Book Review: The Twelve Kingdoms: The Sea of Shadow, by Fuyumi Ono

I couldn't use my computer for a while today, so I picked up a book and read it. All of it, in one sitting. Perhaps this is not a big deal to some, but I haven't done this in a while.
The book is the first volume of The Twelve Kingdoms (henceforth 12K), by Fuyumi Ono, upon which 2002 anime was based. I watched that anime long before I read the books, of course, and I enjoyed it immensely. When the books were finally translated, I snapped them up as soon as I could and found them to be even better.
The basic concept of the plot isn't terribly complex or original. An individual from Earth is whisked away to another world to fulfill a destiny. It's a classic hero journey with a fish-out-of-water twist. The classic telling of which is comes from the likes of CS Lewis. What makes 12K so wonderful is the rather unique Eastern fantasy setting and the phenomenal character development.
The world of 12K is based somewhat on Chinese styles and ancient political philosophy, particularly the concept of the Mandate of Heaven. The details are rather key to the development of the plot, so revealing much does spoil a great deal. It should suffice to say that it's certainly not just a medieval fantasy setting.
Most important, though, is the development of the protagonist, Yoko Nakajima. Yoko starts out as a rather pitiful character, weak-willed and without any motivation of her own besides trying not to disappoint anyone. She puts on different faces depending on who she's talking to, whether it be her friends, teachers, or her parents. These faces are mutually conflicting, though, something she has to hide from each of these groups. She is thus rather dishonest to everyone.
To her friends she's a good listener and goes along with their hijinks. She claims to be forced to study hard by her parents, something they all can relate to. To her teachers she's a model student, saying that her fatigue during the day (in reality due to nightmares) is caused by late nights spent studying. To her parents she is an obedient child. Contrary to what she tells her friends, her mother doesn't care about Yoko's academic successes.
Her parents present a rather particular issue. The novel was originally written in 1992, which doesn't make it a terribly archaic setting. However, her parents seem to be raising her to eventually be a dutiful and even submissive wife. At one point she recalls an upcoming primary school trip in which she wanted to race against some boys and needed pants to do so. Her father outright refused to allow this, saying that girl does not need to beat a boy. Her mother even demanded that Yoko apologise for even suggesting the idea.
I would not argue against any claim that this book has undertones a feminist might enjoy. Clearly, Yoko was being held back by her parents due to her gender and her actions and role later on in the book are certainly pleasing to that ideology. However, I would argue that none of that is the main thrust of Yoko's development, nor her motivation.
As I said, she starts out rather weak-willed, just riding out life without pursuing anything for herself. It is explicitly mentioned later on that this is a terrible path for her, that it would inevitably end poorly for her. Ultimate success and survival are dependant upon more assertive behaviour. She goes from indecision and refusal to act and a propensity to cry (a lot) to confidence and determination. Many of those whom I discussed the anime, back in 2003, agreed that she was a terribly annoying character to start, but grew into someone who practically all viewers came to love.
I can honestly say that this is by far my favourite fantasy novel. It's great character-driven novel in a wonderful setting. I only wish that more of the novels had been translated.

Book Review: The Winter War: A Novel, by William Durbin

Over the years my fascination with the Nordic countries has focused specifically on Finland. I do not recall exactly how this resulted, but it may have had something to do with the infamous song Ievan Polkka (Eva's Polka) [2] as performed a cappella by Loituma. From there I sought out more of the group's music, which led to other Finnish folk music. I learned about the kantele and eventually bought two for myself.

Somewhere along the line I discovered the webcomic Stand Still, Stay Silent, by Minna Sundberg. It's a tale of a group with representatives from all Nordic countries as they explore a dangerous post-pandemic world. It is from there that I learned of the Kalevala [4], Finland's national epic poem by Elias Lönnrot from various Finnish and Karelian folk tales and mythologies. At this point I was fairly well invested and the next step, that of reading about Finland's history, started.

One of the most significant events in the 20th century for Finland was the Winter War, a conflict between the small nation and the much larger USSR in the winter of 1939 to 1940. The USSR was flexing its muscles and looking the secure its position in light of the brewing war in Europe between Germany and the Allies. To this effect, they demanded a chunk of land west of St Petersburg and the right to militarily occupy certain areas of Finnish land -- mainly islands and some coastal. In exchange, they offered larger, sparsely populated territories further north. Finland rejected the idea and after some time, the USSR attacked.

