N.S. Dolkart's Blog, page 2

A Video Introduction to The Godserfs

Had some fun recording a video introduction to my trilogy this morning, and my 7-year-old says she liked hearing it

Vegetarian bao tze

I made vegetarian bao tze for dinner last night, and finally got my act together enough to ask my wife to film the steps. This is my own recipe for filling, adapted from techniques taught to us by our erstwhile apartment mate Huiping. I do show how to make the dough, but not until the 9th video. Enjoy!

Some Thoughts on Romance

I have now finished reading my very first romance novel, The Duchess War by Courtney Milan. For those unfamiliar with the controversy currently tearing the Romance Writers of America apart, and Milan’s role in bringing the RWA to task for institutional racism, here’s a primer. There have been many expressions of solidarity and support from the SFF community, which has been contending with its own history (and present) of racism for some time now, and after a tweet from author Casey Blair seemed to call me out personally, I felt it was time to start reading some romance.

Especially for you in SFF who’ve expressed solidarity with romance, and believe romance is valuable in theory but have not actually read any genre romance you can recommend?

If you really want to support romance writers, it will help to, you know, ACTUALLY READ romance.

— Casey Blair (@CaseyLBlair) December 28, 2019

I really wasn’t sure what to expect from a genre that my own mother describes as trashy and formulaic, but I’ve had to tell enough people that fantasy is more than an endless parade of Conan the Barbarian ripoffs. It was well past time to look beyond the genre’s surface reputation. I’m glad I did.

The Duchess War was the first of Milan’s books to come in at the library, and it’s on the historical fiction rather than SFF side of things; I still thought it was great. The novel was sweet, with many compelling characters, a well-crafted plot, and a lot more to say than I’d ever been led to expect from romance (except on Twitter, which does have a few redemptive qualities). There was a bit more sex than I’m used to, but really only a bit more. I’ve read SFF that was far more obsessed with sex than this romance novel, but without the high character stakes or even character relevance that made this book’s sex scenes worthwhile. Besides which, I’m old enough to recognize the power of fiction to reflect and model social/sexual dynamics, and this book took a LOT more care with its depictions of both good and bad sex than most of the SFF I’ve read.

I’ve written my share of sex scenes (you don’t need to tell me what you think of them), less graphic, for sure, than the ones in The Duchess War, but not otherwise so different in content. I agonized over them. It’s not easier or more frivolous than designing a magic system, and it can have a greater effect on the quality of your book. Rarely has a book or series been panned for the vagaries of its magic system, but a poorly written – or, worse, poorly conceived – sex scene can do readers actual harm. Plenty of well-regarded books have done so.

The attention Milan puts into her characters’ sex lives – not just into the physical acts, but into the relationship dynamics those acts stem from, and the way the sex and the relationship affect each other in a self-reinforcing cycle – yields a product that is far more impressive, far more important, far more interesting than I was ever led to believe.

Which inevitably brings me to the question: why was I led to believe that a huge, billion-dollar industry, encompassing nearly a third of all fiction sales and dominated almost entirely by women writing about sex and relationships in all manner of settings, would be boring? Why did I expect it to be, to quote a character from Fire and Hemlock, sentimental drivel? The more I think about it, the more remarkable it seems that our culture manages to convince young men that romance is simultaneously:

All about sex
With a female gaze
Not worth reading

Point A isn’t entirely true, but let’s set that aside for now and just stare at this list. Young men like sex! Most of us* also care A LOT about being able to give our partners what they want, whether we have a current partner or not, and would be far better served in that regard by reading romance than by reading the works of some Golden Age sexual predator. So while it’s not shocking or surprising that our messed-up culture discourages young men from picking up any genre that is female-coded and dominated, both by telling us that it’s worthless and that we’ll be mocked if we give it a try, it’s still…remarkable. It should be remarked upon.

Mind you, I’m not saying that romance as a genre does a great job of modeling healthy relationships. Again, I’ve read just the one book so far, and I started with this badass author precisely because she has called out racism in her field. I had reason to believe her books wouldn’t horrify me. But whether Milan’s novels are reflective of her field or are in fact its gold standard, it doesn’t do us any favors to teach our young men that the genre’s overwhelmingly female gaze makes it frivolous and trashy, unlike, uh, Hemingway? Fitzgerald? Asimov? I mean, wtf.

