Here’s what happens when I work through the night, and I’m left to my own highly caffeinated devices at five-thirty in the morning.
With my compliments to J.M. Frey, Matt Moore, James Marshall, Adrienne Kress, Bunny, Jason, and Sam (even though he’s on hiatus) at Imperial Trouble Podcast, and Candice and Nick at Limited Release Podcast.
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Summary Judgement: If David Crane and Jeffery Klarik of Showtime/BBC’s Episodes wrote a book with Ann-Marie MacDonald, it would probably look a lot like J.M. Frey’s The Dark Side of the Glass.
I won’t deny that I initially approached J.M. Frey’s The Dark Side of the Glass with some measure of hesitation. My regular readers know how little I regard our society’s current taste in brooding self-loathing vampires who just want to be loved. Yet J.M., who has appeared on the Page of Reviews podcast on more than one occasion, sent me an advanced copy of her novel – a novel that cites the likes of Forever Knight as an indirect inspiration. Sufficed to say, I was sceptical. However, my reticence melted within the first few pages of the book when an anonymous character yelled that they were “…so sick of this vampire crap.” That’s when I knew there was a very interesting game afoot. As I read on, I became convinced that I was looking at a clever piece of satire.
Mary, the novel’s protagonist, lives in Toronto where she is a parking production assistant for the fictional television series City by Night. Mary is the consummate fan, and she loves City by Night. Working on the series, even in her most menial of roles, is a dream come true. When she’s not at work, she’s at conventions, or she’s writing fanfic in the guise of screenplays submitted to her executive producer, or she’s fawning over series’ lead character Leondre DuNoir, a mystery solving vampire. Mary is also guilty of committing that most common sin within fandom; she assumes that the creators of a television series are as emotionally invested in product as their fans. Mary gets a cold dose of reality when she overhears the showrunnner and star mocking the series, the fans, and by extension the purpose of her life. Then she gets hit by a craft services truck.
When Mary wakes up, she finds herself not in Toronto, but Night City, the imagined location of City by Night. That’s where things start to get interesting as Mary lives out the “Mary Sue’s” greatest fantasy: being cast as herself within the very thing that she loves. It’s too bad for her that television doesn’t always have the best writing.
Even though most of DSOTG is set within Night City, a place inhabited by vampires who bear a striking similarity to…well every TV vampire, it’s not really fair to pigeon hole this novel as “vampire fiction”. It’s far too meta for such an easy framework. Much like Ann-Marie MacDonald’s protagonist in Good Night Desdemona-Good Morning Juliet, Mary attempts to fix the problems within the narrative. In doing so she comes to confront all of the things that she never noticed as a fan: the contrived plots, the product placement, the adherence established tropes, and the shallow characters who can’t pass the Bechdel Test if their lives depend on it. It’s a delicious irony that sees a fantasy world as the only place where Mary can begin to connect with the reality of her obsession. Mary learns that it is not that orgasmic of a thing to have a Vampire suck blood out of her neck.
On that level, this novel revels in confronting fans with the reality of their fandom. Yet it manages to do so through appeals to humour rather than snark at the expense of fans who know not what they do. That humour also serves to make the author’s insights into the Canadian television industry seem incredibly honest. One particular scene comes to mind when Mary says that Night City is Toronto that is supposed to look like New York but ends up seeming like Detroit because the show can’t afford the permits to shoot in the expensive parts of town. I read that section and all I could do was laugh as I thought back on the short lived Robocop series, filmed in Mississauga and Toronto, and the Robocop: Prime Directives miniseries, also shot in Toronto. Fun fact: Robocop: PD starred Geraint Wyn Davies, who played Nick Knight, the titular vampire in Forever Knight, who looks to be the obvious inspiration for DSOTG’s Leondre DuNoir.
While this novel has a lot working in its favour, its length stood out as something of a puzzle. DSOTG is a very short book. Though it is broken up into chapters, it reads much more like a short story on premium grade anabolic steroids. As quickly as the plot moves, so too does the story come to an end. Considering Mary’s growth as a character, I would have enjoyed a greater exploration of her life once she returns to Toronto from the world of Night City. On a more practical note, I really hope that when Double Dragon Publishing puts this book to market, they price it a level that is appropriate for a 62 page story.
