Asimov's Science Fiction 10/01/10, page 4
I know that he was a so-called “Red Diaper Baby,” raised in a Paris suburb with a Communist political culture, and traveled to the other side of the Iron Curtain to festivals in Moscow and possibly other parts of the Soviet Union. I know that he was very passionate about the wars resulting from the fragmentation of Yugoslavia, that the lead character in Babylon Babies, Hugo Toorop, was also the lead in his earlier novel La Sirene Rouge (which I adapted into a film), where he had been deeply and politically involved as a mercenary-cum-journalist (or vice versa) in those Balkan wars.
Was Dantec on the ground there, too? Or was Toorop a kind of fictional projection of what he wished he had done? I can’t really say, which is odd, but there it is, and for present literary purposes, it really doesn’t matter.
La Sirene Rouge was set in the present, or the near-past. But Babylon Babies is set in the more or less near future, and this incarnation of Toorop, though characterologically more or less identical, was and is involved not in the Balkans, but in the so-called “stans” of former Soviet Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan—a warlord and gangster-ridden Wild East, where he served more than one side as a forthright mercenary in the endless machinations, conflicts, and double-crosses among them and various national intelligence agencies.
It’s hard to believe that Maurice Dantec could have been there when these environs were still part of the Soviet Union. Outsiders had no easy access even if they were official invitees to youth festivals in Moscow, and of course he couldn’t have been there in this fictional future.
I haven’t been there either, but somehow the sections of Babylon Babies set there, even in the near-future, have the ring of authenticity. I can’t vouch for actual accuracy, but the spirit and political culture and cynical chaos of it all rings true, at least to me, perhaps because Dantec portrays Toorop’s interior life with such depth and passion. Perhaps simply because he’s done such a masterful job of extrapolating this future milieu that, from the news, seems in the process of coming into being.
This, after all, is science fiction.
But there seems to be more to it than that. Dantec the man has always been strongly, passionately, and puissantly political—as witness, for example, in his masterful psychoanalysis of fascism in Les Racines du Mal (The Roots of Evil). So much so that events in the real world, particularly in the Balkans, have moved him from something like the left to something like the right, to the point where he had himself tattooed with the NATO emblem.
Whether he was personally involved in the chaos in the Balkans or not, he certainly was politically and emotionally involved. And I strongly suspect that this depth and passion was transferred to the imagined situation in his near-future Central Asia, as witness the fact that his ongoing character Toorop has been involved in both in the span of two novels.
In contrast, the core science fictional schtick is the weakest part of the novel. Toorop gets involved in a complex matrioschka doll series of plots, schemes, double-crosses, and violent confrontations, in Central Asia, in Montreal, the purpose of which is to bring the Babylon Babies of the title into the world and somehow for the gain of the various factions, and/or to prevent this from happening.
The Babylon Babies are genetically engineered fetuses carried by a girl that Toorop is commissioned to protect and deliver. They are created mutants of some nebulous kind designed to be the next level of humanity, and thereby transform “reality” itself.
Or something like that. This is the McGuffin, but at least to this reader, it borders on mystical mumbo-jumbo gibberish even when the consciousness of the Babies is portrayed at the end. Maybe especially then, in stark contrast to the coherent and detailed verisimilitude of the rest of the novel, particularly the parts set in the Wild East of future Central Asia.
To me, at least, this McGuffin is the least successful element of the novel, and on some level the least important, even though it seems that Dantec, in his unsuccessful effort to render the outré consciousness of the Babylon Babies coherent, takes this task very, very seriously. On the other hand, the title itself, with its rather direct reference to the Tower of Babel, may be some kind of auctorial admission that this is impossible.
Passionate involvement in a culture not your own, on the ground, or in your imagination, even when transmogrified as a kind of political, cultural, and psychological template to a third venue, even an extrapolated one, perhaps especially an extrapolated one, would seem to be an engine of literary power—at least to a writer like Dantec who is capable of same.
