Alpennia: This is Not a Spoiler

[hrj]

I hadn't thought I'd manage to get Mother of Souls chapter 8 drafted to meet my chapter-a-week goal, but the only part that slopped over into Monday morning was filling in some name placeholders and consulting with my SME on historic philosophy and logic (hi aryanhwy!) regarding some conversation-for-atmosphere. (Which consultation has added a certain real-world character to the faculty of Rotenek University during the period of Tanfrit's story -- working title Tapestry -- and thus narrowed somewhat the date of its setting). I have a reduced ambition for the next two weeks, given how much traveling I'll be doing: just one chapter by the time I get home again.

Chapter 8, which is from Barbara's point of view, is a fairly long chapter (over 8K words), largely because moving a certain event from Chapter 2 -- and the specific calendar date it was moved to -- meant that the chapter covers a period from the beginning of November 1823 through the New Year's Court at the beginning of January 1824. Simply tracking time doesn't need to fill up word-count, but there are several things going on in that period that therefore necessarily needed to be covered from Barbara's point of view. (I've occasionally gotten feedback/review-comments that suggest I haven't been as clear as I might be that there is essentially no temporal overlap in points of view. We progress through time with no re-winds, so if something happens during the period of a particular chapter, it either needs to be dealt with via that POV or be discussed only as a historic event later.)

Regarding that re-arranged event… I do my very best not to give spoilers in these posts. "Spoilers" in the sense of events that would give away important plot points or things that are meant to be kept hidden. But as my advisors and SMEs (whether they know they are or not) have thumped into my head, a character's transgender identity is not a spoiler, a "gotcha", or a punchline. And therefore I don't feel that avoiding talking about that characteristic falls in the category of "avoiding spoilers". I apologize to those readers who feel that it does.

In chapter 8, at least one of my set of viewpoint characters becomes aware that a continuing secondary character is transgender. And believe me, I will be doing everything I can to make sure that this character is both true to the times and the society, but is an enjoyable, appealing, and sympathetic character for readers (at least as much as any of my continuing characters are!), and especially for queer readers. This characteristic has been known to me since the character first appeared in the series; it informs his back-story, affects certain events involving him in the current story, and will be relevant to his story-arc in future books. But it's not his defining characteristic.

I try to be careful around describing my plotting as if the characters had minds of their own, but I'm sometimes surprised by the realization of what I've subconsciously set up that necessarily changes the direction of a character or event. When I originally started developing this particular character, I had in mind a passing woman rather than a transman. But the more I poked at the character and started thinking about backstory and interpersonal interactions, the more I realized that -- given Barbara's extremely flexible approach to gender presentation -- there would be insufficient reason for the character not to confide in Barbara, if that were the case. When I looked at the character from a different angle, I "realized" that he wouldn't confide in her because as far as he's concerned, there's nothing to confide. He's doing his best just to live his life, and the only reason the matter comes out at all is because a figure from his past shows up and makes trouble.

It's the conundrum of visibility and tight point of view. If none of my viewpoint characters ever knew he was trans, the reader would have no reason to know either. I can carefully set up a character's description and experiences such that they never contradict what I know about the character, but I have no control over readers' tendency to apply social defaults. I didn't want this characteristic to be subtext; I don't want to pull a Dumbledore. I want it to be canon. (And what's more, I want it to be a clearly established fact at a later point when he acquires a girlfriend.)

And what does Barbara think? Well, she doesn't entirely understand. And she doesn't quite know how to react. And she's likely to stumble on occasion. But very much like a cat, she is rather sensitive to her own dignity. So the face she will present to the world, if the question comes up, is, "Yeah? So? Did you think I didn't know?" And if you're trying to make a place for yourself, the casual acceptance of Baroness Saveze is nothing to be sneezed at.

(I should note in passing that my beta-readers for this novel will definitely include at least one person who is far more knowledgeable about and sensitive to transgender themes than I am. I haven't identified anyone specifically yet, but it's on my shopping list.)

Comments

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Augggh, the anticipation!!!

I have a guess as to whom you're talking about, and am surprised to find that I am delighted (if I'm right); if it's who I think it is, I've had a soft spot for that character and hoped for a worthy story.

I'm also extremely pleased to hear there'll be a off-shoot story of how Tranfrit actually ended up doing what she did; during our convo yesterday I was thinking "Now I want to read more about Tranfrit!"

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I debated whether I was being too coy in not mentioning a name. But there are people out there who haven't read The Mystic Marriage yet, and so haven't encountered the character yet, and ... well, I debated. But if you think you know, then you probably do.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

It is good to keep some spoilers. Now if people want to know, they need to read MM while waiting for MoS.