Bob Hayes — a friend of mine from college days, (mumble mumble) years ago — has posted a very kind review of “Hereville” on “Blogger News Network.”
This is not a Marvel comic book filled with iron-jawed superheroes, though Mirka yearns for heroics – dreaming of dragonslaying as she tends her younger brother, knits with her stepmother, and prepares the Shabbat meal with her family. “Hereville” explores themes more adult than its protagonist might wish for in a comic book – primarily, coming of age, the role of women in traditional societies, a subtle exploration of how communities on the margins of a larger society nonetheless view themselves as the center, with their own set of outcasts and marginal figures, and the struggle faced by an independent, somewhat nonconformist young girl faced with a social role not of her choice or to her liking.
The story of Mirka begins with a friendly argument, and climaxes in a debate whose outcome could mean death to Mirka – or could, if we didn’t presume from the title that our heroine would prevail in the end. In between, Mirka saves an outcast woman (a “witch”, according to the local boys) from a beating, and is offered a reward for her service – a reward that takes the form of a quest to retrieve a sword from the local troll. But before Mirka can battle the troll, she must keep her brother from ratting out her plans to their ever-protective parents, celebrate the Shabbat, and find a way to get out of the house at night without being detected. These obstacles and travails are drawn with wit and warmth, and the reader is drawn into the oddball world of “Hereville” without a backwards glance. (A world of trolls, witches, electric lights and vacuum cleaners? Don’t ask questions – just enjoy it!)
There’s more to the review, including some mild criticism and mild spoilers, at BNN.
A world of trolls, witches, electric lights and vacuum cleaners?
This issue has come up in several reviews now, so I’ve got to ask…why are trolls and witches less likely in a world that also has electric lights and vacuum cleaners? Or is the the vacuum cleaners and electric lights that are unlikely in a world with trolls and witches? If we accept as a given of the story that there are trolls, why does that stop people from learning to use electricity?
It’s not intrinsic. If you were starting from scratch and designing a world, there’s no contradiction.
But in viewing someone else’s world, if you see electricity and vacuum cleaners and accurately-presented members of real-world ethnic and cultural groups, then you assume that their world is this world. Mirka isn’t an ultra-orthodox Frenklinite from the invented world of Mulax; she’s a Jewish girl from Earth.
And so the presence of trolls, witches, dragons has to be explained somehow. Perhaps there will be more explanation in future installments; there’s also an implicit explanation of “maybe there’s more to this world than we see”. I didn’t find it a weakening of the story, only suggesting to readers that they not worry about the juxtaposition (there are people who worry about this kind of thing) and just enjoy it.
Robert: Maybe I misunderstood the objection to trolls…I thought the objection was modern versus medieval. That is, would you have found the presence of trolls and dragons out of place if the story had been set in a Jewish ghetto in the Ukraine in 1548?
“And so the presence of trolls, witches, dragons has to be explained somehow.”
The history of the fantasy genre doesn’t support this assertion. It actually strikes me as a pretty old-fashioned statement, or at least one that ignores the last 30 years of genre fiction.
I also have difficulty reconciling the existence of trolls with both electric lights and vacuums. Since their beginning in Norse mythology, trolls have been depicted as shunning light and having really messy carpets, so this is a jarring juxtaposition.
Also, trolls are associated with the earth and nature, and you know nature’s opinions about vacuums. All of this has caused me to reconsider the plausibility of the Magical Realism genre. And electricity.
All of this has caused me to reconsider the plausibility of the Magical Realism genre. And electricity.
Electricity is just a theory.
Hey Barry, guess who else reviewed Hereville today, and guess where?
Wow! Thanks Elayne! :-D
I’ll post about your review tomorrow….
That is, would you have found the presence of trolls and dragons out of place if the story had been set in a Jewish ghetto in the Ukraine in 1548?
Yes, because there weren’t trolls and dragons in 1548 either. :P
The issue isn’t really belief in these things by the characters (which is what I assume you’re getting at); people believe in all kinds of things. The issue is their actual existence in the story’s world. Mirka’s stepmother (presumably) doesn’t actually believe in dragons, trolls, or witches, while Mirka does; as it happens, in the world of “Hereville”, Mirka is right, at least about the troll, and possibly about the witch. (Was she a witch with magical mind-reading powers, or just someone with a lot of insight who was portrayed imaginatively/romantically by Barry? Hard to say, 100%.)