Ironically, Babylon Babies, the novel, written in French, and first translated and published by an obscure small press in the United States, probably would never have seen mass-market reprint were that edition not a tie-in to an eminently forgettable action movie starring Vin Diesel, whose visage dominates the cover.
A film which, of course, threw out the interesting complexities of the best part of the novel to simplify it into a more or less generic action-adventure flick.
So goes the magic of Hollywood. A lousy simple-minded movie adaptation of a complex novel that flopped gets a novel written in French published by a major American house, and in the process breaks the writer’s other work into English, too.
Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl is a career breakthrough, too. It has to be, being Bacigalupi’s first novel after having made a reputation with short fiction as in days of yore. But what a first novel! What a novel, period!
Okay, I know of only one Thai SF writer, Somtow Sucharitkul, a Thai prince no less, according to himself. He is constrained by commercial demands to publish these days as S.P. Somtow, with the permission of the court astrologers, according to him. A very good SF writer, too, who lived for quite a while in Los Angeles, these days he is writing less and composing more back in Thailand, where he is the maestro of the national opera.
The point being that while Somtow is Thai, is now living back in Thailand, where he is, to say the least, well culturally connected these days, has written some excellent fiction, some of it but not very much partially set in Thailand, it is Bacigalupi, an American, who has written thus far what has to be not only the ultimate science fiction novel set in Thailand, but the ultimate Thai science fiction novel. These do not have to be the same thing, but in the case of The Windup Girl are.
The Windup Girl is about as thoroughly embedded in an extrapolated future Thai culture as it is possible to be.
This is a science fictional novel by all reasonable formal standards, but when a main viewpoint character is killed, he goes on as a ghost without explanation, western-style justification, or excuse, because none are needed in this future Thai cultural and pop cultural milieu.
Emiko, the windup girl of the title, is an android of sorts, though the word never appears in the novel, with certain enhanced powers and certain deliberate limitations, designed as a courtesan for a high-level Japanese businessman, but abandoned by him, and in the present tense future, an S&M whore in a sleazy bordello in down and dirty Bangkok.
“Windup” because this is a future in which fossil fuels have been depleted to the point where they can only be afforded by top-level government officials, the military, and the very very rich, and everything else in the world economy, including Emiko, runs on kink-springs, power packs that have to be charged—that is wound-up—by muscle power, either human or that of megdonts, recreated mastodons of giant size, super elephants appropriate to the symbolic and mystical position of elephants in the Thai psyche.
Another of the viewpoint characters is a Vietnamese Chinese who was a captain of industry back in the home country, but had to flee when there was a murderous pogrom there against the local Chinese. He found refuge in Thailand, in Bangkok, where there is an exploited and downtrodden refugee community of same, and there he has found a job as flunky to Anderson Lake, boss of the AgriGen factory, which manufactures and charges springs.
AgriGen is a transnational also involved in the business of finding exotic new and possibly gene-engineered fruits and vegetables that do not carry the deadly plague infecting most of the world’s food supply, and the novel opens with Lake snuffling through markets in search of same.
Another viewpoint character is the hero top cop heading the sector of the Bangkok police force in charge of keeping the food supply and the rest of the city and country free of plague contamination, and yet another his second in command.
And so on and so forth. The complex plots, schemes, double-crosses, political and economic machinations, low and high, that form the storylines of The Windup Girl take the reader through all levels of this masterfully created future Thai and particularly Bangkok society, consciousness, mystical and popular culture, with a level of both deep and detailed verisimilitude—on all levels, from palace intrigues to low-level dives, ex-pat and otherwise—that just about convinces you that only a Thai could have written it.
But you would be wrong.
The Windup Girl was written by an American.
I have been given to understand that Bacigalupi lived for a time in Thailand, though I have not been able to verify this, nor to learn for how long, or why, or on what level of immersion. But it doesn’t seem to matter—the novel itself would seem to be proof that he not only lived in Thailand, but must have lived there not as an extended ex-pat daytripper, but somehow quite embedded in the culture on multiple levels.
