Anna Madeley in The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton

When I was a teenager first exploring the world of book clubs, one of the things I came across were facsimile reprints from the 19th century. Since I also love to cook, I found the title “Housekeeping in Old Virginia” intriguing.  This classic by the granddaughter of Patrick Henry became my portal not only into another time, but my introduction to the fascinating world of 19th century domestic management.

Since I am working on my Victorian paranormal Queen Victoria’s Transmogrifier,  I continue to have reason to dip into my favorite books in the 19th century social history genre. Along with etiquette books of the era, architectural guides, and secondary sources that analyze the mores of the period, the housekeeping books give me great insight into the attitudes and hands-on activities in 19th century households.

I just discovered that both of my favorite books are available in full text,  downloadable as pdfs, at Google Books. Frabjous Day! So for others who might be interested in this subject, and since this information is literally at your fingertips, I wanted to share a little about the two bibles of domestic management I find so useful:  the aforementioned Housekeeping in Old Virginia, and the better-known classic, Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management.

Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management

In London in the mid-1800s, Samuel Beeton published a series of guidebooks. At the age of 21, his wife Isabella compiled a collection of recipes and domestic management instruction initially released as one of the Beeton’s guidebook series. In 1861 it was published as a standalone book retitled with “Mrs Beeton” in the book’s name. The resulting tome – nearly 1200 pages, over 900 of which were recipes – was an instant hit.

This book had the advantage of serendipitous timing: it hit the market at the moment when Britain’s middle class was burgeoning and intent on creating respectable upscale households.  Mrs. Beeton instructed housewives how to create a household that was a gracious haven, superior for its well-implemented domestic features.  Her philosophy is clearly stated in the introductory comments:

“As with the Commander of an Army, or the leader of any enterprise, so is it with the mistress of a house. Her spirit will be seen through the whole establishment; and just in proportion as she performs her duties intelligently and thoroughly, so will her domestics follow in her path.” (pg 1)

Mrs. Beeton’s opus featured color plates illustrating many of the recipes (very unusual for cookery books in 1861), and pioneered the recipe formatting we take as standard today, with a proportional list of ingredients at the start, followed by preparation details, cooking time and serving suggestions. This orderly approach revolutionized how cookery was presented in books of the period.

Color plate of desserts in Beeton

The one-third of the book dedicated to household matters other than cooking is a treasure trove of detailed instructions, from how a maid-of-all-work needs to polish the grating on the stove, to the proper manner of serving at table for footmen, recipes for furniture polish, the requirements of a tackroom, and all manner of associated details.

I think the most intriguing thing about this book is the applied use that it received. Once this collection of information was available, vast numbers of women bought it and did in fact use this as a reference and instructional manual for how they should be running their households. Not all met this ideal but many came close, while many others would pick and choose among the methods that suited their needs. The result is that what Mrs Beeton describes is indeed what transpired in a good many households in mid-Victorian Britain.

An added bonus is that even today anyone interested in homemade remedies, cleaning products, and historic cookery can work directly out of this book to replicate the items and foods described in its pages. The work is so much the essence of its era that it was used as one of the reference sources in the PBS Frontier House series, providing frontier wives with recipes and other household management tips for the House project.

As a sad footnote, the intrepid Mrs. Beeton died at the early age of 28, of syphilis, which she contracted from her husband. Even in her passing she was emblematic of the experience of her age, when prostitution was rampant and married men routinely transmitted disease to their wives. The story of this fascinating woman is told in a wonderful biopic, the Masterpiece Theatre production “The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton” (2007); there is a great review of the movie here. You can find her delightful book at Google Books at this link.

Housekeeping in Old Virginia

Marion Cabell Tyree was the last surviving granddaughter of Patrick Henry, daughter of Spotswood Henry. She was well-known in Virginia in the Lynchburg area, with a broad circle of friends and acquaintances including many famous upper-crust persons, and had a reputation as a bright, energetic, outgoing lady. During the Civil War she created one of the sanitariums in the area and cared for wounded soldiers and the sick in her establishment.

In the late 1870s, Marion decided to compile a cookbook, and solicited her network of friends and associates for their favorite recipes. The result was Housekeeping in Old Virginia, published in 1879. Like other “housekeeping” books of the era, it includes several sections on more general household how-to, ranging from how to run a sick room (which she was well qualified to write about), to advice on a thorough spring cleaning and recipes for restoring old clothes and removing stains.

Marion has an interesting observation on the style of domestic economy which prevailed in the Virginia of her time. As she explains, Virginia – once a royal colony – always took pride in elegant entertainments and fine dining. Then, when the Revolution occurred, belt-tightening and innovation alike hit the ladies and the households of the Old Dominion. As she writes in her preface,

“Tearing the glittering arms of King George from their sideboards, and casting them, with their costly plate and jewels, as offerings into the lap of the Continental Congress, [Virginia ladies] introduced in their homes that new style of living in which, discarding all the showy extravagance of the old, and retaining only its inexpensive graces, they succeeded in perfecting that system which, surviving to this day, has ever been noted for its beautiful and elegant simplicity…This system, which combines the thrifty frugality of New England with the less rigid style of Carolina has been pr pronounced…as the very perfection of domestic art.” (pg viii)

If you can navigate the lack of detailed measurements (“a lump of butter the size of a walnut” is typical), and are not adverse to a little kitchen experimentation, you will find your efforts cooking from this book well rewarded. Incidentally, the flour used in the 19th century was a denser grind than what we use today, so when doing flour measurements from this book, it may help to increase the flour called for by up to 1/3. (You can also find a list of helpful measurement equivalents here, if you end up wondering what a gill or a teacup’s worth of something is in today’s measurements.)

These recipes produce tasty food and a number of dishes long since forgotten by mainstream American cookery.  One of my favorites is the dish of peas and tomatoes (copied below), which was offered by a former slave. Other recipes are clever innovations that may be of special interest to modern health-conscious cooks. For the gluten-free there is the “Delicate Cake”, made with cornstarch instead of flour; for the fat-gram watchers there is “Cornstarch Cheesecake,” which contains no cheese but has the texture of a cheesecake.  Many of these recipes would find a happy place today in any all-natural, healthy-foods-oriented cookbook.

The recipes for wine work, as well: I made my first batch (or started it) following the instructions in this book, and had such success with the fermentation process that it cracked my mother’s thick wooden nut bowl that I had dragooned for my experiment.  (Thanks for your forbearance, mom!)

And if Marion Tyrell’s collection needs any further endorsement, Julia Child liked this book well enough to donate a copy to the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. In fact, that is the copy you will find scanned online at Google Books.

A Favorite Recipe

This is one of the more unusual recipes in the book, because it is written in the dialect of a semi-literate man who was a former slave.  I first tried this because just reading the recipe was so captivating. In the actual cooking, I substituted as needed for lack of handy peas growing on the vine, and salt pork in place of middlin’). It’s been a go-to dish in my cooking now for several decades.

Resipee for cukin kon-feel pees

Gether your pees ’bout sun-down. The folrin day, ’bout leven o’clock, gowge out your pees with your thum nale, like gowgin out a man’s eye-ball at a kote house. Rense your pees, parbile them, then fry ‘em with som several slices uv streekt middlin, incouragin uv the gravy to seep out and intermarry with your pees.  When modritly brown, but not scorcht, empty intoo a dish.  Mash ‘em gently with a spune, mix with raw tomarters sprinkled with a little brown shugar and the immortal dish are quite ready. Eat a hepe. Eat mo and mo. It is good for your genral helth uv mind and body. It fattens you up, makes you sassy, goes throo and throo your very soul. But why don’t you eat? Eat on. By Jings. Eat. Stop! Never, while thar is a pee in the dish.