The history of the fantasy genre doesn’t support this assertion [that counterfactuals need explanation]. It actually strikes me as a pretty old-fashioned statement, or at least one that ignores the last 30 years of genre fiction.
Well, I’m a pretty old-fashioned guy. Nonetheless:
Most every SF or fantasy piece I’ve read in recent decades includes a nod to the idea of reconciling what’s in the story with what we know of reality. The nod may be implicit – “this isn’t isn’t intended to map to our world in terms of being a description of reality, so don’t try” – a la “The Last Unicorn”. It may be a straightforward reconciliation based on esoteric or secret knowledge – “all this stuff IS real in [my written] world, you just don’t see it because you’re a muggle and the magic-types keep it all a deep, dark secret” – “Harry Potter”. Or it may be done speculatively; “what if X were real, how would that play out, how would it affect the story I’m going to tell” – most of SF and fantasy.
There has been a shift over the last century or so of speculative fiction towards assuming that the reader knows all of that, is comfortable with imagining a parallel reality, doesn’t need it all spelled out. It can be very irritating to go read Mauve Age SF, where the writer has the protagonist go on and on with the explanations and the “I know this is hard to believe but”…you just want to throw the book across the room and shout “OK, I get it!” The formalities are dispensed with these days, but the author still attempts to make things “realistic” or at least to lend versimilitude.
To make the example personal, I remember that in one of the stories you posted, Mandolin, there was some ecological disaster that happens because an asteroid hit a waste dump. I questioned the premise, didn’t find it realistic. Your response wasn’t “it doesn’t matter, it’s a story”, it was “I checked with a scientist friend and that is what would happen.”
Barry can’t check with a mythologist friend and establish the existence of trolls, of course. But it is reasonable to inquire as to how trolls coincide with a realish-world community of English- and Yiddish-speaking Jews. “It’s fantasy, hush” is a perfectly valid, even if not awe-inspiringly compelling, response to that question.
How do you know? Were you there?
How do you know? Were you there?
No. But I have the testimony of witnesses who I trust.
The issue isn’t really belief in these things by the characters (which is what I assume you’re getting at); people believe in all kinds of things…
That’s a better argument than the one I was actually getting at, so I’m tempted to pretend that it’s what I meant all along, but it isn’t really. What I was getting at is that when someone writes or draws a fantasy set in medieval Europe and it contains trolls and dragons, no one blinks or questions it. It’s just part of the story. Is there some reason to think that a world that had trolls in it (which Hereville is) could not also have electricity? (Maybe so: It clearly has different physics or at least different biology.)
Mirka’s stepmother (presumably) doesn’t actually believe in dragons, trolls, or witches, while Mirka does;
My reading of the scene where Furma rants about how Mirka should or shouldn’t want to kill dragons (she switches arguments midway through) is that Furma does believe in dragons and considers a dragon attack on the town a real, if relatively unlikely, threat. Sort of analogous to the threat of bears attacking people in the suburbs of New Jersey: not something that happens every day but not unknown either. Just my impression from the tone of her argument. Presumably Barry knows the truth, but he probably shouldn’t tell us, because it might ruin one or more alternate interpretations of his work.
as it happens, in the world of “Hereville”, Mirka is right, at least about the troll, and possibly about the witch. (Was she a witch with magical mind-reading powers, or just someone with a lot of insight who was portrayed imaginatively/romantically by Barry? Hard to say, 100%.)
For whatever reason, I read the witch as being a person with insight and possibly background knowledge of Mirka (her family appears to be a prominant one) rather than a magical mind reader. Again, not sure that that’s the truth as it exists in Hereville, though.
All of which points out one of the things I like a lot about Hereville: it is possible to read it on multiple levels and it rewards a deeper look. Signs of true art, in my opinion.
What I was getting at is that when someone writes or draws a fantasy set in medieval Europe and it contains trolls and dragons, no one blinks or questions it.
True. Perhaps because that thematic setting has been so thoroughly done that it’s taken as a given? Or as a common denominator of English-language culture, anyway.