Of course, I could be wrong. The closest novels to The Windup Girl written by an Anglophone outsider that I know of are River of Gods and Brazyl, both by Ian McDonald. And when I recently had occasion to speak with McDonald and opined that he must have spent a long time in India to have been able to write River of Gods, he told me: “Not really. I have an eidetic memory.”
And proved it, or at least proved that whatever magic he had that allowed him to write River of Gods was more generally applicable, by doing the very same thing for Brazil.
So it will be very interesting indeed to see what Paolo Bacigalupi does next. McDonald mined whatever research he had done to write River of Gods to produce a collection of short stories in the same setting—waste not want not, as it were.
Or not.
Because McDonald published that collection after he had written Brazyl.
Will Paolo Bacigalupi do something similar or not? The temptation to keep setting his fiction in this future Thailand and surrounding Southeast Asian vicinity, at least at novel length, is certainly there; many SF writers, having done the work of creating such a “universe,” have succumbed to it, even when the creation has been nowhere near as rich and deep and detailed as The Windup Girl. And the ending of the novel, while satisfying, does seem to be a set-up for a possible sequel, or might even serve as a set-up for a possible trilogy or open-ended series.
So the question is whether whatever gave this American novelist the power to write such a thoroughly Thai science fiction novel can, like whatever allowed Ian McDonald to write River of Gods and Brazyl, be generalized, can give him whatever it takes to repeat such a feat with another culture.
And whether or not it can be bottled for general use.
If so, I’d drink it. Wouldn’t you?
Considering that something told me that I had to write Russian Spring in Paris, where most of it was set, and then to apply whatever I had subconsciously learned to the parts set in a future Soviet Union, considering that I went on to set novels in historic Mexico and a future Arabia during the Hadj, maybe I have already done so unknowingly.
It would seem that Ian McDonald has quaffed the potion as well.
Who knows, perhaps Paolo Bacigalupi has already, knowingly or not, downed the elixir, too.
Copyright © 2010 Norman Spinrad
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SF CONVENTIONAL CALENDAR
Erwin S. Strauss
September is a bit slow (try CopperCon, Foolscap, or MadCon), so let’s look ahead to the big fall schedule. Plan now for social weekends with your favorite SF authors, editors, artists, and fellow fans. For an explanation of con(vention)s, a sample of SF folksongs, and info on fanzines and clubs, send me an SASE (self-addressed, stamped #10 [business] envelope) at 10 Hill #22-L, Newark NJ 07102. The hot line is (973) 242-5999. If a machine answers (with a list of the week’s cons), leave a message and I’ll call back on my nickel. When writing cons, send an SASE. For free listings, tell me of your con five months out. Look for me at cons behind the Filthy Pierre badge, playing a musical keyboard.
SEPTEMBER 2010
3-6—DragonCon. For info, write: Box 16459, Atlanta GA 30321. Or phone: (770) 909-0115 (10 am to 10 pm, not collect). (Web) dragoncon.org. (E-mail) dragoncon@dragoncon.org. Con will be held in: Atlanta GA (if city omitted, same as in address) at the Hyatt. Guests will include: many. Huge con for “classic comics, low-brow pop art, designer toys, gaming.”
2-6—Aussiecon 4. aussiecon4.org.au. Melbourne, Australia. World Science Fiction Con. A$275+ at door—if you hurry.
3-6—Geek.Kon. geekkon.net. Marriott West, Madison WI. Ayres, Bodden. “Anime, sci-fi, gaming and all things geek.”
4—LibrariCon. (910) 822-1998. cumberland.lib.nc.us. Held at HQ library, Fayetteville NC. K. Siemens, D. Hirajeta, W. Hays.
4-6—CopperCon. casfs.org. info@coppercon.org. Windemere Hotel, Mesa AZ. Stephen R. Donaldson, David Lee Summers.
10-12—Intervention. intervention.com. Hilton, Rockville MD (near DC). DJ Subvert. Webcomics and other Internet folks.
16-20—Thin Air, 620-100 Arthur, Winnipeg MB R3B 1H3. (204) 927-7323. thinairwinnipeg.com. Int’l. writers’ festival.