- Mozis Addums (pg 254)

I’ve enjoyed reading both of these books, and have used their information in my daily life as well as my fiction writing. Some of the recipes from Old Virginia have become staples in my own kitchen; I’ve removed stains with recipes from these books, and have recreated fantastic Victorian desserts and holiday table spreads from Mrs. Beeton’s. If old fashioned lifestyle tips and recipes interest you, I hope you will enjoy these resources as much as I do.

See this post at Notes From the Lizard Lair: My Favorite 19th Century Housekeeping Guides
DRAGONSWORD: Teramis' new Asian-inspired fantasy adventure novel is online now for free.
Sign up for your copy today:

Esther Friesner's "Chicks" anthologies (starting in 1998) was the first to intentionally poke fun at the "chick in the chain mail bikini" trope.

Today I read a post by Ginger Snap over at Troll in the Corner that talked about a perennial issue in gaming and fantasy settings:  women’s breasts, and the effect this has on combat, armor, action and gaming-related activities.  She points out, rightly, that non-existent or scanty chest armor doesn’t offer real protection for a fighter serious about fighting. She also matter-of-factly describes some issues about having breasts and maneuvering with them that may not be immediately evident to folks without substantial bosoms.

Now, given the posting date (April 1), I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that some or all of this post was meant to be tongue-in-cheek because of April Fool’s Day.  (Lawful Good has small cup sizes, while Chaotic Evils can “sling double-Ds…with the best of them.” Ha!)  Even so, I thought this article touched on some good points and also an issue (breasts on female adventurers) that rarely gets serious discussion.

This prompted me to marshal some thoughts on this subject that I’ve been noodling over for a while. Rather than hijack the comment thread there, I reference that post as a springboard to sharing my own observations on this topic.  Although inspired by an April Fool’s (?) post, this one is not intended to be tongue-in-cheek. While the ideas here may apply to any female character who will be active in her world and stepping outside traditional functions, these comments are made primarily with warrior characters in mind. They also apply to both role playing games and female characters in novels and other fictional settings.

The Infamous Chain Mail Bikini

One of the more tired tropes about women warriors in fantasy settings is that of “the chick in the chain mail bikini.” Supposedly she can kick butt, but why and how does she come through every clash of arms unscathed, or damaged only to the extent that her (invisible) armor class permits? This defies logic, since her armor itself is skimpy or non-existent.  In the last 20 years there has been more rethinking of this silly “near-nekkid babe kicking butt” trope, not in small part because more women game nowadays and more women write both game material and fantasy novels than in years past.  Like Ginger Snap, I’m not going to get into the (sometimes heated) debate about the need for realistic body or chest protection here at length. But there are a few other points about protective armor worth making.

To put those in context, I will detour through my other points first. In the list of Factors to Consider for adventuresome female characters, I come first to:

Body Type

A phenotype is the set of visible attributes that arise from one’s genetic makeup.  Different phenotypes have different body configurations, and these are often geographically linked – and far more so in the days before transportation over distances was easily available to masses of the population.  Therefore, in your typical fantasy setting, the average woman’s body type is going to be pretty much like that of the mass of the population around her (unless she has traveled far from home).  A woman’s phenotype may differ to a great extent from how women in another country and ethnic group look.  This is something to keep in mind since the appearance of your characters will reflect that of the larger phenotype group(s) you have populated your fantasy country with.

Women of the San People (Bushmen)

The question then becomes, what does your local population group look like? Tall, short? Fat (from subcutaneous adipose deposits, like the Inuit), or slender (like wiry Masai warriors)?  Bulky muscles, or slender, lanky ones? When it comes to women, breast size will also fall into general categories based on the phenotypes common to the group.  To use Earth analogies: are your locals tall, strapping firm-muscled Scandinavians who farm and even go a-viking with their men? Are they compact-muscled, flat-chested San People (Bushmen) of  Africa?  Are they lean and slender Asians?

The body – and chest – build of a curvaceous Italian woman (like Sophia Loren) is significantly different from that of a slender Japanese gymnast.  Assuming she was built like most of her country women, real-world Japanese female samurai and heroine of fantasy novels Tomoe Gozen could easily wear a man’s armor: she was probably not large-chested enough for the fit to be a problem across the torso, while shoe-horning a Sophia Lauren analog into medieval armor presents a very different set of challenges.

Sophia Loren

The point here is that it is not enough to say ‘women have breasts’ and therefore their build is always problematic when it comes to wearing armor or moving athletically.   The hindrance factor will be related to two things: 1) the woman’s phenotype and what this has dictated for chest size and body build, and 2) whatever measures she may be able to take to make the bosom more manageable.

Managing the Bosom, or Cultural Mores at Work

There are several things woman have done for ages to manage the weight, mass and vulnerability of the breasts.  First, if breasts are small enough, something equivalent to whatever men wear is sufficient: from bare-chested to wearing a light quill breastplate or even fitting into plate steel armor, small breasts that are easily and painlessly compressed are non-problematic.

When a bosom is large enough that the weight and mobility of the breasts becomes an issue with athletic movement, the most common thing done for centuries has been for women to bind the chest. A cloth or long sash-like fabric is wound around the upper torso, compressing the breasts in place.  This not only secures the bosom but gives the woman’s chest a masculine profile.  (In modern times we approach this with the equivalent of sports bras and compression garments.) Many women who posed as men during historical periods (either passing in society, or fighting as soldiers in wartime) took this measure to hide their female curves. As a practical step it reduces the girth of the torso at its broadest circumference, making it possible for even relatively large-chested women to fit into armor built for men. Granted, not always comfortably, but this is indeed a functional way for many if not most  woman to fit into armor made for men.

Another thing done where binding is not a cultural practice or feasible for other reasons (think hot Africa), is to simply do without and compensate in other ways for breast movement and mass. This requires myriad small adjustments in body balance, the angle at which weapons are held, and so on. But in groups where women develop their own ways of fighting they seem to manage to adjust effectively regardless of the existence of breast mass. The practices of the 12,000-strong army of women that protected the Kings of Dahomey in Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries are a good case in point: regardless of personal body configuration, these female warriors wielded a variety of weapons and trained and fought intensively in the elite royal military corps. Aside from wearing uniform attire, no particular external compensation seems to have been made for their bosoms, but as fighters these women warriors developed a fearsome reputation among enemy nations and Europeans.

Finally, customized clothing and outerwear are a time-tested manner of bringing delicate and potentially cumbersome organs under control. The brassiere is a 20th century invention but before that were corsets, bodices, and a variety of undergarments meant to contain the bosom and give a more refined line to clothing.

The ideal, flat-chested, boyish silhouette of Elizabeth I's era.

However, when we think of cultural behaviors, actions like padding the bra or stuffing an upper garment because one is under-endowed  are not things that a typical fantasy-era character would be worried about or even think to do. These kinds of practices came about because of the form-accentuating use of the brassiere, and before that, the cleavage-enhancing functions of corsetry. Such practices are more a reflection of contemporary attitudes towards the breast and the garment, rather than a default behavior across cultures and time periods.

