Calling Bollocks

So the Mad Hatter (@MadHatterReview) sent me a link to an article over at Tor.com the other day, saying he'd love to see my response to it, probably because he knows I rant like a pantsless hobo at the drop of a hat, and everybody enjoys a fireworks show.

It was 5am, and was on the wrong side of a half bottle of Gentleman Jack at the time, which would seem like fertile ground for a full-on psychobilly freakout, but surprisingly, instead of getting all angry-face ranty-pantsed, I wrote back to the Hatter thusly:

"Feels like a flamewar waiting to happen. Post is pure antagonism, from the title on down. Point of engaging would be…?"

And then I went to bed.

(Cool story, bro.)

BUT, the thought of it wouldn't leave me alone. I gave it the 24 Hour rule. Hell, I gave it 48 hours. And in the interest of avoiding a flamewar, I've decided to respond here, where people can ignore me at their leisure. But I have to say something, because straight up, folks, this article strikes me as a work of astonishing ignorance.

The article btw, can be found here.

As I said to the Hatter, it's pure troll-face from the word go. Apparently there's a 'problem' with Asian Steampunk, being that authors/gamers/cosplayers 'limit' themselves to a narrow set of archetypes – a habit which western Steampunk (apparently?) avoids.

I call bollocks.

Firstly, I'm baffled anyone thinks there's enough Asian-inspired Steampunk around for there to be a problem at all, other than the problem that there isn't enough Asian-inspired Steampunk. AFAIK, Scott Westerfeld's Goliath (released about 30 seconds ago) is the first major release with Asian-inspired SP to hit shelves, albeit set in the 20th, not 19th century, and the Asian section is only one portion of the book. Steampunk aficionados aren't drowning in a sea of samurai and ninja – they're surrounded by retroVictoriana and post-colonial Americana, with bustles and corsets and parasols as far as the eye can see. A body might be forgiven for thinking that it's actually awesome for Steampunk creators to be exploring locales other than London or the Wild West.

Nevins however, claims these creators are 'limiting themselves' to certain Asian archetypes (samurai, geisha and ninja). First off, I'd like to know exactly which creators he's talking about (mainly because I'd really like to read/see them – No examples are actually cited). Secondly, even if Nevins could pull a barrow-load of examples from the aether (see what I did there?), who the fuck says those creators 'limited' themselves?

Maybe they WANTED to tell a story about a geisha within a Steampunk framework. Maybe they WANTED to explore the notion of a ninja cabal in a steam-mechanized age – I don't know, again, no examples were cited.

Nevins goes onto show us his Google-fu and cites a bunch of Really Cool Shit™ that 19th century Asian people got up to. Problem is, all but one of his examples are Chinese or Indian, which doesn't seem to fit with his beef about samurai/geisha/ninja, given those are Japanese concepts (if you were writing SP in China or India, they wouldn't fit), but moving on…

The real issue is that his entire article is based on the misconception that Asian-inspired SP creators have 'little knowledge' of all this Really Cool Shit™ Asians did, and that we're all ignorant tools who believe everyone living in 19th century Asia slung a katana or was a high-priced courtesan.

Thanks, dude. But we can fucking read.

Pirates? Explorers? Really? Like this stuff hasn't been steampunked to DEATH already? Would treading these already well-worn western roads with Asian protagonists really make a difference? Wouldn't it be cooler to explore concepts that are uniquely Asian? Every culture in the world can trot out the hard-nosed reporter archetype or a pirate trope. You'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere else on the planet that can boast the cultural tropes found in the Tokugawa Shogunate or Manchu Dynasty.

I appreciate the Wikipedia lesson, but maybe the creators who 'limited' themselves to these archetypes did so because they thought they might be able to do something excellent with them? Asian-inspired SP hasn't really been done before, so almost anything they do in this sandbox is going to be new. But besides that, did George RR Martin 'limit' himself when he constructed a world on the same western medieval fantasy tropes (knights/kings/dragons) we've lived with since Tolkein? Did Patrick Rothfuss 'limit' himself when he decided to tell a story about a gifted man who studies at a magic university and goes on to become the most powerful wizard who ever lived? Can subject matter be considered a limitation at all, especially given the absolute dearth of Asian-inspired SP in the first place?

Is the wandering samurai trope any more 'unimaginative' than the wandering knight? Is an Asian sky-pirate somehow less clichéd than a white one?

Here is truth, and it is the only truth in this debate that matters: A great story is in the telling.

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I'm drawn to these archetypes not out of some dipshit whitebread ignorance or acquiescence to the evil influences of Orientalism. I'm drawn to them because I find them fascinating. Because these cultures contain a beauty and artistry and aesthetic unlike anything else in the world. And if some people's stories do gravitate towards these tropes, it'd be awesome if other folks actually read them before they declared every single one of them to be 'limited' and 'unimaginative' and 'problematic' based on their own narrow misconceptions.

(deep breath)

Just sayin'.