Reading very nearly Wednesday
Jun. 27th, 2019 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhThe Perfect Prince: The Mystery of Perkin Warbeck and His Quest for the Throne of England by Ann Wroe. Nonfiction about the man who may, or may not, have been one of the "princes in the tower". During the Wars of the Roses in 1483, two orphaned princes of England were put into the Tower of London by their uncle, Richard III. They were never seen again. As everyone from Shakespeare on down has assumed, they most likely were murdered by their uncle to better emphasize his own claim to the throne. However, in 1490 a young man appeared who claimed to be the younger of the two princes: Richard, who was 9 when last seen and would have been about 18 at this point. This maybe-Richard claimed that he had been spared, since after all he wasn't the heir to the throne and the man assigned to actually do the deed of killing the children had been his godfather. Since then, Richard had been living in hiding, but now as an adult he was ready to claim his throne (which in the meantime had passed from Richard III to Henry VI, or in other words from the Yorks to the Lancasters). Maybe-Richard was eventually captured and executed by Henry VI but first, under duress, gave a confession claiming that he was really Perkin Warbeck, a poor boatman's son from Flanders.
Maybe-Perkin has never been taken seriously by historians as a real descendant of royalty, but The Perfect Prince argues that he deserves a second look. Perkin/Richard's claim was supported by multiple people who had seen Prince Richard before his disappearance – including, most importantly, his aunt Margaret of Burgundy. There are also several holes in the Perkin story: the young man could speak fluent English, which would have been unusual for someone raised in Flanders; there are multiple, contradictory confessions of his childhood, none of which seem to reflect reality; his supposed family in Flanders continued to live peaceful, unimportant, undisturbed lives, which seems odd if they really had a son leading armies in England. Or even afterwards – shouldn't Henry VI have wanted their presence, or just their testimony, to help prove that the person he had captured wasn't Prince Richard?
Wroe isn't entirely convinced that this young man was Richard; she just wants to keep her options open. She even suggests several additional possibilities: that he was an illegitimate brother to the real Richard, thereby indeed being descended from English royalty even if he never had to escape from the Tower; that he was a child raised by Margaret from a young age with the explicit purpose of turning him into a pretender, giving a random nobody the education and bearing to convince others that he was a prince. But Wroe's main interest is not the "truth" of who this person was (which honestly is probably long lost to the mist of time; it's extremely unlikely anyone will ever be able to prove if he was or wasn't Richard), but all the other questions his story opens up: what did it mean to be a prince in the 1400s? How did one demonstrate or recognize princeliness? How does anyone know the truth of who they are? Do certain claims seem believable only because they benefit us in other ways, while some claims seem unbelievable only because they would cost us?
These are all fascinating topics, but unfortunately Wroe's writing doesn't show them to their best advantage. I found it particularly difficult to keep track of who was who – there seemed to about seventeen important Richards, and equal numbers of Edwards and Henrys – which is a problem that plagues all writing about medieval England, but Wroe's style certainly doesn't help matters. She additionally has an annoying habit of referring to "the king", which is entirely useless when there are four people claiming to be the King of England alone, not to mention the kings of Scotland, France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire, all of whom also play major parts. It's a slog of a book, long and dense, despite the very exciting subject.
In addition to the confusing and overlong writing, there’s a bizarrely racist interlude early in chapter one. It’s brief and barely connected to the main point of the book (both versions of the story, Perkin or Prince Richard, claimed to have worked as a page in Portugal in his early teenage years, where he may have met some Africans), but the fact that it occurred so early on really colored my opinion of Wroe for the subsequent 500 pages. Here's some excerpts:
“Their darkness came in different gradations, from the almost-white Berbers and Moroccans to the near-black Canarians, jumping and hooting and cave-dwelling, and the jet-black Guineans."
"Yet his [Bemoy, King of the Jalofs in Senegal, who was visiting the Portuguese court] skin was blue-black; the hair on his head was short and crinkled, like dry black moss; and his hands when he held them out had pale pink undersides, as if that part only had been touched by God. […] Bemoy himself, with his broad black face and his carefully copied courtesy, perhaps barely understanding what he had done [converted to Christianity]."
"The holy baptismal water had flowed over [Bemoy], though it did not run down, as on Christians, but caught in his tight curls like dew. […] But he remained berry-black, ink-black, raven-wing black, with no outward sign that salvation might have been effected in him. In his own country, among his own people, it was always likely that some other Bemoy would appear: imperious, confident, violent, even devilish, his blackness finally overpowering all the grace that had been poured out on him."
