SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
This topic is about
Apex Magazine Issue 105, February 2018
Short Fiction Discussions
>
"A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies" by Alix E. Harrow
date
newest »
newest »
I just happened to see this thread and I've been looking for short fiction. So glad to find this! For the story, I liked the parts about the boy. The parts about the librarian I found not too interesting. I would have liked to follow him exclusively, make the journey all about him.
To me, this story seemed to be a celebration of both escapism through literature and libraries as an access point to it.
I found this story inappropriately whimsical about serious matters. I thought it was problematic from the librarian perspective. (view spoiler) I did agree with the librarian about escapism. C. S. Lewis has been quoted as saying that people who are opposed to escapist books have the mentality of jailers.I read the interview with Alix Harrow, which appeared after the story. She says "Anyone who really loves books has this totally unhinged urge to share them with others." That sounds like being a missionary for certain books. I've always felt that my tastes in books are my own, and that the books I love wouldn't necessarily be appreciated by others. If someone asks me for a book recommendation, I base it on what I know about that person. If I don't know anything, I ask them questions just as reference librarians do. What I don't do is assume that I know what's good for someone else and what they ought to be reading.
I like that the story is nuanced. The librarian carefully considers what to recommend, and what to push, and what the consequences are. I don't see 'whimsical' at all. This is a story that made my tear ducts prickle. And having just taken a vacation trip to the South, I am wondering how much racial tension I (looked for but) didn't see.Is the librarian young or old? Does it matter?
Does it matter that she's white, that she's female? Why did the author choose her identity to be stereotypical?
For that matter does it matter that the kid is African-American? After all, there are *lots* of white kids in foster care.
Actually it was Lewis quoting Tolkien. See: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9198... and https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8009....
Cheryl wrote: "I like that the story is nuanced. The librarian carefully considers what to recommend, and what to push, and what the consequences are. I don't see 'whimsical' at all. This is a story that made my ..."I don't think she carefully considered at all. How can she possibly know that this boy ended up in a better situation than the one in which he'd been? (view spoiler)
Re whimsy(view spoiler)
Corinne wrote: "I felt it was in the spirit of the story that she wouldn’t be doing him harm. She seemed concerned, she had a magical gift that could find the book the reader needed. I have to suspend real world t..."The what if in this particular story is what if a librarian were infallible. There are reasons why I chose not to buy in to this particular premise.
1)Because when it's writ large it leads to Rachel Caine's Great Library dystopia in which the Library of Alexandria becomes a world wide tyranny. The first book in the series is Ink and Bone.
2)Because while in the real world paternalism is against the official ethics of the profession, this wasn't always the case. There is a tendency for some librarians to be paternalistic which needs to be guarded against.
Yes, one def. has to be able to suspend disbelief for this. And no, librarians are not witches (black or white*). But it's a fantasy, and I chose to read it as such.That being said, I do appreciate the comment on the story's webpage from a real-life librarian.
(*So, again, race questions. The white librarian practices white magic, ok, I guess, but the black kid would practice black magic if he became a witch? I'm still disturbed by the use of race in the story. There's no reason, imo, that the ethnicity or age or even gender of the characters needed to be revealed in this fable.)
So, why are the ethnicities, ages, and genders of the characters revealed? It feels too much, to me, as if there's an agenda.
TOUGH CROWD!No, the skin color does not affect the magic; their character would.
I don't think the age/gender/color of the librarian matters much, but for the kid yes, >>> he suffered more disadvantages in that society. Power imbalance.
May read the story again, with thoughts from this thread in mind.
Shomeret, thank you so much for your commentary. I loved the story when I first read it (and I still appreciate the commentary on escapism), but I'm definitely having to re-examine it in light of your critiques. I think the point about how I'd feel if it wasn't a fantasy story really made me shift my perspective. You're right, there is a lot of paternalism in it, and a lot of arrogance on the part of the librarian. Once I saw that, it also struck me how much of a white savior narrative this is. As Cheryl notes, there was no reason that the characters needed to have these characteristics, but the fact that they did set up a very loaded social dynamic that only exacerbated the issues you discussed.
I disagree about paternalism in the story - even if we evade the problem that literally it cannot be true, I read it on assumption that the librarian knows what she does.
What did everyone think?