And yeah, more rural. She’s always talking about nature and her magic is so rooted in that fossil, etc., whereas with Jay-tee it’s in a stereo — yes, the music could be a digeridoo, surely, but that’s not what jay-tee knows.

so anyway–thanks. you’re helping me validate my opinions

I’m fascianted that you see Reason’s magic as more rural than Jay-Tee or Tom. I definitely wasn’t thinking about it that way at all.

And, yeah, that’s one of the many many many reasons I love Le Guin’s work so much!

Diana: you are so right about *Speaker for the dead* I suspect Card did his missionary work as a mormon in a Brazilian favela or workingclass suburb, which is why he gets the sound, syntax and attitude of his afrobrazilian settlers so note-perfect. The mormons enter foreign countries much like the Jesuits used to—taking the time to learn and understand the local language and customs so that they can argue theology and conversion rhetoric with intelligence and sympathetic authority.

I bet there’s a lot of leGuin on that list, Ariel! She was always my go-to gal when it came to non-white fantasy characters. I think a lot of that can be traced back to what Scott said on insideadog about how many fantasy novels are derived from European legends. I also really liked how the characters in Speaker for the Dead were all of Brazilian descent, so were also black and speaking Portuguese, for good measure!

for one thing, writers/readers might examine whether “race” really differs from “culture.”

Yup. And another set of curly ones that is. It’s like how—as we all know—”white” and “black” mean totally different things depending on where and when they’re being used.

Ariel: That would be great.

Janet: Absolutely. That’s part of why I’m so astounded every time I’m asked that question.

generally i don’t think there are enough people of color in sf/fantasy. a few months ago the people on the child_lit listserve at rutgers assembled a list of sf/fantasy books with non-white heroes & heroines. (of course i nominated the magic or madness trilogy.) if anyone is interested, i could dig up the list.

I’ve been thinking about what you and Elodie were saying above about finding books about being black or Hispanic or Chinese or whatever boring. And I was wondering which books had turned you off? Which books did you try? I’ve certainly read some that were fairly dire but I’ve read lots of good ones too.

Books that try to teach lessons are often very tedious, but that doesn’t mean that all books with non-white characters who are dealing with some of the consequences of being non-white are trying to be all preachy. Have you read Tyrell by Coe Booth for instance? It’s totally awesome and honest and uses the language that her characters use (which is hilarious because I know Coe and she does not swear at all—she doesn’t even say “damn”). It’s one of my fave books of the last few years and it’s definitely about race and class as well as about figuring out who you are and love and sex and many other things. I totally recommend it.

That’s why it was lovely when Hillary! above asked why Tom is white. No one has asked me that before. Bless you, Hillary! (Though my answer’s the same as why Reason is black.)

Sarafina and Esmeralda have Spanish ancestry but neither of them speak Spanish. The last one in the family to do so was several generations earlier. (Raul Cansino—their scary ancestor—was a Spanish speaker from Salamanca in Spain.)

Reason’s dad is an indigenous Australian which means that Reason is too. And in Australia the indigenous population is frequently referred to as black. In Australia Reason is considered black.