In Elizabethan times, for instance, a smooth, flat-chested silhouette was the ideal, and the large-chested woman was challenged to squelch her curves (often resorting to breast-binding to do so). Stuffing her clothing to enhance the swell of her breast would have been the last thing on her mind.

The best rule of thumb about how the bosom is presented might be to have as clear an understanding as possible of the mores and ideals about beauty for the era in which the female character is adventuring. This is probably the single biggest determinant of what kinds of behaviors would seem natural to her in her physical presentation and how she might want to deal with her bosom (enhancing it, underplaying it, disguising it, or what-have-you).  It all depends on the culture the character lives in.

Do not assume that our modern attitudes towards breasts and the popular Western predisposition towards large ones has always held sway.  That is simply not the case historically or anthropologically.  Before adjustments are made for charisma or appeal based on a character’s bosom characteristics (if you want to take that tack), you have to know what the baseline standards are for beauty in a culture. Are breasts even regarded as anywhere near as compelling a feature as they are in 20th and 21th century Western civilization?  It is very likely they are not, since other eras and cultures have had widely differing sensibilities on this subject.

Protection: Armor That Makes Sense

Now to come back around to what I mentioned at the start: getting out of that chain mail bikini and protecting the girls. I’m not going to rehash a lot of what’s previously been written, but I will second Ginger Snap here, who said, “To protect properly, [armor has] to be big enough to cover dem boobies.”

When getting armored up, the female warrior needs armor appropriate to her fighting activity:  an archer needs to be unencumbered and mobile, while a horse-mounted fighter might be armored anywhere from lightly to wearing full plate.  But at a minimum, if we’re talking about a character who may come to body blows in melee combat, protecting the vital organs is, well, vital.

Out of millenia of armor development, there’s no shortage of armor styles that accomplish this function. Of course one should pick armor that is era- and culture-appropriate.  Ryan, blogging at Mad Art Lab, is an armorer and has written a great article about the tension between fantasy representations of armor and the practical demands of protective gear.  Here’s what he says about plate armor:

“Plate armor is the way it is largely out of necessity. The layout and articulations of the plates are the best solutions the designers could come up with to balance mobility with protection. Also, note that nobody was naked under their armor. There was a ton of padding between the metal and the flesh that absorbed the energy of the blows.  That means the difference between male and female plate armor is relatively trivial because once you’ve padded it out and left space for movement, you’ve all but erased the figure of the person inside.”

Real armor on fantasy women fighters will accommodate the chest, but it’s not about the chest.  The silhouette that signals “female form” is going to be dulled down when real protection is worn.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing: there are a lot of great looks and even historical precedent for this, as you can see in Kirin Robinson’s brilliant Tumblr blog,  “Women Fighters in Reasonable Armor.”  (Lots of great art there, and well worth checking out, if you’re not familiar with it.)

Nevertheless, the woman who does not have a boyishly slim figure is either going to employ bosom management tactics as discussed above, or will end up ordering custom armor for herself, probably at considerable expense for the extra custom work. If she is chesty but intent on getting good body armor, this is probably the only serious option open to her. Men might wear armor made for another man of similar build, but a well-endowed woman is going to be squashed, pinched, or simply not fit into scrounged armor at all.

The quest for appropriate gear in cultures that don’t ordinarily arm woman can be a mini-adventure in its own right. Certainly, the woman who scores the right custom armor has handiwork to be proud of, which she may value over any other piece of gear she owns.

Queen Elizabeth rallying troops before attack of the Spanish Armada

Instead of treating women warriors like female men, OR like martial cheesecake, there is a middle ground. Acknowledge the girls, acknowledge the need for real protection, and within the rules of the local culture, see where this leads the character. Sometimes physical attributes can make life more challenging, but this can add depth to story or game if you work it right.

See this post at Notes From the Lizard Lair: Women Warriors and Chest Size: Three Factors to Consider
DRAGONSWORD: Teramis' new Asian-inspired fantasy adventure novel is online now for free.
Sign up for your copy today:

Fredly the Alien Tourist

I’ve had a podcast project in the works for some time. It’s coming together and initial shows are in production right now.  In fact, if you go look at the menu bar under “Media” you’ll now see the first item is the archive/show notes page for the podcast.

The theme of Alien Tourist is an idiosyncratic look at the intersection of change, creativity, the real world and the worlds of “if”.  And yes, there is an intersection, and I have a Venn Diagram to prove it!

My traveling companion is Fredly the Alien (pictured) who helps me see things with new eyes. Kinda like a tourist from faaaar faaaar away.

“We are from France.” Or maybe we’re Big Giant Heads. Or something else entirely.  I suppose it will all come clear over time…

More on the podcast Here.

See this post at Notes From the Lizard Lair: Alien Tourist Podcast in Production
DRAGONSWORD: Teramis' new Asian-inspired fantasy adventure novel is online now for free.
Sign up for your copy today:

Laboratory Mice

In the realm of Thinkishness (see category tag, left sidebar), where I tend to post my science-oriented writing, I want to start doing an occasional series here at the Lizard Lair called “Mouse Science.”

I keep pet mice¹, whom I have found to be gentle, sweet-natured, and surprisingly intrepid little creatures.  Ever since I started doing this², I’ve been more aware of scientific research that uses mice as test subjects – and it turns out such research is ubiquitous. It’s probably safe to say that there are far more mice than rats used in all the myriad laboratories and research and educational institutions across America.

Now and then I want to draw attention to some particular mouse-related research these intrepid little guys and girls are enabling us to do. Because of their sacrifices and often unpleasant lab experiences (and frequently abbreviated lives), they are helping us to improve our knowledge and create solutions that save human lives.  I would like to honor that and show what greater good is coming of their sacrifices and tiny lives.

Therefore I’m inaugurating the Mouse Science topic here at the Lair.  These posts will focus on some interesting research made possible by the contributions of mice, and which has implications for our world, our quality of life, or steps into outright science fictional “what if.”

This post is by way of introduction to the concept, so if you suddenly start seeing the Mouse Science tag on things or in headers, you’ll know what that portends.

Also, if you think mice will attack you or are just little rats (they’re not; they’re mus musculus, a different species, and do not grow up to become rats), you don’t know much about mice. TheFunMouse.com is one good place to find out a lot more about these little guys, and their forum is especially helpful if you have questions. This is a pet-centric site but has a lot more info about the character and behaviors of domesticated mice than you will typically find in laboratory-generated info or most other pet-owner sites.

If you’re into pet mice, be sure to check out my Meeple section here, which I update from time to time with stuff about my own mouse family, one of whom is pictured below.

Mikey enjoying cooked spaghetti for breakfast.

_____

1 Or as I call them, “meeple”, for ‘mouse-people’. The singular, of course, is merson.

2 In 2009 my sister was feeding her pet snake, who decided he wasn’t hungry, and when I saw that little mouse shivering in fear in the corner of the snake tank, I had to rescue her.  And so I acquired Minnie Mouse, who soon had her companion Maxi (for Maxine), who turned out to be a Max instead, and then suddenly there were babies. Yeah. It happens like that sometimes…

See this post at Notes From the Lizard Lair: Introducing Mouse Science at the Lizard Lair
DRAGONSWORD: Teramis' new Asian-inspired fantasy adventure novel is online now for free.
Sign up for your copy today:

Detail from The Night Watch - Rembrandt, 1642

I’ve been blogging recently about how seldom the dynamics of historical socioeconomic classes really show up in our fiction and role-playing games. Modern writers, it seems, tend to homogenize out the differences that in earlier times were central to self identity and social tensions. Without awareness of the different mindsets that prevailed in earlier times, it is all too easy to produce settings that are simply egalitarian reflections of our current world with token elitism thrown in for flavor. (You can see those posts here and here. The series will conclude with a forthcoming Part 3.)