The war is legendary for the fact that Finland was tiny in comparison to the USSR and its military was very small and poorly equipped. Following the Finnish independence from Russia in 1917, military spending had been seriously diminished in favour of investment into infrastructure and other nation-building activities. No estimate favoured Finland in the war, but against these expectations, they held off the might of the Soviet military for four and half months.

Unfortunately, while it was certainly a heroic effort, the truth is that Finland barely survived. Their early success was by and large due to Soviet complacence.

The years following the Russian revolution saw many purges of experienced military officers, resulting in a military with little real experience and zero adaptability. They also completely underestimated Finnish determination, believing that within a couple of weeks they would be walking into Helsinki. Finally, the winter that year was very harsh, even by Finnish standards, and Russian soldiers were not equipped to deal with it.

On the Finnish side, they had a military commander in the form of Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, who had decades of experience with the Russian Tsar's army. Also, there were many veterans of the 27th Jäger Battalion, who trained in and fought on behalf of Germany during the first World War. This provided a set of experienced leaders who exploited every weakness the Soviets displayed.

Again, though, the early victories could only go on for so long. The war quickly became and embarrassment to the Soviet Union and Stalin specifically. Gradually, they learned. They changed their tactics and threw a truly overwhelming number of troops at Finland. Their losses were still exceedingly high, but they had more than enough replacements in the form of men, equipment, and ammunition. Finland had a very limited supply of all three of those and towards the end they were scraping the bottom of the barrel.

This novel follows the war through the eyes of Marko, a Finnish teenager who joins the armed forces as a messenger following the bombing of his home town and the death of his closest friend. He suffered from, but survived polio in the years leading up to the war, and wears a brace on his leg to support the much diminished muscle. While this affects his mobility on foot, on skis he is almost entirely unencumbered, and he proves his worth hand-delivering messages between units on the front line.

He is partnered in this duty by Karl, another boy whose home was attacked by the Russians. Unlike Marko, whose family still lives and whose home still stands, Karl's family was murdered and their home destroyed. Karl himself escaped and signed up to avenge their deaths. Presumably he was too young to engage in the actual fighting, but as a messenger he proved very useful.

Many of the plot points are mirrored in history, which I recognised from the book The Winter War: The Russo-Finnish War of 1939-40, by William R. Trotter [5]. For example, when the Finnish armed forces were preparing for the conflict, they decided to burn many communities around the front line to prevent the buildings from being used by the enemy. One old woman, when told of this, cleaned and whitewashed her home after removing her belongings. When asked why she did this, she stated that a gift to Finland should be pristine. Marko's grandmother stands in for this unnamed woman.

Another example is of a Russian soldier, captured by the Finns, who had been drafted off the streets of St Petersburg to fight in the war. He had just finished buying a new pair of shoes for his wife and claimed that he still carried them when he was captured. The Finnish soldiers checked and found a pair of brand new red lady's shoes.

The bulk of the story is of Marko's experience of the cold, the hard duties, and of the attacks by Russian soldiers. Towards the end he is sorely pressed by the unending artillery attacks and when peace is finally achieved, he finds difficulty in adjusting to quiet nights. In one late scene, he wakes up in terror while in hospital, and is only able to sleep after taking his bedding to the floor and resting there.

A theme strongly portrayed is the sense of betrayal the Fins feel towards the Allies, particularly the US. In one scene the Finnish soldiers are inspecting a Russian tank and discover that the engine is American-made. It is implied that all the while that Finnish diplomats were trying to negotiate for aid from the US, the Russians were the ones receiving ammunition and equipment. Know this, it is very easy to understand why after the war Finland sided with Germany in their invasion of Russia.

There is one other plot element that I want to discuss, but doing so will reveal an important spoiler. Amazon's blurb about the book reveals it, but for the purpose of this review I would prefer not to do so in this main portion. Instead it will be found following the bibliographical notes. Before I get to those spoilers, though, here are my impressions:

The book is in the young adult genre. I am not sure if it is simply due to this fact or if it is simply the author's style, but the prose is rather sparse. William Durbin writes what he needs and adds little adornment. The words remain effective, but there is little of the highly descriptive and atmospheric language that one would get from a writer such as Stephen King. This is not to say that I did not enjoy the book, but it is something to note.

