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twistdfateangel Okay, so, now I'm feeling a little worried about my NaNo.
See,whatistigerbalm has been reviewing Miéville's "The City and The City". She's not at all happy with the way the author is portraying the Balkans (or at least, fantasy worlds with Balkan inspiration) and I can get behind that.
But, my NaNo is based in a country that's inspired by 19th c. Russia.
The synopsis: The protagonist is 19-year-old Sophia Templeton-Pavlova (probably screwing up already with nomenclature), the daughter of a naval captain and a noblewoman from another country, hence the odd name. Her father died years ago and, even with military benefits, it was hard to survive. Sophia is the youngest of seven girls, and her mother wasn't exactly raised with many marketable skills, plus, she was far too proud to be a courtesan. So, she used her connections and her skills in magic and sewing to gain a position as a sewing woman at the palace, under the Imperial Seamstress. When Sophia is seven, she's given a formal apprenticeship under the Seamstress, and starts living at the palace.
By the time the book actually starts, a lot has happened. The Tsar had, once upon a time, gone batshit crazy and had his wife executed. His only legitimate heir, Nadezhda (sp?), was nearly assassinated, before being spirited away to safety. Sophia took over as Imperial Seamstress after her teacher was imprisoned for "treason" (read: telling the Tsar to his face he was being stupid). But, the Tsar ignored her existence and, subsequently, none of the courtiers came to commission her. She's been largely forgotten and running wild in the back of the palace, with only a few old friends coming to see her. Now, the Tsar's dead, the traditional month of mourning is up and, suddenly, a young (and ridonkulously handsome) wizard arrives at the palace, claiming to be the rightful heir and the Tsar's bastard son.
At first, all this is well and good. The Tsarevna Nadezhda is content to remain in obscurity and is giving some consideration to joining a convent, along with her handmaiden and closest friend (and possibly half-sister). Sophia is suddenly getting jobs and invitations again. The new Tsar is even trying to stimulate the economy by dragging the Industrial Revolution kicking and screaming into the Empire. But, there are signs that something is wrong with this picture. The Tsar is growing increasingly desperate to prove his right to rule and the citizens are getting antsy. What's more, a usually quiet cult of Earthmother-worshippers is rising up and causing all kinds of trouble. Oh, yeah, and Sophia's colleagues are fretting because the new factories might make their jobs obsolete.
There's more to it than this, and it will end with the succession being questioned and set to rights again. There's steampunkery and magic and gods and Victorian-Gothic-Punk Raves, but what I'm worried about is the portrayal of the socio-political aspects of the Empire.
The Tsar and the succession are sort of vital to the country's survival. The spirit of the land and the people is notorious for using the seasons like a weapon (Napoleon's invasion of Russia, anybody?) and that's already a pretty typical portrayal of Slavic fantasy countries as written by Westerners, so I'm sort of balking at that, but it's become so damned thematic, that I may just leave it in and do my best to justify that. I know enough about Russian history to both admire the good rulers and facepalm at the rest, but if I stay that true to things, I may as well not bother renaming anything. I don't want the country in a constant state of arctic conditions, which is what happens in my story's world when the Tsar fucks up or loses his shit. They've survived for centuries and even been quite prosperous. I actually want the sudden "wtf-mini-ice-age" to be a shock and downright crippling. But, am I going to piss off readers who are Russian or from neighboring countries when they read it?
Then, there's naming. For years, I've been calling the country "Nicodonia" after a goofy, Slavic-esque, country in another novel idea I had years ago. The capital is "Katriansk" for the St. Katrian river running alongside the old city. The rest of the towns in the Empire I just gave "translated" names ("Witchwood", "Runebridge", "Stillwater", "Foxhill", "Redwall"--wait, no, skip that one ;)). I KNOW somebody will take issue to that. For one thing, St. Katrian's name would actually be better rendered as "St. Ekaterina the Hellene (Greek)", which would give the inspiration for the name away if I did it right. Just calling it some version of "The City by the River of that Saint" and using the same nomenclature used for other towns sounds... Well... Very dull. I want the capitol city's name to sound kind of epic, because, in my own mind, the capitol is really freaking epic and ought to be filmed wherever they filmed the stuff for Theed in the Star Wars movies or in St. Petersburg, because OMG ROCOCULOUSLY FABULOUS. And I shouldn't even need to go into how offensive "Nicodonia" must sound, but I'd like to keep the implication that it's named for "(St.) Nicholas the Lawgiver" (a Tsar who basically said "Christians, Pagans, stop fighting each other and try to fucking co-exist for a few more centuries).
I'm trying so hard to be respectful and sensible, while still keeping the thematic elements that inspired the story in the first place (including an observation by my husband on Russian politics and history). I don't want to have to make this "random, but very Western fantasy realm". I don't want to take away the themes, because then, there's not a lot giving the story any purpose. But, I am, as I have acknowledged for years, a "dumb American". I don't want someone to write it for me, but I would like to know that I'm not going to be widely decried by Eastern European fantasy fans for being an insensitive dope.