In a discussion spawned by this topic, a netizen opined that to interject class consciousness as it once existed would be to introduce into play all the despicable -isms (sexism, racism, elitism, etc) that modern players do not like and do not want to emulate in their games. Another reflected that these class issues are most easily handled by simply making PCs all of the same socioeconomic level (thus removing most of the need to distinguish class within the group), and/or to put PCs in situations where their surroundings are not congruent with their social class (throwing peasants among the nobles, for instance), which creates lots of role-playing and story opportunities.

I think the outworkings of class in rpgs should be both more subtle and more pervasive than a simplification to prejudice on one hand, or reliance on in-your-face class contrasts on the other. These and similar approaches are easy to implement because they are one-dimensional. They also do not begin to scratch the surface of the richness and challenges a real class orientation can bring to play.

The benefit of adding class distinctions to your game setting and role-playing is that it adds immeasurably to the flavor and feel of the world, while at the same time increasing the opportunity for good drama and conflict. It takes some work, though, to do this in a way that is not over-simplified, overly complex, or merely tokenistic.

The Different Needs of RPGs

In a work of fiction a writer can selectively focus on whatever elements further the story, but in a role-playing game, where much of the ambiance is created by the players themselves, part of the challenge is to impart to those players the personal experience their characters are having, including whatever class consciousness would naturally be in their mindset and how this is reflected in the world around them. This requires rather different techniques in tabletop gaming than in written storytelling. Here, then, are some thoughts on introducing socioeconomic class into rpgs.

(Incidentally, although “class” in rpgs is commonly used to refer to “character class”, in this post I’ll be using the word as shorthand for socioeconomic class or its acronym, SEC.)

I think the bottom line to adding class layers to a game setting is, it needs to be interwoven into the fabric of society, and the players made aware of the expectations/obligations that either hem their characters in or open doors for them. Then, when society is defied, that’s when the fun begins. In the alternative, too (depending on the setting), I’ve seen PCs take the societal strictures very much to heart and try to live up fully to the letter and spirit of the class obligations they are born into. Now that makes for some fascinating role playing. I’ve seen that happen most frequently with my Sa’adani Empire science fiction rpg (the backdrop for my sf novels). That culture is a caste-and-class conscious, rather ‘bushido-tinged’ setting. I’ve had players routinely take on their own and their family’s challenges in this setting and try to improve fortunes, restore lost glory, repair damaged honor, and so on, by delving deep into their class and status and using those attributes to best advantage.

Whatever route one takes, it requires that some groundwork be laid so that class dynamics can be brought into play.

Some Ways to Introduce Class Identity into Play

In an earlier post I suggested the GM or writer do a mental exercise to create a very acute awareness of what is expected of a given class: its obligations, duties, privileges, what is allowed to it, and what is forbidden. The remarks that follow assume that the GM is clear on the boundaries and nature of class in her world, or at least has a clear vision of the type of societal strictures and opportunities tied to class that she wants to introduce. If this is a gray area for you, I recommend the writing exercise discussed here under “Class Consciousness” as a warm-up for what follows.

The Characteristics of Class

In class-based societies, the signifiers of class are readily recognized by everyone. Hairstyle and clothes are very telling factors, and although they can be changed, other attributes are equally identifying and less easily altered. One’s accent and diction can proclaim “ditch digger!” as well as “nobleman!”, quite aside from anything else, and if that well-dressed man opens his mouth and sounds like a ditch digger, he’s going to raise a lot of suspicion. A large part of his presentation is signaling “I’m not the class I appear to be.”

For players who like to run ruses and scams and trick their way into places, it might be worthwhile to remember the movie My Fair Lady and the great lengths the good Professor Higgins went through to teach Cockney flower lady Eliza Doolittle how to speak like a grand lady. He succeeded, but it was not an overnight process. Characters who decide to pass themselves off as aristocrats to sneak in somewhere, for instance, are very likely to give themselves away the first time one of them opens their mouths, or from something as simple as slouching or not walking in the gait recognized as “lordly” for the era.

Conversely, the noble who goes slumming with his roguish friends is likely to stick out like a sore thumb in those seedy environs, be he ever so dressed down. Table manners can be a dead giveaway, as can the simple act of ordering a beer: is it a friendly request to the bar-maid, or the demand of someone accustomed to be waited on from birth? Comportment says a great deal about a character, and it is by such simple things that a PC’s “class identity” can be known.

An officer making his bow to a lady - Gerard Ter Borch, 1662

Once a character is “read” by onlookers, their reactions to the PC are likely to be significantly shaped by their understanding of his class. We find one ready example with the overused trope of the party meeting in a tavern to count their loot and look for someone who needs a job done.  The instant that paladin walks in, the inn-keep and all the serving staff will be falling all over themselves. “We’re honored to have your patronage, m’lord! Here, please take the best table, Sir Knight!” – and a whirl of people dancing attendance and attempting also to ingratiate themselves or earn a fat tip from the lordling who is, really, incredibly out of place in this ordinary tavern off the town square. There is no way the group will be able to conduct any private business here now that they’ve made themselves the center of attention, and anyway, Sir Paladin couldn’t pass as a commoner if you paid him. He talks, walks, and dresses differently than common folk do.

In a world where the characters (and players) are aware of these nuances and actually deal with them in play, we have a world where class is starting to play a significant role.

Revisiting Characters: Three Aspects to Consider

Whether new or already established, it is useful for the GM to go over the roster of characters with his players and define them more closely in terms of class and class-related personal attributes. For groups where class has not played a prominent role in the past, I’ve found it useful to say in so many words, “I want to pay more attention to class in this world, and that might have some impact on your characters’ experiences going forward,” by way of introduction and expectation setting. Then I review these three things:

Class

If it hasn’t evolved yet, I determine an appropriate background for each character: birth status, what class his or her parents fell into, how well regarded were they by their community, maybe get a feel for their level of wealth and resources. It’s a good idea to do this in collaboration and cooperation with the players, so they can help develop meaningful “class roots”, so to speak, and become invested in this aspect of their characters. Even if this background has evolved through gaming or character backstory, I review it with the player so we are crystal clear what niche in society has shaped his previous experiences. This gives me a baseline SEC niche to slot the character into, and this is something I record in my own notes about that character. I also say something about clothes, speech, likely social attitudes, that that character would have experienced growing up so they can get a feel for what is the norm for their class in society.

In some cases, where I am running a game with a particularly well-developed and/or unique culture, I may give the player a handout that describes his roots and his niche in society, at least the one he was born into, so I can go into some detail relevant to the individual about how he plus his background (class-wise) fits into the world and is perceived by others.

