After having subjected myself to a bunch of clueless reviews by clueless white people I found a few that don’t praise this piece of orientalist shit to high heavens. Score!
First Jaymee Goh at Beyond Victoriania:
The book was ambivalent for me by this time, but the introduction of the titular character, Emiko the Windup Girl, was horrendous, cringe-inducing, and it would have been really nice to have read a review beforehand which gave me a TRIGGER WARNING. Made in Japan (really? Japan? Ya don’t say), unsuited for this equatorial climate and sexually abused for her exotic Other-ness, Emiko’s arc is supposed to give us some indepth introspection into the state of a character who must overcome everything that is instinctual in herself, built into her genes, in order to gain mastery of herself.
If this concept wasn’t so real, so close to the reality of so many women all over the world, it would still be yawn-worthy, as the idea of a woman overcoming her upbringing, eventually snapping and reacting violently against her sexual abuse is extremely overdone and not just an android thing. As a woman, I am huffy that this cheap route was taken, and not just a little frustrated that once again, a female titular character is subjected to the sexual abuse narrative as the Worst Thing To Happen To Her. As an Asian, I am infuriated that Bacigalupi chose Thailand, already reputed for its sex tourism industry, to portray the abuse of a female character. Realism aside, do we assume that this happens nowhere else? Would the story have been different if it had happened in an European country? But no, it has to be Thailand, because shit like this is normal in Thailand, amrite?
OH MY GOD EXACTLY. EX-FUCKING-SACTLY.
The lack of justification for changing the geographical landscape notwithstanding, it would have been nice if Bacigalupi had paid some tribute to the actual history of what had really happened, and segued with that, as opposed to jumping straight in with his fabricated Thailand and Malaya. It implies that there is no reason to explore why Malaya has degenerated into what appears to be xenophobic fundamentalism, when for centuries, we’ve been known to be one of the most open ports for foreigners and ethnic groups have co-existed. Not only that, but Thailand’s vibrant culture is ignored in favour of a purely gritty depiction, in which corruption and poverty is tantamount.
[...]
Thailand and its inhabitants are given no such cultural markers, except for monks (placed in charge of Thailand’s greatest treasure: gene samples) and the denouncing of Jaidee. As a result, the story could be set anywhere. Jaidee and Kanya could be Joshua and Carrie. Why Thailand? That is a question to which only Bacigalupi knows. What is the result? Yet another novel in which a foreigner re-writes the history of a culture that doesn’t belong to him, blending fact and fiction in a blend which is unrecognizable. The sexual abuse of Emiko didn’t have to happen in Thailand; are only Asians so mistrustful of androids? Or is it expedient to view Asians as backward enough to avoid progress? Where is the deviation from actual history, and why is it not important to mention?
YES. YES EXACTLY. SEE? SEEEEEE?
Emiko, the titular Windup Girl, is of Japanese design and make. She is designed to serve and to please. She walks and moves in this stutter-start, I can’t remember the exact words used but the description clearly evokes the geisha-walk. So here, in her characterisation and description, Bacigalupi is clearly using the stereotypes of the geisha girl. The novel is set in Thailand. As you may be aware Mei Hua, Thailand has a significant sex trade, it’s pretty well-known. Did you know that Emiko, left behind by her owners in Thailand, finds work in a strip club? Emiko is introduced to us in chapter three, where another of the club’s employees rapes her, at the behest of the customers. This rape scene is lovingly described in terms that are all about caressing and stroking and she comes to orgasm because that’s what she’s designed to do.
Let me draw a line for you from one to the other. She’s Japanese, she’s subservient, she’s built to please; she lives in Tokyo and is part of the sex trade. This orientalist claptrap is just ridiculous. Helen Merrick, at the bookclub panel, suggested that perhaps Bacigalupi introduced these themes in order to interrogate them, but didn’t quite manage to do so. I am not so kind, I don’t think he had any intention of interrogating them, or he wouldn’t have spent so much time so lovingly describing them.
YESSSSSS. CALL THIS GUY OUT. CALL HIM ALLLLL THE WAY OUT.
