Scan barcode
A review by nuevecuervos
Miranda and Caliban by Jacqueline Carey
2.0
I have a local favorite indie bookstore (Mysterious Galaxy FTW!) that hosts signings and regularly has signed copies of things and I adore it, for real. I can't afford to buy everything I read from them, but I support them as much as I can, so when I was in there picking up my signing ticket for Feist, I inadvertently started a conversation about The Tempest with an employee. I'd seen Miranda and Caliban on the new arrivals shelf and mused aloud about how the cover just made it seem like pandering to the forbidden love aspect of a black man and a virginal white girl. Having just finished reading Hag Seed, and being a fan of the Tempest, I made a bleech face, while doing so, and the employee said something along the lines of Oh! no, it's more about how they grow up together and leads up to the events of the Tempest and it's fantastic. So I bought it. Which is the only reason I finished it, because the last fourth of the book was just a grudgeread.
Reader, it was not. Rather, the language was lovely, and well chosen for a Shakespeare redux, but it was honestly just flowery, patriarchy-flavored, star-crossed tragedy porn. Both Miranda and Caliban are pawns in Prospero's revenge plans, Miranda the sweet, soft, obedient girl, kept obedient by her abusive father, so dumb as to not be able to be taught math and astronomy --the calculations are too complicated, don't you know-- but she has a gift for painting! of course! :\ fuck off with that. Maybe in a world where we can honestly say that we treat girls the same as boys, you will one day be able to write about a girl who is bad at math and we FEMALE MATHEMATICIANS will say, 'Oh, ok, fair." Today is not that goddamn day. So, that was a strike. She's literally just a tool to her father's plans, a situation she comes to term with late in the book, and it leaves her seething with resentment... but fruitless resentment at that, since the slightest hint of disobedience leads her to horrifying punishment.
Next, we've got Caliban, who is just as naive as Miranda, but for his appearance is considered savage, untrustworthy, less than human to all but Miranda, who loves him fiercely as her first and only friend. Only, Carey does him the same disservice as Prospero in that we catch him in his first ever wank over thoughts of Miranda, because he (being male I guess?), at their age is the only one to work out that his love for Miranda is more than filial; that he wants a piece of her sweet ass, only he's conditioned to see himself as a monster, and it makes his carnal want for her a source of horror and self-loathing, and leads to his avoidance of her in order to keep from offending or sullying her.
Miranda on the other hand, finally catches him one day and kisses on him and is suddenly like OH YES. I'MMA GET ME SOME OF THIS RIGHT NOW DESPITE HAVING NO GODDAMN CLUE WHAT THIS MEANS. Guys, what? I hate to break this to you, but little girls figure out early where the fun bits are on their own bodies. But it'd be weird to talk about it on her end? I guess. siiiigh
And Prospero, fuck that guy. He's definitely an elitist, rascist, sexist,controlling piece of shit on a power trip. He's the villain here, make no mistake; but this is a book in which the villain wins, so unless you're down with that, don't bother.
On an entirely different note, to be filed under "understandable story choices that make sense but are fuckin crazymaking", we've got Prospero and Miranda dropping God everywhere. Lord (lol), everything is God this and God that, and I get that it's a parallel on the colonizers bringing "civilization" to the "savages", but omg, it sets my teeth on edge.
IDK. I didn't want this in my life and I'm mad. Go read Hag Seed instead.
Reader, it was not. Rather, the language was lovely, and well chosen for a Shakespeare redux, but it was honestly just flowery, patriarchy-flavored, star-crossed tragedy porn. Both Miranda and Caliban are pawns in Prospero's revenge plans, Miranda the sweet, soft, obedient girl, kept obedient by her abusive father, so dumb as to not be able to be taught math and astronomy --the calculations are too complicated, don't you know-- but she has a gift for painting! of course! :\ fuck off with that. Maybe in a world where we can honestly say that we treat girls the same as boys, you will one day be able to write about a girl who is bad at math and we FEMALE MATHEMATICIANS will say, 'Oh, ok, fair." Today is not that goddamn day. So, that was a strike. She's literally just a tool to her father's plans, a situation she comes to term with late in the book, and it leaves her seething with resentment... but fruitless resentment at that, since the slightest hint of disobedience leads her to horrifying punishment.
Next, we've got Caliban, who is just as naive as Miranda, but for his appearance is considered savage, untrustworthy, less than human to all but Miranda, who loves him fiercely as her first and only friend. Only, Carey does him the same disservice as Prospero in that we catch him in his first ever wank over thoughts of Miranda, because he (being male I guess?), at their age is the only one to work out that his love for Miranda is more than filial; that he wants a piece of her sweet ass, only he's conditioned to see himself as a monster, and it makes his carnal want for her a source of horror and self-loathing, and leads to his avoidance of her in order to keep from offending or sullying her.
Miranda on the other hand, finally catches him one day and kisses on him and is suddenly like OH YES. I'MMA GET ME SOME OF THIS RIGHT NOW DESPITE HAVING NO GODDAMN CLUE WHAT THIS MEANS. Guys, what? I hate to break this to you, but little girls figure out early where the fun bits are on their own bodies. But it'd be weird to talk about it on her end? I guess. siiiigh
And Prospero, fuck that guy. He's definitely an elitist, rascist, sexist,controlling piece of shit on a power trip. He's the villain here, make no mistake; but this is a book in which the villain wins, so unless you're down with that, don't bother.
On an entirely different note, to be filed under "understandable story choices that make sense but are fuckin crazymaking", we've got Prospero and Miranda dropping God everywhere. Lord (lol), everything is God this and God that, and I get that it's a parallel on the colonizers bringing "civilization" to the "savages", but omg, it sets my teeth on edge.
IDK. I didn't want this in my life and I'm mad. Go read Hag Seed instead.