Peer Group

How old is the character now, and what kind of people has he spent most of his life around? People of one class typically associate only with others of that class, and this reinforces their class-slanted perspective on things. It is the unusual person (in historical settings, anyway) who has much to do with people outside their own class; the across-class-lines association so common to modern times is exactly that, a modern phenomenon. This has considerable implications, most of which you will have to work out based on the sociology of your world and culture. Here’s an example of the impact this background can have.

The Blacksmiths - Francois Bonvin, 1857

The 19-year-old son of a village blacksmith on his first adventure as a low-level fighter has quite a different class experience than the grizzled mercenary veteran who has worked for several lords and traveled a lot of country with a wide variety of people. The blacksmith’s son will sound like the low-born villager he is. His sense of fashion is limited to clean homespun on holidays, and he has a pretty simple black and white picture of what is expected and proper in the world. He’s uncomfortable around well-born people; he found the squire of his village intimidating enough, and anyone with higher rank than that is better avoided. On the other hand, he’s quite affable and is a regular good-natured hell-raiser among the rougher sort of people he is accustomed to socializing with. If he’s adventuring with a group of people from mixed backgrounds, or dealing with other classes out in the world, this is going to push his comfort zone and present him with what we might kindly term “challenges” to his sense of self and how the world works.

The veteran, with his far-ranging life experiences, may have found it worthwhile to talk like his betters (he lands better mercenary contracts that way when bargaining with nobles), and because of his martial carriage can get away with dressing above his station when wearing finery for city leisure. As a result, he may often “pass” as higher born than he is, because of his convincing show. If he is ambitious he might take advantage of that illusion. Or, if he doesn’t care, he might just as readily drop the facade to knock our young blacksmith on his butt when he gets out of hand, in a physical confrontation with the low-born that a truly high-born person would never get involved with.

Current Income

Socioeconomic status relies in large part upon wealth to determine social standing. What, then, is the character’s current and past level/s of income? If they get gobs of money from an adventure, spend it on a drunken sailor spree, and then head back out again with empty pockets, they are not retaining enough wealth to effectively impact their relative SEC. However, if they are squirreling funds away, buying houses, spending money on better clothes and equipment, then over time they are setting themselves up to have an established and visible socioeconomic standing of the better sort.

Of course this standing is relative: their income might let them live on a par with an established small shopkeeper instead of like apprentices sleeping in a dormitory. Or, it might let them set up proper housekeeping in a town house in the rich merchant quarter, or live like lordlings in their own keep. Wherever and however characters establish an economic presence, they are carving out a distinctive niche for themselves, and – very importantly – the people around them will expect them to behave in keeping with the station they proclaim themselves to have.

In making economic progress and raising their station, some or all of the PCs are probably also separating themselves from their socioeconomic class of birth or association. This too can complicate things. How will Mother and the whole extended family react, they who live in cottages and now visit the prodigal son who lives like a rich man? The setting is marvelous, but it is quite above them all, and rather discomforting to experience. Maybe the mother’s son has turned into one of those rich bastards now, and thinks himself above the family’s lowly problems (or so the family gossips assume…)

The Rake at the Rose Tavern - Hogarth, 1734

Or maybe drinking buddies from the throat-slitting dives the PCs once visited suddenly remember their old friends and show up on their doorstep expecting hospitality. Oh, now that you’re so grand, you’re not home to visitors like us? No worries. We can wait right here on your doorstep, or maybe go around back and case the joint while we’re at it…

Because problems like this stem from class differences and SEC status (as well as personal relationships), they also root the characters more firmly in the world and create a sense of immersion about the culture itself. From our RPG perspective, these kinds of complications are pure gold, and can be turned into the stuff of new adventures by the clever GM. Analyzing class differences and thinking out the consequences in this manner give us a two-fer: more immersion in the culture, and great material for complicating the player characters’ lives.

In the next post in this series, I’ll talk about limitations, obligations and opportunities, and how they can define the dramatic interactions that emerge in game play.

Related Posts

How to Use Class in Historical Settings, Part 1 of 3

How to Use Class in Historical Settings, Part 2 of 3

See this post at Notes From the Lizard Lair: How to Use Socioeconomic Class in RPGs, Part 1
DRAGONSWORD: Teramis' new Asian-inspired fantasy adventure novel is online now for free.
Sign up for your copy today:

The Prince and The Pauper, by Mark Twain. In which pauper Tom accidentally swaps places with Prince Edward and thereby gets VERY far above himself.

In most times and places in history, class and status have played much larger roles in people’s sense of self, place and behavior than in our democratically inclined modern times.  I wrote about the nature of class and how it framed people’s lives historically in an earlier post.  In today’s post I’ll suggest some guidelines for introducing class-conscious behavior and its related tensions into fictional settings.

Class Consciousness

When paying more attention to class in our settings, the first thing to do is to cultivate a consciousness of class and status in yourself, as the writer.  This is most easily done by an exercise of the imagination, and bringing this class consciousness into the foreground of your thoughts. The fact is that most of us have experienced power disparity and a feeling of obligation or duty that is expected of us in some aspect of our lives, and this gives us a basis for empathy for what it must be like to live in a more class-oriented society.  Life bounded by class strictures is akin to these things, only writ large and encompassing much more of one’s life.

A good way to start thinking like this is to put yourself in the imaginary shoes of someone whose life is defined in that manner. The more acute you can make this sense, the better. I recommend writing something in first person from the viewpoint of a character who lives in the place/time you are interested in. Have him or her talk about what they are allowed to do, what they are expected to do, and what they can never hope to do, because it is above or below their place in life.  This will of course also be shaped by the culture you have adopted or created for your setting, and so is a good way to start to get a feel for the boundaries of class and opportunity in your world.

What’s important to focus on here is how society is stratified and how aware individuals are (or aren’t) of their class and status. That is to say, class typically becomes an invisible subtext, believed to be such a ‘normal’ thing that people take it for granted unless they have a particular reason to pay attention to it. They won’t usually remark on “class” per se, but they will let the reality of it form the outline of their lives, unthinkingly.

For instance, life in a primitive village will be grounded in a foundation of bloodline relationships, probably manifesting as clans and other more tribal kinship affiliations (like with a group considering itself related because they share the same totem animal).  Where one fits into this web of kinship defines one’s class and status. In contrast, in a traditional western European setting  people will define themselves and have strong affinity to one of the three classic “estates” of commoners, nobles, or clergy (as discussed in previous post in this series).

If you take this to the next level with the imaginary conversation exercise mentioned above, we might find, for example, something very simple on the list of what a character is not allowed to do: perhaps a commoner may not look into the eyes of nobles they pass on the street. lest it be read as disrespectful or challenging . Some limits are quite blatantly tied to class and even reinforced in law, like a serf not being allowed to own land.  One of these things affects the character’s social comportment, the other their ambitions for future prosperity, but in either case, details like this give you a good feeling for how class frames a person’s life. Reading about social history can help you determine some of the class-related limitations and opportunities in historical settings, but if you are working with an invented culture one of your best resources is your own imagination. It can supply you with helpful answers if you ask it the right questions. (And the more you know about things like cultural anthropology and other social sciences, the easier it will be for your imagination to gain traction with these questions.)