The Winter War is a great introduction to the history of the conflict. I read it after having read William Trotter's treatise, but it is sufficiently true to life as to provide the reader with some of the basic facts and the experiences of those who fought. Marko's story is moving and wonderful to read.

1. The Winter War, by William Durbin: https://www.amazon.ca/Winter-War-Novel-William-Durbin/dp/0385746520
2. Ievan Polkka, by Loituma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yh9i0PAjck
3. Stand Still, Stay Silent, by Minna Sundberg: http://www.sssscomic.com
4. The Kalevala, by Elias Lönnrot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala
5. The Winter War: The Russo-Finnish War of 1939-40, by William R. Trotter: https://www.amazon.ca/Winter-War-Russo-Finnish-1939-40/dp/1781312265

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SPOILERS BELOW:

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At one point Karl reveals that he is not in fact a boy, but a girl. During the Russians' attack on her home, she saw the raped bodies of her sister and mother and was about to be attacked herself. She defended herself with a shovel and escaped with her brother's Civic Guard uniform, which she used to join the military.

After telling this to Marko, she makes him promise to keep the secret, of course. He promises and goes through the rest of the war without revealing it. He even stands guard outside of the unit's makeshift sauna, late at night, so that she can secretly bathe. It is only at the end, in a hospital, where her sex is revealed to other soldiers. Seeing her clean and dressed as a girl, Marko wonders how he was ever fooled.

One interesting aspect of the Finnish language is that the third person pronouns are not gendered. There is but a single set of pronouns, unlike the 'he' vs 'she' in English. For this reason, as long as Marko made no explicit remarks as to Karl (Kaari, actually) being a girl, it was linguistically an easy secret to keep. Oddly, enough after the initial reveal, the author refers to Karl as 'he'. I am not sure why this is the case, but perhaps it reflects Marko's determination to keep the secret.

This entire plot point is something that I have oddly found fascinating in many stories. The first two examples I recall seeing are the female lead in the 1981 Disney film Dragonslayer, and the character of Louise 'Lou'" McCloud from the 1989-92 TV series The Young Riders. Coincidentally, the sex of both characters are revealed to another character while bathing in a lake. I don't know what it is, but I find something rather admirable about such efforts to defy period gender roles to pursue goals and dreams, while still remaining decidedly feminine at heart.

On the Definition of Racism

I have recently read a blog post on Huffington Post entitled "Why I'm a Racist..." In it, the author essentially describes a definition of racism, using his own life and situation. As first I thought that the article was satirical, but it did not take long to realise that he is completely serious, and I disagree with him strongly. Based on what he describes of himself, his family, and his upbringing, I could not honestly call him racist. He seems to me a very decent human being with very progressive intentions. His definition of racism, as I understand it, is broad to the point of being meaningless.

He explicitly says that he is not describing his racism as outright bigotry, prejudice, and discrimination on the basis of skin colour -- though I have no doubt that he understands these things as racism. He describes it as the very fact of being white and therefore not subject to the negative stereotypes and other perceptions that lead to inequities in terms of the judgement of character and behaviour. While it may be true that he does not have to worry about these things, I think that only makes him fortunate and not racist.

Let's take a hypothetical situation. Let's make the author a black man raised in a reasonably well-off family in a region where racism simply is not an issue. His community is multi-cultural both in composition and character and therefore people judge each other based on their individual merits and virtues. He therefore lives quite apart from the inequities that black men face in other communities. He is ignorant, for example, of what it is like to have to worry about getting shot by a police officer for mistakenly moving the wrong way when reaching for his wallet. Is he still racist? I think that a ridiculous notion.

Being racist has nothing to do with the colour of one's skin, or the social climate of one's upbringing and community relative to others. It is not about how little one has been denigrated or denied. It's about what one believes about others based on their ethnic identity or skin colour. Belief and intent, and often the actions that result from them, are central to defining racism.

Including accidents of birth and upbringing as making one racist dilutes serious instances of racism. It also unnecessarily denigrates otherwise decent people. I feel that it fosters a tribalistic "with us or against us" mentality that does not match reality. I would agree completely with the author that it is best to actively fight against social inequities, but inactivity -- however much it honestly does not help matters -- is not the same as being racist.