To give Wroe the benefit of the doubt, perhaps she meant to portray the mindset of the average white 15th century European, but goddamn that is a lot of othering language.
In short: an amazing topic stymied by an inadequate author.
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. Absolutely fascinating, anti-imperialist science fiction, the first in a trilogy. The Hexarchate (the dark empire of this particular series) is capable of incredible military achievements, unbeatable and nearly magical. However, this is only possible through strict regulation of its civilian population and particularly their calendar, kept in tune with regular human sacrifices (just heretics, after all; surely worth the technological advances). The worldbuilding is complicated and makes the first few chapters slow-going, but it's ultimately well worth it.
Iin this world we have Kel Cheris, an extremely successful military captain who has fallen afoul of the powers-that-be through her use of unconventional, unapproved tactics. She is given the opportunity to lead a vital battle for the Hexarchate, but it comes with a catch: they want to download the soul of the long-dead Shuos Jedao into her head. Jedao was an infamous traitor who killed millions of the Hexarchate’s own people, but also was an unmatched military genius who never lost a battle.
This setup leads to an absolutely compelling plot. Kel obviously can’t trust anything Jedao tells her, but she’s also forced to rely on him for advice. As time goes on, the questions multiply: with two souls in one body, where is the line between Kel and Jedao? Why did Jedao rebel in the first place? What is the Hexarchate’s motive in sending Kel into battle, or in keeping Jedao’s consciousness semi-alive? Plus the gender confusion of having a man and woman share a body (this is a world where queer is the default; same-sex relationships and trans characters pass by without remark).
I am not generally a fan of military sci-fi (battles bore me), and Ninefox Gambit is very much a book driven more by its plot than its characters, another usual negative for me. Despite those drawbacks, I LOVED it. Jedao is an amazingly gripping character, and the high-stakes game of trust and betrayal between him and Kel were more compelling than one million gunfire exchanges combined. The slow drip of clues to Jedao's motivation and real goals had me 100% hooked. I just could not put the book down. I also adored the well-done gradual reveal of the Hexarchate as a place of atrocities and war crimes; there was often little explicit violence on the page, but the hints were enough to give a chilling twist to this world. (Ninefox Gambit is an excellent addition to the new wave of anti-imperialist sci-fi, along with Ann Leckie and Arkady Martine. I should start keeping a list.) Highly, highly recommended.
Maybe-Perkin has never been taken seriously by historians as a real descendant of royalty, but The Perfect Prince argues that he deserves a second look. Perkin/Richard's claim was supported by multiple people who had seen Prince Richard before his disappearance – including, most importantly, his aunt Margaret of Burgundy. There are also several holes in the Perkin story: the young man could speak fluent English, which would have been unusual for someone raised in Flanders; there are multiple, contradictory confessions of his childhood, none of which seem to reflect reality; his supposed family in Flanders continued to live peaceful, unimportant, undisturbed lives, which seems odd if they really had a son leading armies in England. Or even afterwards – shouldn't Henry VI have wanted their presence, or just their testimony, to help prove that the person he had captured wasn't Prince Richard?
Wroe isn't entirely convinced that this young man was Richard; she just wants to keep her options open. She even suggests several additional possibilities: that he was an illegitimate brother to the real Richard, thereby indeed being descended from English royalty even if he never had to escape from the Tower; that he was a child raised by Margaret from a young age with the explicit purpose of turning him into a pretender, giving a random nobody the education and bearing to convince others that he was a prince. But Wroe's main interest is not the "truth" of who this person was (which honestly is probably long lost to the mist of time; it's extremely unlikely anyone will ever be able to prove if he was or wasn't Richard), but all the other questions his story opens up: what did it mean to be a prince in the 1400s? How did one demonstrate or recognize princeliness? How does anyone know the truth of who they are? Do certain claims seem believable only because they benefit us in other ways, while some claims seem unbelievable only because they would cost us?
These are all fascinating topics, but unfortunately Wroe's writing doesn't show them to their best advantage. I found it particularly difficult to keep track of who was who – there seemed to about seventeen important Richards, and equal numbers of Edwards and Henrys – which is a problem that plagues all writing about medieval England, but Wroe's style certainly doesn't help matters. She additionally has an annoying habit of referring to "the king", which is entirely useless when there are four people claiming to be the King of England alone, not to mention the kings of Scotland, France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire, all of whom also play major parts. It's a slog of a book, long and dense, despite the very exciting subject.