In the end, Frey’s novel shows how a one-dimensional trope of fan fiction can become a meta-critic of their own environment. Personally, I think that is fantastic. However, there’s no escaping Mary’s realization that City by Night, and perhaps the entire brooding vampire sub-genre, is a shallow thing. Thus there is a danger that this novel flies a little too close to the sun for some would-be readers. Vampire fans might do well to avoid this book if they are incapable of having a little laugh at their own expense. For everybody else, if you like sharp wit and satire, then The Dark Side of the Glass is a safe bet.
Hot off the heels of Canada Reads, the CBC has announced its nominees for the second annual Bookie Awards. Billed as “the people’s choice” of Canadian literary awards, the Bookies offer eight Canadian and two international categories that represent every walk of written life. The categories for this year’s nominees include, literary fiction and non-fiction, poetry, thriller/mystery/crime, sci-fi/fantasy/spec-fic, young adult, graphic novels, short story anthologies, and international fiction and nonfiction.
Here’s the details on the selection process direct from the CBC.
The finalists were chosen by CBC’s book-loving producers at CBC Books, Canada Reads, Writers & Company, The Next Chapter and more, with consideration given to your recommendations online. The finalists represent our favourite Canadian reads (with the exception of the two new International categories) published between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2011.
So let’s do a quick round-up on the science fiction category and see who is who.
Brent Hayward – The Fecund’s Melancholy Daughter
Fun fact: Hayward’s first novel, Filaria, was one of the first books that I had the pleasure of reviewing on this website. Mark Dunn likened Hayward’s unique writing style in The Fecund’s Melancholy Daughter to that of Gormenghast author Mervyn Peake. High praise, indeed. Dunn goes on to say that, “The Fecund’s Melancholy Daughter is dreamlike in its strangeness and complexity. Like a dream, it is difficult to define and difficult to shake. The imagery lingers like archetypes dredged up from the sleeping mind.”
Margaret Atwood – In Other Worlds
In the November 2011 issue of Quill and Quire, August C. Bourré described In Other Worlds as “a collection of essays and other short pieces that tackle [Atwood’s] relationship with “SF” head-on.” I say this with the utmost respect and reverence for Margaret Atwood, but does anybody else think that this book might seem a little more at home in the non-fiction category?
Caitlin Sweet – The Pattern Scars
Ilana Teitelbaum’s HuffPo review of The Pattern Scars describes the book as “a novel of intense contradiction: a lush, delicately imagined nightmare; a horror novel about intimacy.” I’ll admit that I haven’t read the novel myself as I’m usually one to stay far away from fantasy. However, as an intense study in human psychology, The Pattern Scars has just moved into my “must read” list. It also merits mentioning that this is the second book that Toronto based ChiZine Publications has in the running for a Bookie, Hayward’s novel is the other.
J.M. Frey – Triptych
Never in a thousand years did I think I would get a chance to talk about an alien “invasion” novel that features time travel as well as a deconstruction of sexuality as seen through gay sex with aliens. Yet J.M. Frey, a regular guest on the Page of Reviews Podcast, pulled those and other threads together with her debut novel, Triptych. But don’t take my word for it, here’s what Publisher’s Weekly had to say … “Frey tells the story from varying points of view in distinct voices, imagining a world at once completely alien and utterly human.”
Robert J. Sawyer – Wonder
Once again, it’s a book that I’ve yet to read. Though I do feel somewhat annoyed at the people who maintain my information sphere for not doing a better job of foisting this series upon me. I’ll let Cori Dusmann’s review summarize. “Wonder completes the interwoven stories of 15-year-old Caitlin Decter and Webmind, the Internet-based life form she discovered through a retinal implant that allowed her to “see” data streams within the World Wide Web in Wake (2009) and that became a self-determined entity in its own right in Watch (2010).”
Voting for the Bookies closes on March 31, 2012. Head over to the CBC’s Bookie Award page to see all the nominees and to cast your ballot. Remember, this award represents Canadians supporting Canadian authors. So even if you don’t vote in every category, it’s worth your time to vote for somebody.