For a shit-crust topping on the shit-cake, have a gander at what Bacigagaga wrote in 1999:
In the end, it’s what I always say to Chinese people in China. It’s what they want to hear: an affirmation of country and culture and a stroke for their nascent sense of superiority, which these days they’re nursing into a full-blown complex. “China’s great,” I said again. “I’m so glad to have a chance to come back here and travel. See new scenery. The Three Gorges are great. Very beautiful.”
I’m such a liar.
[...]
My restaurant companion looked at me more closely and asked, “And what do you think of the Chinese people?”
Cold and heartless, but nice if you’re in their clique of friends. “They’re great, too,” I said.
Twelve years ago? Yes. Perfectly consistent with the raging colonialist text, brimming from cover to cover with racist stereotypes, he wrote not so long ago? YES. Never forgive, never forget. Never feel any guilt for mocking, eviscerating, and hounding this man. Link my posts, link Jaymee Goh’s post, link them. Spread the word that Paolo Bacigalupi is a raging racist fuck. Let him be hurt, let him bleed, pound him into the fucking ground. No mercy.
toritruslow
/ December 2, 2011Holy – what the – that extract – I – uh – holy shit.
I can’t believe that’s a travel piece. When I saw the bit you quoted I thought it must be fiction – must be! – because who would write that as non-fiction? Ha ha ha! Oh my god.
Link my posts, link Jaymee Goh’s post, link them.
Rodger that, captain.
acrackedmoon
/ December 2, 2011See on one hand he wrote it in 1999.
ON THE OTHER HE WROTE THE WIND-UP GIRL
JESUS
saajanpatel
/ December 2, 2011I don’t know why I’m so floored by this. I think because it was so acclaimed, and nobody bothered to pick up on the fact that the Thai is fake, the culture seems to lack Wikipedia level research, nor did anyone cared that the story is not just rape-porn but seems so utterly cliche.
Sexual abuse is a hugely complex topic that can involve shame and desire and guilt – and it varies so much between people. It is disgusting to see it treated as titillation and an excuse for lazy writing, not to mention ignoring the role Westerners play in the sex trafficking industry.
And people wonder why SFF isn’t taken seriously as a genre…sucks for those who like Valente and Tanith Lee who have to be lumped in with this drek.
acrackedmoon
/ December 2, 2011It really, really shows that the genre–racefail and “call-out culture” (hah) or not–has a looooong way to go before POC and women can navigate it safely and comfortably. :/
Ronan Wills
/ December 2, 2011Man, I’d heard a few bad things about this book in among all the hyperbolic praise (“modern classic” is a phrase I’ve seen a number of times), but I had no idea it was this bad.
At first I thought Paolo Bagpipe was just ignorant, but that piece you quoted paints a much uglier picture.
Also according to Wikipedia, this tied with The City & The City in 2009 for the Hugo award. That makes me angry.
Does anyone else think it’s a little ironic for an American guy to be calling out another culture for having a sense of superiority? I know America isn’t alone among western countries in being guilty of this, but it seems to be more widespread there than anywhere else.
acrackedmoon
/ December 2, 2011He also thinks making up racism in Thailand (and thus implicitly calling it out) is appropriate, so…
smartalek1
/ May 12, 2013You’re not alone; it was my second reaction.
My first was wondering how the heck a person capable of even thinking, let alone writing for the whole world to see, this:
“‘And what do you think of the Chinese people?’
Cold and heartless, but nice if you’re in their clique of friends.”
could ever have been, as I’ve read here, an “Asian Studies” major in college, or why he’d have wanted to be.
It’s like a Klansman (should any ever aspire to college) wanting to join the African-American Studies Dept, or a Nazi wanting to concentrate on Judaic History and Culture.
Perhaps the boy’s a masochist?
If so, it might help explain his apparent fascination with rape and dominance fantasies — a bit of reaction formation, as a coping mechanism for shame over his unacceptably self-demeaning proclivities?
It would be interesting to know just which bars he visited when he was doing his “research.”
Captain Falcon (@psychoxnino)
/ December 2, 2011“As an Asian, I am infuriated that Bacigalupi chose Thailand, already reputed for its sex tourism industry, to portray the abuse of a female character. Realism aside, do we assume that this happens nowhere else? Would the story have been different if it had happened in an European country? But no, it has to be Thailand, because shit like this is normal in Thailand, amrite?”