Mistress and Maid in the market - from Versailles Christmas-Tide by Mary Stuart Boyd, 1901

In any case, the point here is that the class niche a person occupies in their (non-modern, non-democratic) society forms a large part of their sense of self. It defines not only their behaviors (what society considers acceptable behaviors, at any rate) but also their very identity.  A primitive tribesman rests secure in the knowledge of exactly where he fits in the extended network of clan, kin, and family. He knows who are his brothers, who he can rely on, and who depends on him for assistance or has claims of obligation on him.  In short, he is aware of where and how he fits into the world around him, and knows that barring unusual events this is a position he is likely to occupy for most of his life.

Likewise in the medieval setting: the baron’s wife knows that her husband’s liege lord is her social superior, and that the maids and household staff are her inferiors.  She knows where her husband draws his power from: from his lord who has granted him lands and authority. Sharing the aura of her husband’s authority, she expects to be well-treated by inferiors and is entitled to privileges that are her due simply because of the station she holds and her birth, which is thought to be of “better blood” than the lesser persons in her household employ.  Her situation and how she sees the world reaffirms for her a sense of her station in life, and her entitlements and obligations in that station.

Introducing Dramatic Conflict

Once we have a sense of class consciousness, and what’s allowed and what isn’t to a given class, then we can get into areas that create useful dramatic tension, whether that is a chance encounter or a major plot thread. When people get a firm understanding (and expectations) about their “place” in the world,  it becomes relatively easy to create tension from these expectations. We have only to establish what are the expected behaviors, and then have our characters do something (or want to do something) that is at variance with what is acceptable for their class.

“Don’t Get Above Yourself”

What happens when a person aspires to greater things, but all the world around him thinks he is reaching too high (no matter how short his grasp) simply because he is trying to step outside the mold he was born to? However you answer that question, that dilemma in itself is a common one in class-based societies, and contains the core of dramatic tension and conflict by its very nature.

In the 1868 Journal of Education from Ontario, Canada, a “pithy sermon” advises young men, “Do not practice excessive humility, you can’t get above your level.”¹ This aphorism explains that practicing unnecessary humility was not an effective way to gain preferment, or put more bluntly in modern terms, “There’s no point in sucking up since you’re stuck in the station to which you are born.”

The sense that one is meant to be (and stay) in the station of one’s birth is quite widespread in more class-conscious societies. While this provides a sense of social stability, with everyone in a predictable place, it can also create subtle or overt social and personal tensions. In the Maid in Britain documentary (embedded in Part 1),  one of the interviewees, author Alison Light, says of the domestic servant culture that used to exist in Britain, “It’s actually very deep in the English psyche. You know, it’s about deference, it’s about belligerence, and resentment, and it’s about envy.”

George Orwell illustrated class-based hurt and simmering resentment in an essay about his time in boarding school in the years just before World War One. Attending on a scholarship, he was in the lower class of the school population. In “Such, Such Were the Joys…” he writes,

I had been made to understand that I was not on the same footing as most of the other boys.  In effect there were three castes in the school. There was the minority with an aristocratic or millionaire background, there were the children of the ordinary suburban rich, who made up the bulk of the school, and there were a few underlings like myself, the sons of clergymen, Indian civil servants, struggling widows and the like. These poorer ones were discouraged from going in for “extras” such as shooting and carpentry, and were humiliated over clothes and petty possessions. I never, for instance, succeeded in getting a cricket bat of my own, because “your parents wouldn’t be able to afford it.” [...] I and similarly placed boys were always choked off from buying expensive toys like model aeroplanes, even if the necessary money stood to our credit. Bingo, in particular, seemed to aim consciously at inculcating a humble outlook in the poorer boys. “Do you think that’s the sort of thing a boy like you should buy?” I remember her saying to somebody – and she said this in front of the whole school; “You know you’re not going to grow up with money, don’t you? Your people aren’t rich. You must learn to be sensible. Don’t get above yourself!” (pg 12)

This kind of friction caused by class expectations can be played up intentionally in your fictional settings. Characters may have to deal with unwelcome limitations, or exercise privilege unapologetically because it is natural to their position – with perhaps significant consequences for those around them.  In a western European setting, lower classes will be reminded that they shouldn’t aspire too high, and higher classes will learn entitlement. Tensions can stem quite compellingly from quiet personal dramas:  the cobbler’s son who wants to join the clergy instead of following in his father’s footsteps is under terrible pressure from his family for even thinking of trying to break with tradition and get above himself. In other settings the tension may revolve around a different axis. Exactly what kind of dramatic complications this can lead to in your own world I must leave to your imagination, but any time expectations and desires clash, there is fertile ground for conflict.

Far From the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy. The shepherd Gabriel attends Bathsheba, once a penniless girl, who has become heiress to a farm. Although he loves her, she is unreachably beyond his station, and now he doesn't even dare look her in the eyes. Hardy's book is a perfect example of class-based dramatic tension that is organic to the setting.

In Part 3 of this series I’ll look at a common class-behavior dictum for the upper classes, and the consequences of defying class expectations.

_____

1  Ryerson, Adolphus, et al. (1868) “A Pithy Sermon to Young Men” in The Journal of Education for Ontario, Vol 21-22, the Ontario Department of Education.  Pg 171 (Google Books)

Related Posts

How to Use Class in Historical Settings, Part 1. First in this series

How to Use Socioeconomic Class in RPGs, Part 1

We Need More Class Consciousness, Not Less.  This is an interesting commentary on class consciousness by Terence Blacker, writing in The Independent in the U.K.  It illustrates the enduring influence of class consciousness especially when it is unconscious and not recognized by people it is limiting.

See this post at Notes From the Lizard Lair: How to Use Class in Historical Settings, Part 2
DRAGONSWORD: Teramis' new Asian-inspired fantasy adventure novel is online now for free.
Sign up for your copy today:

That is a topic that does not lend itself to a brief treatment, but I have been asked this same thing a few times across the years, and lately have more resources at hand to answer it with than previously. So I fired off my distilled-down, “If I were in your shoes” summary of how I would go about writing a first novel, if that were the task before me these days.

I thought I’d share that brain dump here as well. What I say is not revolutionary, nor is it The One True Way (darn); a lot of what I say here you can find elsewhere on the web. But these are the considerations that leap to mind as I think about this situation, and it is what I would do if I had to do it over again. Incidentally, the person who inspired this blurt is not a writer and feels a little daunted by the magnitude of the task, and so some of my advice (regarding writing something else first) is given with this in mind.

There’s Philosophy in That Thar Story…

Don’t worry about the fact that you’ve already spotted themes in your story and that philosophy informs them.  Theme identification is good, and if it is at all possible to identify the underlying theme of your story in advance, it’s smart to do so.  All great science fiction (and great literature for that matter) deals with philosophical issues on some level. My only cautionary word of advice is something you probably already know: stories that set out to ‘send a message’ can be very pedantic and lackluster. People will engage with a message-laden tale IF the message is hidden by being made integral to the life issues and dilemmas of the protagonist. I.e., set up a hairy situation and let it resolve in a manner natural to the characters and setting, as opposed to peppering the story with soapbox moments and philosophical discourses. Those have to be extremely well set up, justified, and sparely used in order not to derail a story.

The Craft of Writing

Now, about writing in general: mastering the craft is a life-long process, so it isn’t like you’ll ever get to a point where you’re “done” with learning how to tell a good story. The best way to become a proficient story teller is to write a ton of stories (or rather, books, since we are talking the work of novelists, here). They say writing 1 million words will get the average writer over the learning curve (that’s 10 100k novels). This harks back to the notion that the only way to achieve a level of competence verging on mastery in any craft, is to simply do it, over and over again. That’s as true of writing as it is anything else. However, I also know many writers who didn’t need to do 1 mill words in order to write really great books, although they tend to be on the more gifted end of the storytelling talent curve and are also more autodidactic about learning craft on their own.