In a Page of Reviews exclusive, Canadian sci-fi author J.M. Frey took some time to talk to me about her upcoming novel The Dark Side of the Glass. Frey’s previous novel, Triptych, has gathered no end of critical acclaim as a poignant study of sociology and sexuality that simultaneously turns the “alien invasion” sub genre on its ear. Her latest entry, due to be released in June of this year from Double Dragon Publishing, offers a satirical but loving look at vampire-detective drama, fan culture, and the Toronto film industry at large.
I asked J.M. if there was anything particular to her experience as a member and scholar of fan communities that went into the production of this novel. Here’s what she had to say.
I wouldn’t have written the book at all had I not been a member of fan communities. This story comes from the deeply seated love that fans have for their chosen fandoms, and the way that love spills out as fancrafts – cosplay, art, games, fanfiction etc. I share this love with them; I’ve been going to cons, participating in Cosplay masquerades, and writing fanfiction since I was a tween.
The story was originally written to accompany my Master’s Thesis, “Water Logged Mona Lisa: Who is Mary Sue and Why Do We Need Her?” on Mary Sues.
Click here for clarification on “Mary Sue”. J.M. is quoted in the Criticism section of the entry.
In the thesis I discuss the importance of the much maligned Mary Sue character to the fanfiction community and how Mary Sues are an important element in the process of becoming a writer. I position Mary Sue as a fan’s first steps towards becoming a fancrafter – one always imagines oneself as participating in the world of the fandom which they admire. Taking tea with the Doctor, running around London on a case with Sherlock, stepping through the wormhole alongside McKay… these are the self-inclusive fantasies that fuel the creative drive of the fan. And that are, I posit, the first way in which people connect with their fandoms. “Oh, how I wish I could be there, going on that adventure with you!”
It’s a brilliant, magical impulse that is left over from childhood games of make believe. I love the “me too, oh, let me play too!” knee-jerk reaction that kids and fans and creative folk have. I love it even more when people succumb to the impulse and create and play with it.
And that is healthy. That is normal. That is, also, the impulse from which stem Mary Sues.
Now, Mary Sue has become a pejorative for any too-perfect character, and that was a hard stigma to shake in my thesis. I wanted to talk about Mary Sues as a positive step in the writing process, but there was so much negativity surrounding the term; it’s associated almost solely with poor writing and unrealistic characterization, of a new character who acts as the black hole of the story. I’ll admit that I’ve used it in its pejorative sense.
But I wanted to show how and why Mary Sues can and have made the fan community stronger and more self-aware, so I coined a new term for a sub-category of Mary Sues that, which being Mary Sues, are also good writing, intelligent discourse, and are self-aware creations by self-aware writers. I called these Meta Sues.
A Meta Sue is a Mary Sue character who knows that she’s a Mary Sue, and uses it to her advantage and/or a story/fanfiction in which the Mary Sue tropes are used by the writer as major plot point or a storytelling technique. I feel that Meta Sues are extremely useful in fancrafts. It allows the writers to address issues or problematics that the original media text can’t or doesn’t – for example, creating a homosexual Mary Sue in a media text with an otherwise solely heterosexual narrative forces room for the silenced voice of the queer fan.
When asked to provide an example of such a fanfiction for my thesis committee, I was at a loss to be able to do so. I was working within the realm of theory at that point and there were few Meta Sue stories that I could point to and say, “Yes, there’s one there.” I could find about four or five total. In a fit of creative problem-solving, I decided to write my own Meta Sue story, to see if what I was proposing could actually be done. In the end, along with a full MA Thesis, I ended up writing one original novel , a full multi-part epic fanfiction that I posted online and got quite a nice bit of feedback on, and this, “The Dark Side of the Glass”. The whole project, when I handed it in, was around 1500 pages in length.
Each story focussed on a different incarnation of Meta Sue. For this particular novella, I decided to delve into one of the most interesting aspects of fandom, to me – the love of the villain. I mean, who doesn’t love a great villain? Who doesn’t want to meet Loki, Moriarty, Seishirou or Sylar? Who doesn’t praise their sexiness, insanity, charm, and appeal? Villains are favoured characters for a reason.