Because it’s time to get back to point A: romance is not “all about sex.” The plot of the Duchess War involves a woman with good reason to believe that public attention will cause her permanent harm and likely endanger her life. She’s a master tactician, but caught between the sleuthing of a public official and the courtship of an attractive but clueless duke, her ability to keep out of the spotlight seems doomed, as does her ability to keep her best friend and keep her guardians out of poverty. The duke, in the meantime, is a man with a traumatic upbringing, trying to overcome a poor grasp of tactics to undo his father’s legacy and upend the social order. To call their tension formulaic or their eventual coupling predictable is to miss the masterful use of dramatic irony. The fact that romance readers know these two will end up together, and that they will make excellent partners and allies when they do, is a good part of what makes the reading pleasurable. What’s more, the story does not end with their wedding or the sex that follows, nor does the tension between their needs end there.

I’m not actually going to give spoilers here: it’s a good book, and you should read it. The point is that there is a plot to enjoy and care about, outside of the sexual tension and the descriptions of its release. To say that The Duchess War was “all about sex” would be like saying Game of Thrones was all about dragons. It’s true that there are dragons! A bunch of characters spend a bunch of time thinking and talking about dragons! But that doesn’t really do much to explain the plot of George R.R. Martin’s series or its adaptation to the screen, let alone their cultural power. I learned more from reading Courtney Milan this month than I did from reading Steinbeck or Salinger in high school. We should take romance seriously.

 

*A centenarian once called me a “nice young man,” and when I asked her at what age I would stop being a nice young man and become simply a nice man, she said 35. By that measure, I still have two and a half years before I have to stop considering myself a young man.

My Readercon Schedule

My Readercon schedule is now official! Here’s what we’ve got:

Reading: N.S. Dolkart

Fri 8:30 PM, Sylvanus Thayer

Kaffeeklatsches: N.S. Dolkart, Gemma Files

Sat 12:00 PM, Concierge Lounge

Hospitable Worlds

Erik Amundsen (mod), N.S. Dolkart, Max Gladstone, Elaine Isaak, Tracy Townsend

Sat 7:00 PM, Salon A

There’s been much analysis of both the technique and the moral legitimacy of making readers feel alienated, disturbed, or unsafe. But in a 2017 keynote speech at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference, Amal El-Mohtar said, “We don’t talk a great deal about being hospitable; about being welcoming in our writing, about creating worlds… that—even if they contain fierce creatures or vicious climates—receive the reader as a guest.” Panelists will discuss how, when, and why to make readers feel welcome in the text.

Food at the Corner of Fiction and Community

N.S. Dolkart, Andrea Martinez Corbin (mod), Greer Gilman, Michael Swanwick, Sabrina Vourvoulias

Sat 9:00 PM, Salon A

Food plays a central role in many cultures and accordingly takes center stage in the work of many speculative fiction writers. How does cuisine help define, or build, a community? How can food be used to communicate important information about a people to the reader? What are some particularly noteworthy examples of the way food can be used to set, or subvert, expectations?

Writing Update

What has the great NS Dolkart been up to for the last five-plus months? Well, writing, of course! I’m working on a new, standalone novel, and it’s fantastic. I’m branching out a bit by setting this story in a magical version of our real world at a particular moment in history, so as a consequence I’ve had to spend more time and energy on research than I did with the Godserfs. I’ve been drafting even slower than usual, and even now am only about a third of the way through a first draft.

But it’s good! People who liked the Godserfs for the trilogy’s focus on character relationships will love this one too. Not as much theology this time, but I’m making up for it with historical and culinary detail.

“Wait, did he just say culinary detail?”

Why, yes, gentle reader, I did. This historical fantasy is chock full of cooking! There’s even a heart-pounding dramatic cooking scene with high stakes and sabotage! I can’t wait for you to read it!

A Belated TLJ Review

I picked up The Last Jedi and Rogue One from the library last night, so as usual, I’m ready to understand the conversation around these movies just in time for nobody to be talking about them anymore. Oh, well. A review follows anyway.


 


So far, I’ve just watched TLJ. Here’s what I thought:

 


1) This is the best writing I’ve seen in a Star Wars movie since at least the original trilogy. Sharp, funny, but the laugh lines don’t rely entirely on the kind of mindless self-parody that so many modern Disney movies do. That “maybe” line? Incredible.


 


I LOVED Luke’s grumpy this-film-only catchphrase of “Amazing! Every word you just said was wrong.” It was especially refreshing since Star Wars has a history of relying on old worn-out catchphrases, speaking of which, the fact that Rian Johnson got the obligatory “I have a bad feeling about this” line out of the way right at the beginning, spoken by a semi-understandable droid, was a good one. That line really would have clunked later in the film. On the other hand, Luke’s “See you round, kid,” was unexpected and perfect. Overall, a great use of old and new dialogue and, in contrast with the hated prequels, a LOT of dialogue, almost all of it good and sharp and pacey.