In addition to the confusing and overlong writing, there’s a bizarrely racist interlude early in chapter one. It’s brief and barely connected to the main point of the book (both versions of the story, Perkin or Prince Richard, claimed to have worked as a page in Portugal in his early teenage years, where he may have met some Africans), but the fact that it occurred so early on really colored my opinion of Wroe for the subsequent 500 pages. Here's some excerpts:
“Their darkness came in different gradations, from the almost-white Berbers and Moroccans to the near-black Canarians, jumping and hooting and cave-dwelling, and the jet-black Guineans."
"Yet his [Bemoy, King of the Jalofs in Senegal, who was visiting the Portuguese court] skin was blue-black; the hair on his head was short and crinkled, like dry black moss; and his hands when he held them out had pale pink undersides, as if that part only had been touched by God. […] Bemoy himself, with his broad black face and his carefully copied courtesy, perhaps barely understanding what he had done [converted to Christianity]."
"The holy baptismal water had flowed over [Bemoy], though it did not run down, as on Christians, but caught in his tight curls like dew. […] But he remained berry-black, ink-black, raven-wing black, with no outward sign that salvation might have been effected in him. In his own country, among his own people, it was always likely that some other Bemoy would appear: imperious, confident, violent, even devilish, his blackness finally overpowering all the grace that had been poured out on him."
To give Wroe the benefit of the doubt, perhaps she meant to portray the mindset of the average white 15th century European, but goddamn that is a lot of othering language.
In short: an amazing topic stymied by an inadequate author.
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. Absolutely fascinating, anti-imperialist science fiction, the first in a trilogy. The Hexarchate (the dark empire of this particular series) is capable of incredible military achievements, unbeatable and nearly magical. However, this is only possible through strict regulation of its civilian population and particularly their calendar, kept in tune with regular human sacrifices (just heretics, after all; surely worth the technological advances). The worldbuilding is complicated and makes the first few chapters slow-going, but it's ultimately well worth it.
Iin this world we have Kel Cheris, an extremely successful military captain who has fallen afoul of the powers-that-be through her use of unconventional, unapproved tactics. She is given the opportunity to lead a vital battle for the Hexarchate, but it comes with a catch: they want to download the soul of the long-dead Shuos Jedao into her head. Jedao was an infamous traitor who killed millions of the Hexarchate’s own people, but also was an unmatched military genius who never lost a battle.
This setup leads to an absolutely compelling plot. Kel obviously can’t trust anything Jedao tells her, but she’s also forced to rely on him for advice. As time goes on, the questions multiply: with two souls in one body, where is the line between Kel and Jedao? Why did Jedao rebel in the first place? What is the Hexarchate’s motive in sending Kel into battle, or in keeping Jedao’s consciousness semi-alive? Plus the gender confusion of having a man and woman share a body (this is a world where queer is the default; same-sex relationships and trans characters pass by without remark).
I am not generally a fan of military sci-fi (battles bore me), and Ninefox Gambit is very much a book driven more by its plot than its characters, another usual negative for me. Despite those drawbacks, I LOVED it. Jedao is an amazingly gripping character, and the high-stakes game of trust and betrayal between him and Kel were more compelling than one million gunfire exchanges combined. The slow drip of clues to Jedao's motivation and real goals had me 100% hooked. I just could not put the book down. I also adored the well-done gradual reveal of the Hexarchate as a place of atrocities and war crimes; there was often little explicit violence on the page, but the hints were enough to give a chilling twist to this world. (Ninefox Gambit is an excellent addition to the new wave of anti-imperialist sci-fi, along with Ann Leckie and Arkady Martine. I should start keeping a list.) Highly, highly recommended.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-28 01:47 am (UTC)I'm sorry! I would love to read a book about pretendership/princeliness that actually could handle those questions.
"In his own country, among his own people, it was always likely that some other Bemoy would appear: imperious, confident, violent, even devilish, his blackness finally overpowering all the grace that had been poured out on him."
Yikes.
Highly, highly recommended.
I am so glad. I love
no subject
Date: 2019-06-28 02:34 am (UTC)Me too.
The short story collection just came out!
Yes! I have a copy and am very excited to read it. I actually read the original trilogy back in March and am just extremely delayed in writing up the reviews, but I'm so looking forward to revisiting the world.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-28 05:50 am (UTC)Thank god for AO3 and the “Period-Typical Racism” tag. I wish the entire world had such comprehensive tagging procedures.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-20 11:57 pm (UTC)AO3 tagging on published literature would be so very, very useful in many ways.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-28 06:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-28 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-28 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-20 11:54 pm (UTC)