Yet everyone starts somewhere. You don’t know yet if you are a talented writer, so don’t let judgments of accomplishment paralyze you (especially not from the internal critic in your own head).  You will discover your voice and your skills as you go, and they will always improve the more you use them. Remember that any one book is never completely “done.” At best it is a snapshot of the best story the author could tell at that point in time.

See this post at Notes From the Lizard Lair: Advice For a New Writer With a Novel Idea
DRAGONSWORD: Teramis' new Asian-inspired fantasy adventure novel is online now for free.
Sign up for your copy today:

“[Amazon is] doing all the stuff you never did–hell, they’re doing stuff that you never even thought of. They’re all about pushing it forward. They’re all about gathering and analyzing data. They’re all about challenging themselves to do better, to focus on the future, to learn from the past. They’re all about pleasing the customer (and I heard from no less than half a dozen Amazonians that they consider authors to be their customers.)”

Besides the rest of this being a thought-provoking read, here’s what is nibbling at my mind right now. If you have ever spent any time on the Amazon discussion forums, whether you are an author, a reader, or both, it must be abundantly clear to you that there is a huge animus against authors “peddling their wares” to readers at Amazon.com. There is a quite virulent reaction against it, usually referencing the TOS (which includes policies against spamming forums with ads) but the reactions I see are generally hypervigilant against any author even mentioning that they have written a book, if they are posting anywhere outside of the single sanctioned “Meet Our Authors” board where it is officially OK to natter on about one’s work.¹

Now here’s what’s bending my brain: if on the business side (per Konrath, at least), Amazon “considers authors to be their customers”, but they have allowed a situation to develop where authors even mentioning their work in public fora provokes extreme backlash (and I do not think it an overstatement to say that) – then something is askew here. I want to ask “What’s wrong with this picture?”

I will certainly grant that with the lowered bar to publication, electronic media is now flooded with a glut of mediocre or abysmally sub-par work from over-eager “authors” who haven’t taken time to improve their writing or as much as get it edited by a competent editor. People who can’t tell the difference between a possessive and a plural, and who aren’t clear yet on what a story arc is. I don’t want these people flogging their wares to me any more than (the majority of) Amazon readers in the forums do. On the other hand, I’m perfectly happy to hear from a quality writer, someone whose work is readable by every measure and embodies quality storytelling. Sure, I’ll no doubt hear about that sooner or later via the verbal buzz – but then again, perhaps not: with the burgeoning of the authorial population, the noise to signal ratio has become high, and it is not always possible to spot the wheat amongst the chaff.

So if Amazon considers authors their customers, what are they doing to enable them to talk about their work, beyond the baseline act of putting their product up for sale and posting to a single forum where self-promotion is allowed? If an author is one of the many who does not qualify or is not invited to a special publishing relationship with Amazon (which effectively showcases their writing), how does one establish any presence there whatsoever, beyond the basics of Author page and hopefully a fan or three who will mention the author’s work in their own forum posts?

My point is simply that Amazon has not thought this position through far enough. Some critical pieces of this puzzle are still lacking. I don’t want to hear from newbie hack authors, but I do want to hear from people who write competently and even engagingly. Is it going to be the case that that kind of effective promotion can only come from outside the Amazon system itself (except for the small percent that are showcased and specially nurtured in their publishing programs)? Right now I’d say it appears that that is the case.

I don’t know what the solution is. I personally have zero interest in attempting to be heard in the author-bashing free-zone that is the Amazon discussion boards. Heck, I’m still figuring out the ins and outs of Amazon from the authorial perspective, anyway. All I can say is that as a systems thinker, the disconnect between this espoused opinion by Amazon insiders (“authors are our customers”) and the actual behavior on the boards (made possible by Amazon TOS policies) is startling in its incongruity and right now does not make sense to me.

Man will I be glad when all this transitional shite is behind us. Meanwhile, if you see a solution to this cognitive dissonance, please share your thoughts. I see only questions, no answers.

_____
1 For a case in point see aforelinked thread, which reduces the de facto readers’ take on author promotion to the advice “just don’t”. This post and the related thread discussion is a microcosm of the common response on Amazon discussion boards:

Do not ever assume that any of the customers here want to be introduced to your book.
Posting your book, a link to your book, or a post about your book does not contribute to any discussion on here. Not even to requests for suggested reading material. If such requests are made, thay are made by customers to other customers, not to authors.

Given the general tenor of this topic on those boards, this is an extraordinarily polite schooling of new-comer authors to the reader attitudes on this subject.  More of the usual snarliness is evident in subsequent thread comments.

See this post at Notes From the Lizard Lair: Amazon: “Authors are our customers” Except in Forums
DRAGONSWORD: Teramis' new Asian-inspired fantasy adventure novel is online now for free.
Sign up for your copy today:

Do you have any interest in world building

Some of us recently had a great convo on this topic on G+, in this thread:  https://plus.google.com/u/0/109054447517972971749/posts/Tcp24NEw1mG.  (If you’re on G+ but can’t access this thread, drop me a note on the Plus and I’ll add you to the right circle so you can read it.  I’m there under the name Deborah Teramis Christian). Your comments are still welcome in that thread if you’d like to chime in in a more free-form way than a survey allows – or in the alternative, please do drop a note in the comments here below.

Thank you very much, and please be sure to share this message with your friends, be they writers, gamers, or world-design interested geeks.

Survey’s here:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QZGVY8F

Also, I’m using the free version of Survey Monkey which limits the questions I can ask, so if you have comments/thoughts that go beyond what the  form allows, please feel free to add remarks here in the comments section. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject, about where your interests lie, what would help you design worlds better, and anything else you think apropos to remark on. Thanks!

See this post at Notes From the Lizard Lair: World Building: Got An Opinion?
DRAGONSWORD: Teramis' new Asian-inspired fantasy adventure novel is online now for free.
Sign up for your copy today:

Taylor Kitsch as John Carter

OK. I admit: it’s too early to judge. The movie isn’t even out yet, just trailers and promo photos, but on that basis alone I am regarding the imminent release of John Carter with one eye a-squint.

This does not look like the hero (and heroine) I know and love from Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ classic John Carter of Mars series, and I am perturbed.

In Which I Discover Science Fiction, Along With a Few Adult Topics

Now, please understand: Burroughs was my first introduction to science fiction. As soon as I turned 12 I became eligible for the adult library card at the Long Beach (California) Public Library, which I promptly upgraded to. And there were three pieces of adult reading I instantly checked out. One was John Carter of Mars. The entire set of Burrough’s Mars books was there on a shelf, calling my name, and I’d only been able to browse but not really lose myself in one before that summer birthday. There was something there that captivated me, that I needed a full dose of. And finally, oh joy, I could take one home and go to Mars.

