and maneuver local violence to extract more sympathy from their financial backers, the conflict between the atheist socialists, Christian African-American immigrants, and local religion, and the conflicts between the forms of government; the explicit existence of real local magic, including a girl who can possess cats; the prosthetics industry; and some discussion of the social ramifications of interracial relationships, including lesbian relationships and extremely badly handled polyamory.
There are--and please know I say this out of love for the book--two places where I feel it falls short, though. The topic of mixed-race kids as a theoretical problem gets brought up a lot, but EVERY SINGLE MIXED RACE COUPLE in this book doesn't have kids. Someone dies, or they're in a same-sex relationship, or it's a May-December relationship (of which there are, like, three, oddly enough). They never have to answer the question of what happens when a baby in Everfair is born with mixed heritage. And this is despite one of the characters caring about how much of a problem this would be to the point that she sabotages her relationship with her mixed-race partner--who, I might add, like, her being mixed is a secret she keeps and a plot point in ways that make sense most of the time, but also, she constantly alludes to some kind of additional related secret and/or the potential for this heritage to be wrong or misreported in some way and that's never delivered on. The other thing is that the book concludes with a war between the native African Everfarers (the book spells it Everfairers, I think I'm right) and the immigrants from both the US and Europe, with the one Asian main character intentionally removing himself from the whole situation and going back to Macau. Many, if not all, of the immigrant Everfarers leave Everfair and return to their home countries. I'm disappointed by that. One of the interesting things about the book for me is how the different cultures and priorities interacted with each other. Maybe this is a perspective informed by my being an American who grew up during the era of the salad bowl metaphor, maybe it's like colonial mindset or something, but I want to see everyone have to work with each other--including the native Africans making some concessions. Does that make sense? I don't want this to be Wakanda but with steam engines. I want the thought experiment of what parts of each culture win out over the others and what new language and customs develop.
But again, I say all this out of love for the book, and I do already have my hands on the sequel so hopefully some of these questions will get answered.
In other news, national final season continues on. We got two huge batches of song drops yesterday--Croatia and Malta each have 24-song shows. Malta's is historically pretty bad but has come out with decent entries this year to the shock of literally everyone on the fanblog I'm with. (Personal fave: this schlager pop opera banger that I spent my morning singing loud enough to probably annoy my neighbors.) Croatia, on the other hand... well, listen. Last year Croatia's entry was the televote favorite and scored 2nd place overall, and a lot of my circle were really hoping that they'd take that energy and hype and funnel it into a really good national final and work towards their first win (the way Cyprus has been doing since their own 2nd place in 2018). Unfortunately the best of their entries this year are solidly mediocre, with the others put-to-sleep boring or containing the worst English lyrics known to man or just straight up bad. we were all rooting for you dot gif. Expect a little roundup of my NF faves when all is said and done (this will be in March). One of my favorite things about Eurovision fandom is discovering artists I'd never find through discovery playlists or my friends here and accumulating the most eclectic, keep-you-guessing music taste out of everyone I know day to day.
There are--and please know I say this out of love for the book--two places where I feel it falls short, though. The topic of mixed-race kids as a theoretical problem gets brought up a lot, but EVERY SINGLE MIXED RACE COUPLE in this book doesn't have kids. Someone dies, or they're in a same-sex relationship, or it's a May-December relationship (of which there are, like, three, oddly enough). They never have to answer the question of what happens when a baby in Everfair is born with mixed heritage. And this is despite one of the characters caring about how much of a problem this would be to the point that she sabotages her relationship with her mixed-race partner--who, I might add, like, her being mixed is a secret she keeps and a plot point in ways that make sense most of the time, but also, she constantly alludes to some kind of additional related secret and/or the potential for this heritage to be wrong or misreported in some way and that's never delivered on. The other thing is that the book concludes with a war between the native African Everfarers (the book spells it Everfairers, I think I'm right) and the immigrants from both the US and Europe, with the one Asian main character intentionally removing himself from the whole situation and going back to Macau. Many, if not all, of the immigrant Everfarers leave Everfair and return to their home countries. I'm disappointed by that. One of the interesting things about the book for me is how the different cultures and priorities interacted with each other. Maybe this is a perspective informed by my being an American who grew up during the era of the salad bowl metaphor, maybe it's like colonial mindset or something, but I want to see everyone have to work with each other--including the native Africans making some concessions. Does that make sense? I don't want this to be Wakanda but with steam engines. I want the thought experiment of what parts of each culture win out over the others and what new language and customs develop.
But again, I say all this out of love for the book, and I do already have my hands on the sequel so hopefully some of these questions will get answered.
In other news, national final season continues on. We got two huge batches of song drops yesterday--Croatia and Malta each have 24-song shows. Malta's is historically pretty bad but has come out with decent entries this year to the shock of literally everyone on the fanblog I'm with. (Personal fave: this schlager pop opera banger that I spent my morning singing loud enough to probably annoy my neighbors.) Croatia, on the other hand... well, listen. Last year Croatia's entry was the televote favorite and scored 2nd place overall, and a lot of my circle were really hoping that they'd take that energy and hype and funnel it into a really good national final and work towards their first win (the way Cyprus has been doing since their own 2nd place in 2018). Unfortunately the best of their entries this year are solidly mediocre, with the others put-to-sleep boring or containing the worst English lyrics known to man or just straight up bad. we were all rooting for you dot gif. Expect a little roundup of my NF faves when all is said and done (this will be in March). One of my favorite things about Eurovision fandom is discovering artists I'd never find through discovery playlists or my friends here and accumulating the most eclectic, keep-you-guessing music taste out of everyone I know day to day.