17-19—Horror Realm, Box 10400, Pittsburgh PA 15234. (412) 215-6317. horrorrealm.com. Crowne Plaza South Hotel.
24-26—Foolscap, Box 2461, Seattle WA 98111. foolscap.org. E. Bull, W. Shetterly, C. & C. Erich. Written SF & fantasy.
24-26—MadCon, Box 2601, Madison WI 53701. madcon2010.com. Harlan Ellison. General SF and fantasy convention.
24—Conference on Middle Earth, Box 428, Latham NY 12110. Thruway House, Albany NY. “Tolkien: His Works, His World.”
OCTOBER 2010
1-3—ConJecture, Box 927388, San Diego CA 92192. 2010.conjecture.org. Town & Country. R. J. Sawyer. SF & fantasy.
1-3—VCon, Box 78069, Vancouver BC V5N 5W1. vcon.ca. Priest, Beveridge. “Steampunk—from Alchemy to Zeppelins.”
1-3—WhedonFest. starrynightevents.com. Sheraton, Dixon Rd., Toronto ON. Acker, Brendon. Buffy, Angel, Firefly, etc.
7-10—Sirens, Box 149, Sedalia MO 80135. sirensconference.org. Vail CO. Terri Windling. “Women in Fantasy Literature.”
8-10—AlbaCon. albacon.org. Alan Steele, Ron Miller, Lisa Ashton, others. SF and fantasy.
8-10—Motaku, 1746 N. McCoy, Independence MO 64050. (816) 863-0164. motaku.org. Park Place. C. Hodges. Anime.
15-17—Con*Stellation, Box 4857, Huntsville AL 35815. (256) 883-5922. con-stellation.org. Spencer, DiFate, S. Jackson.
15-17—ConVersion, Box 30314, Calgary AB T2H 2W1. con-version.org. General SF and fantasy convention.
15-17—Arcana, Box 8036, Minneapolis MN 55408. (612) 721-5959. arcana.com. St. Paul MN. “The Dark Fantastic.”
19-28—CruiseTrek, 23852 PCH, #385, Malibu CA 90265. (310) 456-7544. cruisetrek.com. Iberian peninsula from Genoa.
22-24—NecronomiCon, c/o 5909 Thontosassa Rd., Plant City FL 33565. stonehill.org. St. Petersburg FL. David Gerrold.
22-24—CapClave, c/o Box 53, Ashton MD 20861. capclave.org. Hilton, Rockvile MD (near DC). Willis, the Vandermeers.
28-31—World Fantasy Con, 3824 Patricia Dr., Upper Arlington OH 43220. wprldfantasy2010.com. Hyatt, Columbus OH.
29-31—HalCon. hal-con.com. Lord Nelson Hotel, Halifax NS. W. Koenig, D. Crosby, J. Bulloch, A. Douglas, M. Golden.
29-31—GayLaxiCon, 1206-44 Dunfield Ave., Toronto ON M4J 2H2. gaylaxicon2010.org. Montreal QC. For GLBT & friends.
29-31—HalloWhedon, 46 Campion, Great Linford, Milton Keynes MK14 5BH, UK. massiveevents.co.uk. Heathrow UK.
NOVEMBER 2010
5-7—BasCon, Box 282197, San Francisco CA 94128. bascon.org. Embassy Suites. S. San Francisco CA. Adult fan fiction.
12-14—Anime USA, Box 1073, Crofton MD 21114. animeusa.org. Arlington VA (near DC). Many guests. “Of, by, for otaku.”
12-14—NovaCon, 379 Myrtle Rd., Sheffield S2 3HQ, UK. novacon.org. Park Inn, Nottingham UK. Banks. Long-time con.
12-14—Dimensions, 643 Longbridge Rd., Dagenham RM8 2DD, UK. tenthplanet.co.uk. Newcastle-on-Tyne UK. Dr. Who.
AUGUST 2011 renovationsforg. Reno NV. Asher, Brown, Powers. 17-21—RenoVation, Box 13278, Portland OR 97213.WorldCon. $160.
Copyright © 2010 Erwin S Strauss
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