But would you ever, really, want to meet one?
Heck, no. They’d probably kill you on the spot for knowing too much about them. Our greatest fantasies, as fans, are actually quite horrifying when you think about it – the PTSD, the abuse, the danger we would be exposing ourselves to is terrible. But, because it’s fantasy, we have fun with it. We indulge in it as fantasy, and that’s acceptable. It’s a little adventure for the Id.
So I ran with that idea – if a TV villain in real life would be horrific and terrifying, what about all the rest of the things that fans envision? Being in an epic magical battle, or being fed upon by a vampire, or suddenly having powers beyond the norm, or waking up on a spaceship in the middle of an epic battle; these things sound amazing, but when it actually, honestly happens, will it be amazing or would it drive you mad? Would it be an adventure or would your lack of actual experience and training get you killed?
At first the story was very dark. Mary, my main character, has terrible things happen to her when she becomes the girl-of-the-week, because that’s what happens to girls-of-the-week. There was no way, I realized, to give the story any sort of happy ending. And depressing stories are well… depressing. Nobody wants to read a story that is such a blatant exploration of a great fannish fantasy that ends badly for the hero, no matter how realistic it is.
I didn’t want a story whose moral was “Silly fans, you’re stupid and wrong for wanting this.” I wanted The Fan Triumphant. I wanted a fan who was rewarded for how much they cared about their fandom, for how much they invested, how much creativity they put into it. I wanted a fan who was appreciated by the creators of the media text (or, in this case, the creations).
So, I had to start again and make the story humorous. I wanted readers to understand what it would mean to really be a Mary Sue, but also to enjoy a sexy, fun romp.
The one thing I am a bit wibbly about in the final version of the story is the villainizing of the creators of the faux show. I wasn’t keen on doing it, because I don’t like it when fans get self-important and shouty at creators. It takes a hell of a lot to get a show on the air, and it’s a lot of work to guide a show. I should know.
Frey’s recent work includes the upcoming web series LESlieVILLE, due to launch in March of 2012.
And as the creator of the show, the writers of the show, even if they make choices fans don’t agree with, or mistakes, they are still making a show, they are still being creative and creating, which is much more than other people who chose to deride, write hate-posts about, flame and rant are doing.
But, in the end, you gotta have a bad guy, and I need Mary to have the ability to triumph over someone. So, pastiche of money-grubbing producers it was.
(To be fair, I have good friends among the money-grubbing producer set. Good folks, all, who are just as keen to help a creation onto the screen as the writers and actors).
I wanted a story that got my theory across without being a manifesto or a screaming lecture. It doesn’t go as far into the issues as I’d like, but it opens up the readers mind to it while entertaining them, and in the end, I think that’s the best I can do for my readers. I like to make them think and wonder, but without leading them to the answers and spoon-feeding them. I treat my readers as the intelligent, thoughtful people they are.
I chose to take a more satirical approach to the story because I didn’t want the readers to think that I was being too self-important with the subject matter. I had a great suggestion from a friend to make the world inside the faux TV show I created for the story be just as flat and shallow in ‘real life’. This was a great device, because it was meta and really funny. I had a great time coming up with ways to make the world function in ‘real life’ and still resemble what we see on TV.
Because the story was a Mary Sue/Meta Sue tale, I of course had to name her Mary. It’s my wink to the readers in the know. And it had to be about my favourite genre – vampire stories. From there the idea grew into a vampire-detective story, because I love those so much. My first fandom was Forever Knight. And because I was working in film at the time, I decided that my main character had to work in film. I mean, I couldn’t have a Mary Sue named Mary who wasn’t at least partially actually my own Mary Sue.
Having Mary work in film was also useful, because it gave me a lot of story-telling shortcuts. It explained why Mary would have such intimate knowledge of the production; otherwise I would have had to make her really obsessive and unpleasant, and I didn’t want to give my readers a stereotype of the worst of fandom. I wanted Mary to be someone who could be celebrated – at first, a little too into her fandom, but ultimately generous and big-hearted and creative; a woman who grows as she becomes more sure of her own agency and power, uses the voice she had been silencing, and works to make what she loves better.