The other two books I eagerly grabbed from the shelf were the Autobiography of Christine Jorgensen, the first widely known transsexual, and Myra Breckenridge by Gore Vidal, a comedic/satiric take on Myron’s transformation into Myra. “Transgender” was barely a word in the contemporary vocabulary, but “sex change” was getting a lot of buzz – usually in scathing tones – and I knew this was one of those secretive adult topics grownups didn’t want to talk to kids about. Critics were praising Vidal’s book, and moralists were thundering against it, and Jorgensen was in the news again as well. Why? I was burning with curiosity about this taboo-but-in-plain-sight material. Que curioso.

Of the three books, it was Breckenridge that caused the librarian to peer at me over her half-glasses a long way down her nose and ask, “Do your parents know what you’re reading?” To which I boldly replied, “They do, and they’re ok with it.”

Well. They knew I was reading books, at least, and had a new adult library card (Mom had just signed for it), and they were certainly ok with that. More details the librarian did not need. And neither did my parents.

Jorgensen’s autobiography touched me, and educated me. Myra Breckenridge – I didn’t see what the fuss was about. This was my first excursion into the realms of gender dysphoria, transgression, and sexual identity. I came away from this with the conclusion that adults should let kids read adult things before their viewpoints are tainted by grown-up biases. Kids are capable of forming open-minded opinions of their own when subjects are not framed in judgment, fear, or hatred. At least it worked for me.

So both of those books were eye-opening in a special way that summer of 1968. And then….there was Burroughs.

Burroughs is always linked for me with my first foray into Adult Reading, which is why I mention the other Adult things I was reading at the same time. I brought the same ready-for-anything open-mindedness to Burroughs’ work. But the John Carter story was a whole different kind of adventure. A near planet, exotically renamed Barsoom by the locals! Moon shot/science fair/science nerd moi loved the concept. Four-armed giant green-skinned aliens! Flying air-ships! Adventure! and let us not forget, “the incomparable Deja Thoris.” I was in heaven and read the whole series beginning to end. Then discovered anthologies, and Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov, and much more, and off I went down the slippery slope to aspiring science fiction novelist at high speed.

So. A little transgenderism, a little subversive literature, a whole lotta adventure on another planet – all in all, a wonderful summer. (OK, so I was one of those twelve-year-olds…)

John Carter & Deja Thoris by Frank Frazetta

Meanwhile, Back on Mars…

John Carter is an iconic figure for fans of Barsoom, on the same scale as Tarzan, Burroughs’ better-known character and series. His descriptions and background about the character are clear, and here’s where I get my first hit of terrible cognitive dissonance.

To quote Burroughs from A Princess of Mars,

He was a splendid specimen of manhood, standing a good two inches over six feet, broad of shoulder and narrow of hip, with the carriage of the trained fighting man. His features were regular and clear cut, his hair black and closely cropped, while his eyes were of a steel gray, reflecting a strong and loyal character, filled with fire and initiative. His manners were perfect, and his courtliness was that of a typical southern gentleman of the highest type.

His horsemanship, especially after hounds, was a marvel and delight even in that country of magnificent horsemen. I have often heard my father caution him against his wild recklessness, but he would only laugh, and say that the tumble that killed him would be from the back of a horse yet unfoaled.

Enter Taylor Kitsch cast as the lead. He stands 6′. His hair (in character) is brown. And…long. Long? Say it’s not so! He effects a scraggly could-be-savage-he-man kind of presence, or, like Tom Brady’s late unlamented locks, one could be reminded of the mythical “girly-man” of gubernatorial scorn if one wishes to bundle a lot more critical subtext into these descriptors. Why does that wording even come to mind? Because this look is so counter to steely eyed 6’2″ John Carter of the close-cropped black hair, gentlemanly manners and manly courage, with a distinctly broader shoulder-to-hip ratio than Kitsch demonstrates. The fault is not entirely in the casting – Kitsch did a fine job playing troubled teen Tim Riggins in Friday Night Lights, so one would think he has potential – but what foolish makeup and costuming decisions were made to package his look in this manner? From the very get-go, this actor does not look like John Carter is supposed to look. Too short, too long-haired, and where, prey tell, is the carriage of the trained fighting man, the fire and initiative? Where is his presence? He does not seem to have the right heroic edge to him, to judge by the trailers.

This is sad. It is unfortunate. It is perhaps even a travesty – I’ll reserve judgment on that point until I see the movie, but with this start from first impressions, I am not optimistic.

But Wait! There’s More!

And this brings me, then, to Carter’s love interest and co-protagonist, Deja Thoris, Princess of Barsoom. Burroughs describes her through John Carter’s eyes:

[T]he sight which met my eyes was that of a slender, girlish figure, similar in every detail to the earthly women of my past life. She did not see me at first, but just as she was disappearing through the portal of the building which was to be her prison she turned, and her eyes met mine. Her face was oval and beautiful in the extreme, her every feature was finely chiseled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Her skin was of a light reddish copper color, against which the crimson glow of her cheeks and the ruby of her beautifully molded lips shone with a strangely enhancing effect.

In addition to this, Deja Thoris is much smaller than John Carter. She has a slender, girlish figure, and is “less than half the height” of the green-skinned, four-armed Barsoomian aliens; she has “little hands” that she puts on his arm or chest when speaking to him. One gets a clear picture of a woman leaning closer to average height than not, perhaps even petite, who although imperious at times is also relatively small and to be protected by large strapping warrior John.

John Carter and Deja Thoris (Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins)

Now on the big screen enters Lynn Collins – a few inches shorter than Taylor Kitsch, a fairly athletic woman in her own right – far from a ‘girlish’ figure – with straight dark brown hair (where is the mass? the waves? the black?), with attractive but not “exquisitely” beautiful features. But the princess of Mars is supposed to be a babe; she is “beautiful in the extreme.” She is drop-dead gorgeous. And Lynn Collins is…well. 5’8″ of pretty. A suitable romantic lead in X-Men: Origins. But she is not, alas, “the incomparable Deja Thoris.”

I don’t generally critique women’s appearances in media, but in this case I critique both male and female leads for one simple reason: these characters are as well established in their physical presence as anyone from Tarzan or Lord of the Rings or myriad other properties with distinctive characters made famous over time and multi-book series. That the essentials of their appearance, demeanor, and presence are blithely ignored by director Andrew Stanton, without even an effort on the part of makeup to compensate for some of these shortcomings, tells me that the screen presentation of the in-the-book characters is not important to this creative crew. This is like casting Walter Matthau as Gandalf and saying “that’s good enough.”

Ian McKellum as Gandalf, and Walter Matthau: change hat, add beard. Good enough!

And that, of course, makes me wonder what else Stanton has deemed dispensable. In his spoken intro to one movie trailer, he talks about loving these books as a child and wanting to stay true to them. If this look in the lead actors is his idea of staying true to the original…well, all I can say is, he’ll never be Peter Jackson when he grows up.

In any case, time will tell. The movie will be released in March 2012, so it’s just around the corner. I think this is one I will be catching on DVD, not the big screen. In the meanwhile, I think it’s time to reread some Burroughs and John Carter of Mars.

The real one.

Rating

This movie has not received any Stomps of Approval because a) I haven’t seen it yet and b) this is a commentary not a movie review. When I see it I’ll update this post with a link to the review proper.

 Related Post

Me, Short Stories, and Robert Heinlein

Cover art by Joe Jusko.

See this post at Notes From the Lizard Lair: John Carter: Not the Burroughs Hero After All?
DRAGONSWORD: Teramis' new Asian-inspired fantasy adventure novel is online now for free.
Sign up for your copy today: