Alpennia Blog: Writing Outsiders

[hrj]

One common feature most of my central characters share (not just the point of view characters, but the core "community" of the Alpennia novels) is some aspect of their lives that made them dis-invested in the status quo. Some feature that sets them outside the normative paradigm of respectable marriage and motherhood (or the equivalent, for male characters), and so gives them a certain amount of emotional freedom to choose to diverge from the safe, expected path. In contrast, they also all have some aspect of social vulnerability that makes that divergence even more risky than it might otherwise be. (Simply being female in a patriarchal society is a basic vulnerability that most--though not all--of them share.) That dis-investment isn't necessarily universal throughout their story arc. It may simply occur at a crucial time to shape their decisions.

What do I mean by this? Let's look at some examples. Margerit's dis-investment is, to some extent, simply not wanting that normative paradigm. In choosing not to become a wife and mother, she isn't rejecting anything she specifically valued. It's something of a passive characteristic, perhaps. Her vulnerability is primarily the restrictions put on an unmarried woman in her society. The major aspect of Barbara's dis-investment is also her initial vulnerability: her unfree condition. But even after that is resolved, she is dis-invested in a normative life because an enormous part of her self-image is rooted in the gender-transgressive occupation of armin and the personal freedom that legacy allows her.

Antuniet's major dis-investment comes after her family's disgrace. She's lost everything and therefore has very little left to lose. But the flip side of this is her vulnerability: she wants that honor and respect back, if not for herself personally, then for her family legacy. So while she has the freedom to engage in occupations and pursuits that she wouldn't have been allowed when her mother was still alive and in control of her life, she bends those pursuits toward regaining a position where she will once again have something to lose.

Anna Monterrez has been set outside the expected paradigms of her life, not by her apprenticeship in alchemy, but by her disfigurement, which most of those around her (and especially her father) assume will stand in the way of her chances of a good marriage. Within the context of Alpennian society, her particular vulnerability is her religious/ethnic background--an aspect that I've tended to downplay, assuming that anyone familiar with European history can sketch in the gaps without me having to emphasize the point too much.

Luzie Valorin's dis-investment is her widowed status: counter to the normative paradigm, she must work outside the home to maintain the appearances and expectations of her class. Her vulnerability is her ambition to ensure that her sons don't slip from the class expectations their father had for them. Serafina Talarico's dis-investment is the absence of any existing social context in which she naturally fits, the lack of grounding. Her vulnerability is the lack of any clear safety net, as well as her foreign status.

I've tried not to re-use the same dis-investments and vulnerabilities too much. Working class origins occur regularly as a vulnerability for those moving within higher levels of society, as will be the case for Rozild, the protagonist of Floodtide. Physical disability would be easy to over-do as a basis for dis-investment, but it will play a part for Rozild's friend Liv (whom you haven't met yet).

But as I was thinking about this topic, it occurred to me that, if some sort of dis-investing characteristic can make transgressive personal choices "easier" in some ways, it would also be interesting to explore a character who has every reason to be completely invested in the status quo, in the normative paradigm, and in the power structures of society…and then to give her a reason to go against all that and make choices that create vulnerabilities that didn't previously exist. I'm contemplating that. There's a character a few books in the future who would fit the bill nicely. I don't know a great deal about her yet, but I think getting to know her will be very interesting.

As a side note: the finalists for the Golden Crown Literary Awards have been announced, and The Mystic Marriage is among them. It's quite likely that Bella Books will have some sort of promotional sale related to this announcement, so if you've been waiting for a chance to pick up a copy, keep your eyes peeled.

Comments

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the shortlist nomination!

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

First, yay shortlist!

I'm wondering whether characters who want change and characters who are invested in the status quo aren't fundamentally very different indeed. One of my characters starts with a happy end - everything he's dreamt off... and then what? A jolly holiday before he decides what to do next. And then over the course of the book cracks appear in his whole world and he needs to find new foundations.

I found that I had plenty of examples for isolated characters looking to find happiness, and none for happy characters who were perfectly happy, thank you very much, apart from that one niggling thing, and who even so weren't really looking for - or finding - a passion, because that wasn't a particular concern of theirs.

I'm looking forward to what you do with that.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I didn't want the list above to get too long--just a few examples. But Jeanne is an example of someone who was well settled into the status quo, and then jolted out of it into wanting something (someone) badly enough to Become Vulnerable. Before Antuniet, Jeanne's vulnerability was that her lifestyle depended on disguising the fact that she was living above (though not beyond) her means, which meant she as constantly calculating how to play with the rich girls without actually being rich. After Antuniet, of course, Jeanne's vulnerability is that she's broken the rules about who you're allowed to have affairs with, and how openly.

The "status quo character" I'm thinking of would be someone who is offered the pinnacle of the "approved normative life path", but in the end, seizing it could mean becoming someone she doesn't want to be. So rather than transgressing because she has little to lose, she has to choose...well, I'm still working out exactly what the options are. And she'll be fighting that choice rather vigorously.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the shortlisting!

This was a really interesting post to read not in terms of literary characters but in terms of real life. What are the ways in which my friends are disinvested/vulnerable? What are the ways in which I am?

I'd like to think that despite the fact that I am a mother, I am rather dis-invested in motherhood: There is a large part of motherhood (especially American motherhood, which I still have some connections, but UK motherhood isn't so much different) that I wish to reject. It makes me wonder what divergent path this emotional freedom gives me. It also makes me wonder where it makes me vulnerable.

I think probably, the freedom and the vulnerability are the same: Freedom to pursue academia. But this which makes me free also is what makes me vulnerable when combined with motherhood. Hmmm.

Sorry, navel gazing. But that's one thing I like about both your books and your posts.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Not wanting to give any spoilers from MoS, but I am interested to see how it works out to balance marriage and academic studies. [Hope that's vague enough, feel free to delete comment if not!]

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I think different people would balance it differently. Akezze makes that offhand comment indicating that she doesn't consider marriage practical for her, despite a sympathetic candidate. (Though who knows what might happen.) The other person you're thinking of--my suspicion is that once she's finished her program of study and the marriage goes through, the gravitational well of the married state will mean that thaumaturgy will be more in the line of a "genteel accomplishment" than a career. But who knows what may come to disrupt people's lives...

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Here's another example, this one from SCA experience. For my entire SCA career, I've been dis-invested in the structure of royalty. There was never any point at which I had access to that aspect of the game. So I've never really had a personal stake in supporting and maintaining the mythos of SCA royalty. My vulnerability with regard to that aspect is that the kingdom power structures (at least in my area) severely discount the opinions of anyone who hasn't been royalty with regard to "how the game is played". Your investment in that regard is obviously different.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Strangely enough, I suspect not that much different from you. I've never been one who had 'the ear of the royalty', or who had close friends on the thrones, and my experience being on the throne myself was singularly different from many other peoples, I suspect. I also never had any interest/desire in participating in that power structure in the way I did until the opportunity was raised -- i.e., about four hours before we submitted our letter of intent on the day letters of intent were due. :)

But otherwise what you describes resonates a lot with me. I will likely never become a laurel because I am not invested enough with jumping through the hoops I'd need to to become a part of the right clique. But that there is my vulnerability -- I'll probably never become a laurel, even though it's been a long-held desire.

[katerit.livejournal.com]

Yes, physical disability would be easy to over-do, but there are some subtleties that are interesting to explore. I have to be careful not to do too much of that in my own writing.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the shortlisting.

Also I find this about vulnerability and divergence vastly interesting. (I would perhaps have more comment to make, but it is a tiring week.)

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Thanks (though recall what I said privately about it).

I need to think through the disinvestment/vulnerability thing a bit more. Too often the first ones I think of are simply flip sides of the same feature. It may be a useful character-brainstorming tool if I get a better handle on it.

In the mean time, I've been poking through Wikipedia's "1830s" page and drawing up a timeline and causes of the Alpennian Revolution. Well, maybe not an entire revolution, but the Alpennian Significant Social Unrest Crisis.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I need to be careful not to use it as a "plug and play" character trait, as opposed to being an integrated part of their life.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I recall. But still.

The 1830s. Ah, such times. Such times!

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I actually get the impression that one could plunk down Significant Civic Unrest almost any time during the 19th century and be able to make it plausible. In some ways, probably best for Alpennia to get theirs out of the way before the larger crises.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. Depends on the region, but it does seem like there was something going on ALL THE TIME.