So, to actually answer the question you asked… all of it. All of my years in fandom, all of my time at the cons, all of my own fannish fantasies and loves, all of the conversations I’ve ever had with fellow fans, all of the incredible fancrafters whose talent and ambition I’ve had the priviledge to know and watched blossom, it’s all in there.
My thanks to J.M. for such a wonderfully thorough and thoughtful answer. Head over to JMFrey.net to find out more about her books and upcoming appearances. You can also listen to episodes 9 and 16 of the PoR Podcast to hear JM and I talking about Doctor Who and all manner of other nerdy things.
Featuring the voices of Adam Shaftoe and JM Frey.
Topics under discussion include, Doctor Who season six – because really, am I going to have her on to talk Star Trek – my thoughts on JM’s novel Triptych, non-linear storytelling in Doctor Who and a look at what happens when characters reach their expiration date before the actors do.
For news on her novels and upcoming appearances, make sure to visit http://jmfrey.net/
Opening Thoughts: 0 – 1:45
On The Doctor as a character: 1:45 – 9:05
Non-linear story telling and how to introduce a newbie to Doctor Who: 9:05 – 15:45
I go grad school on Triptych: 15:45 – 18:45
The Doctor, Rory, and Amy: is it a parting of the ways or a break-up? 18:45 – 34:25
Amy and Rory: are they past expiration? 34:25 – 42:25
Time for some Timelords? 42:25 – 54:25
Wrap up: 54:25 – 57:05
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Featuring the voices of Adam Shaftoe and J.M. Frey.
Topics under discussion include: Big themes from the first half of the season, Russell T. Davies vs Steven Moffat as show runner, the mythology of the Doctor, the many faces of Rory, LGBT themes in Doctor Who, historical appropriation in Doctor Who and the return of Torchwood.
We also managed to connect Doctor Who to Jane Austen and Space Battleship Yamato.
NB: It was Dr. Hiromi Mizuno at the University of Minnesota whose name I could not remember during the discussion on themes of gender identity and national ethos in Space Battleship Yamato.
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Today in geek news: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost promote their upcoming movie in the most awesome way imaginable, THQ’s Homefront gives us another reason to be afraid and Toronto based writer JM Frey is giving away a preview of her book, one sentence at a time.
I’m not ashamed to admit that if I ever meet Simon Pegg, I will probably go fanboy in about eight to fifteen seconds. As both a writer and an actor, the man is just fantastic. Granted Run, Fatboy, Run might not have been his finest hour. However, all is forgiven after watching Simon Pegg and Nick Frost “Swede” this scene from Star Wars: A New Hope. Sure, it is promotional fodder for the upcoming buddy comedy/r-rated version of Alf, Paul, but the Pythonesque feel to this scene is unmistakable.
As if to answer the gaming community’s cries for yet another entry in the catalogue of first person shooters set in the current era, THQ and KAOS Studios’ Homefront debuts on PC, XBOX 360 and PS3 today. Although the game is set in the near future, its combat mechanics and elements of the story seem rooted in established gaming and cinematic canon. (That’s my polite way of saying that the game seems as original as remaking Red Dawn with the North Koreans as the bad guys only before plopping the whole thing into the Modern Warfare 2 game engine). To the developers credit, the pre-launch media on their website offers a very creative yet reasonably plausible back story to the game. Let’s hope that the American resistance has a better catch phrase than “Wolverines”.
Turning to literary matters, Toronto based author JM Frey is promoting her upcoming novel, Triptych, via social media. Until the book’s launch on April 9th, Frey will be posting one sentence per day on Twitter. Those interested in checking out this preview can follow her at @scifrey or using the #triptych_preview hashtag. Details about the book, as well as a plan to make it #1 on Amazon on April 11th, can be found on the author’s facebook page. Perhaps with a bit of bribery grovelling on my part, I can get JM to come on the podcast and talk about her book.
That, meta-humans and normals alike, is your geek news for March 15, 2011. Force be with you and beware the ides of March.