 


2) New characters. Gotta start with Holdo, since she and Rose are the center of so much fake-fan whining. Holdo was an incredibly good character, and Laura Dern’s acting was phenomenal. I loved how patronizing she was to Poe — it reminded me very much of the Leia-Han dynamic from episode IV before their romance became a thing, even thought the context and content were quite different.


 


It seems like all the anti-Holdo rage from fake-fans is based entirely on the fact that some lady gets to disrespect a hotheaded Good Guy (emphasis on the “guy” part) and escape with her power and dignity intact, saving the Resistance more or less single-handedly. Boo hoo.


 


I LOVE Holdo. She’s the best strategic thinker in the Resistance, with no exceptions. Did her initial plan fail? Sure, just like LITERALLY EVERY OTHER CHARACTER’S PLAN FAILED. In fact, had she pinned her hopes on Finn and Rose instead, like Poe did, the main cruiser would have been destroyed with everyone still inside, and Finn & Rose would be dead too. And here’s another thing I love about her: unlike Rose and Finn and Poe and basically everyone, Holdo never has to rely on deus ex machina to wriggle out of trouble. She improvises like a boss (which is what she is) and kicks ass using tools and concepts INTRODUCED TO US IN THE VERY FIRST STAR WARS MOVIE.


 


I can’t emphasize enough how important that is. This is the kind of thing I emphasize in my own writing: the importance of treating previous work as canon and leaning into the world you’ve built. All the tools you need are there already if you’re willing to give it enough thought, but it’s soooo easy to get lazy and decide that new audiences won’t care, so you can tweak the universe if you really have to. That kind of thinking is so common in reboots and was very evident in JJ Abrams’ new Star Trek movies. I love that Rian Johnson didn’t go down that path with Holdo. There was one place where he did tweak the world, and I was less of a fan of it, but I’ll get to that later.


 


Back to Holdo. She’s a new favorite character. Her leadership style is perhaps too opaque, too “trust me,” but you know who else is like that in the Star Wars verse? Oh yeah, EVERYBODY. Her strategic thinking, especially on the fly, is killer. Dudes, she’s WAY better at improvising than any of your faves.


 


3) I guess Rose gets her own number. I like her! No complaints. I like her backstory, I like her perspective, I like her spunk. She’s a new main character rather than a side character, so she has less room to surprise me than Holdo does, but I like her writing better than Finn’s. Her planning is certainly no worse than his, but she commits to it.


 


Don’t get me wrong, I like Finn’s character growth in this movie, a lot. I just thought the I’m-no-hero-I-just-want-to-get-the-hell-out-of-here thing went on for too long after he started hobnobbing with legends and volunteering for suicide missions, which is what they would be for any non-main character. He’s also, I think, the only main character who consistently lies to other main characters over stupid shit. I don’t mean that trying to survive is in poor taste, I just mean that when other characters lie or bend the truth it’s usually for deeper character reasons, y’know? Like, Rey has apparently been lying to herself (and other people as a consequence) about her parents, but that’s for personal reasons, not to wriggle out of something or impress somebody. Anyway, Finn is fine, he’s just not my favorite, and the writing often sells him short.


 


Does Rose’s plan fail? Sure, again, just like EVERY PLAN FAILS. Would the Resistance actually be better off if she and Finn had stayed with them instead of trying their long-shot plan? Nope, it’d be the same.


 


So far:


Holdo: Amazing


Rose: Great


Luke: Not a new character, but a great improvement over both his original trilogy character, who lacked depth, and Alec Guinness’ Obi Wan who was even shallower (not a knock on AG’s acting, it’s just that George Lucas is super into archetypes).


 


4) Oh wait, maybe I didn’t actually say that already. I *loved* where this movie took Luke’s character, all crotchety wit and bitterness, but with so much heart. The notion that it’s fear and not anger that messed Luke up in the end and may have caused his greatest failure is A+


 


And yeah, I know episode 3 also gives us fear rather than anger as Anakin’s downfall, but that arc was really poorly done hand-wavy bullcrap, so there’s that. The original trilogy’s Vader was angry and *fearless,* and not nearly so freaking irrational.


 


Anyway, I loved Luke’s new look. I also loved the Rashomon-like backstory of Kylo Ren’s turn to the dark side, that was fun.


 


5) Okay, the part I didn’t like. Yoda. Sigh.


 


I actually liked Yoda’s lines in that dialogue with Luke, I thought they were great. But his ghost’s ability to call down lightning and poke Luke with his ghost-stick raised SO MANY QUESTIONS that I don’t think the next film has any intention of answering. And this is from someone who actually wanted force-ghosts to zap people!


 


I should really explain that, so it’s time to tell you about my one foray into fanfic, which never made it onto any forum and is probably lost forever on an old hard drive somewhere. After we saw the prequels, my brother and I got mad and co-wrote plot outlines for alternative episodes 1-3 that we thought would be truer to the original trilogy. We were pissed that the new prequels betrayed some of the original trilogy’s better aspects, so we fixed it. One of those aspects is the fact that muppet-Yoda should remain a surprise. Luke doesn’t know that this obnoxious little alien is the Jedi master he’s looking for, and neither should the audience. So in our version, Yoda had already retired to Dagobah when the action began.


 


Anyway, the existence of the Yoda and Obi Wan force-ghosts in episodes 5 and 6 raised a serious worldbuilding question: even if it’s only the most powerful Jedi who become ghosts, WHERE ARE ALL THE OTHER GHOSTS??? Yoda and Obi Wan can’t possibly be the first. The canon apparently suggests that Qui-Gon is the very first force ghost ever, and that just seems silly.


 


Our solution was pretty ingenious. The Jedi Council would include several ghosts, and it would be made clear that only the most kickass Jedi have such a powerful influence on the world around them that their imprint remains after they’re gone. When Anakin betrays everyone and wipes out the council, it’s the force-ghosts, not Obi-Wan, who take him down by merging with him, disappearing in a blaze of emperor-style lightning and frying his body. That way the lack of other ghosts is explained, as is the need for Vader’s suit, without all that lava and nonsense.


 


We had other cute and clever ideas, but I won’t go into those. The point is that I’m not *inherently* against the idea that ghosts should be able to affect the world around them, especially with lightning powers! But if Yoda can call lightning from the sky *and* give Luke a poke, one wonders why he and Obi Wan don’t go kick Kylo Ren’s ass themselves. At the very least, a trio of them plus Luke should be unstoppable, right? Or Qui-Gon, if he’s still around? Why does nobody think to ask this freaking TRIUMVIRATE OF GHOSTS for help, if they still have all this power and still care who wins?


 


So, yeah. I loved Yoda’s lines, but his physical manifestations raised so many worldbuilding questions that they really messed up the scene for me. That, and the CG. Sorry, I hate CG Yoda. Bring back the muppet. Like, seriously, what are the arguments against muppet Yoda? That he looks fake to modern audiences? CG LOOKS FAKE TO US TOO, SHERLOCK. Anyway.


 


6) Length. Yes, this movie was long, but for the first time in the modern era, it didn’t feel *too* long because it wasn’t all interminable battle scenes and navel gazing, there was actually quite a lot of plot (and good dialogue! yay!) to get through. There were a tremendous number of defeats, escapes, minor victories and reversals, and it was all so smooth and logically consistent that it never grew tiresome.


 


Episodes 1-3 felt interminable. The Force Awakens was pretty good but also felt long, considering that its main feat was that it rebooted the themes of the original series in a pleasant and updated way. This movie was longer, but it never dragged. Plus, there was character development, hallelujah! Praise the lord, there was dialogue worth listening to! I’m a fan.


 


7) The Rey-Ren dynamic. The people who ship this couple are seriously misguided. Kylo Ren is correct that he is a monster, and I hope he doesn’t get redeemed before he dies. I loved the resolution of that Snoke fight, because Kylo Ren saves Rey, sure, but only by killing yet another elder that he resents already for not giving him his due. Rey’s is a fight for good as well as for survival, but Ren’s is still just a fight for power.


 


And then he turns around and tries to tempt Rey not just with the prospect of power but with the prospect of *fixing him.* Hang out with me Rey, we’ll sort things out and rule as a team and you can keep trying to turn me. Sure, it’ll require compromising yourself, but it might work! Maybe you’ll bring out the best in me!


 


And Rey’s like: No.


 


God, I love that. I love that she’s spent all this energy and goodwill and put all this faith in turning him, but she won’t throw good money after bad. She’s managed to tempt him with her power (he only kills Snoke because she’d be a viable galaxy-conquering partner, after all), but there is only so far she will go for his “conflicted” soul. Put herself in danger, yes. Compromise her principles in any way? Nope. Get a life, dude, or I’ll go ahead and take it from you.


 


Rey is a model for girls everywhere.