Edited for correct gender
See,
whatistigerbalm has been reviewing Miéville's "The City and The City". She's not at all happy with the way the author is portraying the Balkans (or at least, fantasy worlds with Balkan inspiration) and I can get behind that.But, my NaNo is based in a country that's inspired by 19th c. Russia.
The synopsis: The protagonist is 19-year-old Sophia Templeton-Pavlova (probably screwing up already with nomenclature), the daughter of a naval captain and a noblewoman from another country, hence the odd name. Her father died years ago and, even with military benefits, it was hard to survive. Sophia is the youngest of seven girls, and her mother wasn't exactly raised with many marketable skills, plus, she was far too proud to be a courtesan. So, she used her connections and her skills in magic and sewing to gain a position as a sewing woman at the palace, under the Imperial Seamstress. When Sophia is seven, she's given a formal apprenticeship under the Seamstress, and starts living at the palace.
By the time the book actually starts, a lot has happened. The Tsar had, once upon a time, gone batshit crazy and had his wife executed. His only legitimate heir, Nadezhda (sp?), was nearly assassinated, before being spirited away to safety. Sophia took over as Imperial Seamstress after her teacher was imprisoned for "treason" (read: telling the Tsar to his face he was being stupid). But, the Tsar ignored her existence and, subsequently, none of the courtiers came to commission her. She's been largely forgotten and running wild in the back of the palace, with only a few old friends coming to see her. Now, the Tsar's dead, the traditional month of mourning is up and, suddenly, a young (and ridonkulously handsome) wizard arrives at the palace, claiming to be the rightful heir and the Tsar's bastard son.
At first, all this is well and good. The Tsarevna Nadezhda is content to remain in obscurity and is giving some consideration to joining a convent, along with her handmaiden and closest friend (and possibly half-sister). Sophia is suddenly getting jobs and invitations again. The new Tsar is even trying to stimulate the economy by dragging the Industrial Revolution kicking and screaming into the Empire. But, there are signs that something is wrong with this picture. The Tsar is growing increasingly desperate to prove his right to rule and the citizens are getting antsy. What's more, a usually quiet cult of Earthmother-worshippers is rising up and causing all kinds of trouble. Oh, yeah, and Sophia's colleagues are fretting because the new factories might make their jobs obsolete.
There's more to it than this, and it will end with the succession being questioned and set to rights again. There's steampunkery and magic and gods and Victorian-Gothic-Punk Raves, but what I'm worried about is the portrayal of the socio-political aspects of the Empire.
The Tsar and the succession are sort of vital to the country's survival. The spirit of the land and the people is notorious for using the seasons like a weapon (Napoleon's invasion of Russia, anybody?) and that's already a pretty typical portrayal of Slavic fantasy countries as written by Westerners, so I'm sort of balking at that, but it's become so damned thematic, that I may just leave it in and do my best to justify that. I know enough about Russian history to both admire the good rulers and facepalm at the rest, but if I stay that true to things, I may as well not bother renaming anything. I don't want the country in a constant state of arctic conditions, which is what happens in my story's world when the Tsar fucks up or loses his shit. They've survived for centuries and even been quite prosperous. I actually want the sudden "wtf-mini-ice-age" to be a shock and downright crippling. But, am I going to piss off readers who are Russian or from neighboring countries when they read it?
Then, there's naming. For years, I've been calling the country "Nicodonia" after a goofy, Slavic-esque, country in another novel idea I had years ago. The capital is "Katriansk" for the St. Katrian river running alongside the old city. The rest of the towns in the Empire I just gave "translated" names ("Witchwood", "Runebridge", "Stillwater", "Foxhill", "Redwall"--wait, no, skip that one ;)). I KNOW somebody will take issue to that. For one thing, St. Katrian's name would actually be better rendered as "St. Ekaterina the Hellene (Greek)", which would give the inspiration for the name away if I did it right. Just calling it some version of "The City by the River of that Saint" and using the same nomenclature used for other towns sounds... Well... Very dull. I want the capitol city's name to sound kind of epic, because, in my own mind, the capitol is really freaking epic and ought to be filmed wherever they filmed the stuff for Theed in the Star Wars movies or in St. Petersburg, because OMG ROCOCULOUSLY FABULOUS. And I shouldn't even need to go into how offensive "Nicodonia" must sound, but I'd like to keep the implication that it's named for "(St.) Nicholas the Lawgiver" (a Tsar who basically said "Christians, Pagans, stop fighting each other and try to fucking co-exist for a few more centuries).
I'm trying so hard to be respectful and sensible, while still keeping the thematic elements that inspired the story in the first place (including an observation by my husband on Russian politics and history). I don't want to have to make this "random, but very Western fantasy realm". I don't want to take away the themes, because then, there's not a lot giving the story any purpose. But, I am, as I have acknowledged for years, a "dumb American". I don't want someone to write it for me, but I would like to know that I'm not going to be widely decried by Eastern European fantasy fans for being an insensitive dope.
Edited for correct gender