He doesn’t need to leave the U.S. to find a sex industry, not even one that exploits Asians or Asian women specifically. He can come to my area, and I can help him find a massage parlor. It’s not always white American men traveling to foreign countries looking for wives. People get tricked into coming here all the time.
Also, there was one item on the news recently about a grave site discovered in Long Island that had the remains of 8 to 10 people. All were sex workers, 8 were women, race and ethnicities undisclosed, and one was an Asian male. He is currently among the unidentified, and if they don’t identify him, he may have been an immigrant, maybe someone brought in by traffickers. That’s the worse case scenario because then he might never be identified, and his family back home will never know.
But that’s just a part of cold unforgiving reality, my reality, which may not be worth much in the SF genre. I don’t know what Bacigalupi was trying for. I’m not convinced that he knows very much.
unprevailing
/ December 4, 2011When I was at Denver’s Worldcon a few years ago, I was wandering the author signing room and looking at book spines in order to find publishing houses that might accept my novel. While most authors had long lines, Bacigalupi was sitting alone with a stack of unsigned hardcopies. I must’ve lingered too long (“Night Shade Books? Never heard of them. I wonder if they take unsolicited manuscripts.”) because a man– perhaps Bacigalupi’s agent– waved me over.
“Have you ever heard of Paolo Bacigalupi?” said the man, gesturing to his left.
I glanced over at Bacigalupi. He looked like a shy, dejected nerd. Then again, I’d be dejected too if no one at Worldcon knew who I was. I gave him an apologetic look. “No.”
The agent man launched into a spiel. “He’s going to be very famous.”
I shit you not. He said that.
I was less than impressed, but I have a soft spot for underdogs and I wanted to research Night Shade more, so I bought a copy of Pump Six. Bacigalupi quietly signed it as if he knew he’d be doing this in Hell. The agent-publisher man threw in a paperback copy of Snake Agent for free. Whoop-de-do.
I started reading Snake Agent on the light rail back home. Got a couple chapters in. Tried reading it on the toilet. Couldn’t finish. I never got around to Pump Six, maybe because I was soured on Night Shade’s quality, but when Bacigalupi’s name started showing up on the internet, I’d say, “Hey, isn’t that the sad nerdy guy from Worldcon?”
I felt a tad proud of myself.
Until this. And goddamn, that quote from 1999.
Bacigalupi, I am disappoint. I believed in you, dude. Not enough to crack open your book, but I believed in you ~in theory~. I’m afraid that, now that I know you’re a racist ethnocentric dweeb, we can’t be friends anymore.
/coolstorysis
acrackedmoon
/ December 4, 2011Without sarcasm: very cool story, sis.
To be fair Night Shade also publishes Valente, so yeah.
Oh my lord.
Rizz Rustbolt (@RizzRustbolt)
/ December 5, 2011I wonder how long he had been shopping that Salon article around trying to get it published?
Considering that after 1994, the only view of the Three Gorges was from about 100 miles away.
mattf345
/ December 23, 2011Is there anything you don`t hate? You presuppose that things can only be read one way and that there can be only one extreme reaction to them. Your techniques are primitive and mostly generic. It has nothing to do with a reasonable interrogation of cultural and literary assumptions/depictions. It´s like we are to take you as the last person left on earth capable of forming reasonable opinions. It`s a view that I find highly discriminatory and very hate-worthy, for that matter. I wouldn`t read too much into it that you get a solid amount of agreement, since as you may know there is hardly one blog or randomly inflammatory article where there isn`t a following who find their views “expressed so well”.ABLOO BLOOOOOO DISCRIMINATION WAHHHHHH WHAT ABOUT WHITE MEEEENSSSSS.
I am such a useless little fucknut. It fills me with deep shame to continue breathing. :(
Michael C. Joffe
/ February 1, 2012I’m so glad someone linked to your blog when they were asked if Wind-Up Girl was authentic. I’m exactly the type of dull white dude who will dumbly see a bunch of other people say “oh its authentic and progressive” and go “oh, well good” without actually checking up on that. I read the book and thought, “well its another sexist gross rape-fantasy, but at least someone’s writing about cultures I don’t know about” and would have dumbly kept on thinking so. Its really good to get the necessary wake-up call of “no stupid! why the fuck are you trusting the same terrible sci-fi dorks? why don’t you actually LEARN some shit”, even if I REALLY shouldn’t need that reminder at this point.