 


Lessons to learn from Rey: You can’t fix him. If he’s unwilling to do anything to fix his damn self besides invite you to keep trying, he’s worthless to you. Doesn’t matter if you “owe him,” even for saving your life. He’s toxic.


 


Also, he might try to kill you.


 


It sucks that that part of the movie also carries over to real life. It’s hardly the most cheerful note to end on, but it’s what I’ve got.


 


I conclusion, I loved the movie. The writing was impeccable, the acting was delightful (especially Laura Dern, Kelly Marie Tran, and Mark Hamill, but really everyone was good), and the pacing was so smooth I feel like it should be studied.

Radio show TONIGHT!

In just ONE HOUR, I will be joining my college friend Katharine Duckett and charming host Jim Freund on WBAI New York’s “Hour of the Wolf” radio show! Tune in at 99.5FM if you’re in the NYC area, or at wbai.org if you’re not, and hear us live! There will be film reviews, story readings, and, around 1am EST (more or less), an interactive reading of The Maltese Pelican.

Interactive how, you say? Well, you can call in and read with us! The number is (347) 335-0818.

For those unfamiliar with the rules of a bad prose reading, they are as follows:

1) When it’s your turn, read the story aloud from wherever your predecessor left off. It’s okay to go back to the beginning of the sentence if you need to.

2) If you laugh, your turn is over.

3) Your turn is also over if you misread the text: for example if it says “terfific” and you read “terrific.” Try to adhere to the punctuation too, when possible, though you are not required to say “quote…end quote” or anything like that.

4) Feel free to interrupt another reader if they have erred in steps 2 or 3.

5) Be a good sport about it. There is no prize for “winning,” and no penalty for “losing.” Your turn is only over temporarily! Stick around…the other readers are bound to mess up sooner or later.

 

Want to try your luck? Give the studio a call! The story is here. The number is (347) 335-0818. Give it a shot!

How Writing Fantasy Prepared Me for Dementia Care

I have an essay up at Tor.com about dementia care and how writing fantasy prepared me for it. Read it here!

Book day!

Today’s the day! A BREACH IN THE HEAVENS, the final book of the Godserfs Trilogy, is out today! You can buy it at your local bookstore or at any of these fine retailers (my favorite is IndieBound, at the bottom, which supports independent bookstores).

In celebration of the end of the trilogy, DJ at MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape has posted an interview I did with him a couple weeks ago. Check it out!

I’m Not Woke, and I’m Not Your Ally. Yet.

I’ve been uncomfortable for sometime with the left’s two most common terms for the “good kind” of privileged people: Woke (usually used for white people who aren’t shitty), and Ally (used in all sort of contexts, but my first exposure to the term was in high school in reference to “straight allies” who supported gay rights). It has taken me some time to really put my finger on why I don’t like the way these terms are used.

After all, the language of alliance is deep and descriptive, and the metaphor of wokeness is evocative and powerful. Who can argue that the blindness of mainstream white culture to black humanity and all but the most stylized black pain isn’t in some ways like being asleep, and that those who break free from that slumber don’t come out shocked and disoriented? Who would disagree that if we’re on the same team, we’re therefore allies?

Well, first let’s talk about “woke.” To my mind, the term implies that those of us who are woke see what’s going on, but how can anyone ever really see and understand what’s up without being there? Hell, some people aren’t “woke,” don’t get it, even though they ARE there. To accept the term “woke” feels like accepting the idea that a white person can truly, deeply understand all the ins and outs of white supremacy and oppression without having experienced them on the receiving end.

Okay then, but what’s my problem with the language of “allyhood?” I think again it’s the notion that you can be an ally as a noun and retain it as part of your identity, as opposed to the more accurate notion that alliances are things we construct that frequently fall apart. The US and USSR were allies. Then they weren’t. Alliance is something you do toward some shared goal. If your goals aren’t shared, you’re not an ally anymore. I’ve seen white people claim to be allies of people of color in the same breath that they demand that members of that community abandon their goals. That is, frankly, not an alliance by any means.

I like ally better as a verb. White liberals can ally with people of color to elect certain officials, pass certain legislation, effect certain cultural changes etc. Jews have in the past allied with black Christian church leaders and Muslim leaders  to combat white supremacy (hopefully we can keep that going). When you and I ally with each other, that relationship is inherently one of action, and is assumed to be temporary unless proven otherwise. Sometimes such an alliance can also lead to friendships. Great! But you’re only an ally to my cause, and I’m only an ally in yours, if we’re working TOGETHER. If I go ignoring your needs or prioritizing my wants over them, I can no longer consider myself your ally. Our alliance is over.