Among Others (Jo Walton)

3+/5 - This came up in the discussion of Lifelode and I promised I'd write about it.

I found the main character (Mori) only partially believable. The believable part was how she was believably awkward and prickly and judgmental as a teenager who wasn't really all that used to interacting with other teenagers. The not-so-believable part was that Mori had all these Opinions about books that I felt were way too sophisticated and profound for a teenager -- I suppose I was probably on the less profound and way less self-aware end as a teenager compared to many (most?) of you reading this, so maybe it's just me, but when I was a teenager my opinions were on the order of "I really liked that!" and "I thought that was weird but I can't say why," not these clever and articulate arguments and opinions that Mori has, that fit much better with (in my opinion) a middle-aged authorial voice person than a teenager.

And, you know, it didn't make a darn bit of difference that I didn't find Mori believable in that way, because this book was clearly written as a love letter to SF, and the way that SF changes and saves you, and being one of those kids who read a whole bunch of those books Mori read (not all, and many of them I got to later than Mori did, but I've read many of them if not most) and was changed and saved by them, I couldn't help but respond strongly to that even though I could see quite clearly how I was being manipulated, and I actually really enjoyed Mori's sophisticated opinions because they fit with the sorts of conversations I want to be having about those books now, even if I wasn't capable of having them then.

I had heard that it sort of plays into this idea of being a book geek being The Only Way, which is sort of damaging, and I wasn't sure if I would like that because, for example, my daughter isn't going to be a book geek (or if she is, there's a very good chance she won't read the books that I consider really good), and I don't want anyone to think that makes her a lesser person. This is definitely a Thing in the book, though I didn't find it as much of a problem as I was expecting, partially because I'd been warned in advance, and partially because of its dreamlike impressionistic feel. Also, Mori may be highly judgmental and dismiss those who are Not Her Sort out of hand, but she does feel very young in the way she relates to the world in a non-SF sort of way, and I was young in that sort of highly judgmental way myself, so we can hope that she grows into a perhaps-highly-judgmental adult who can sometimes occasionally remember that not everyone is or should be exactly like me. I mean her. :P :)

...So I wrote that, and then I looked for / was pointed to various reviews/thoughts on this book, and it's interesting that I framed it above as "a love letter to SF" when many other people saw it (rightly, I think) as a love letter to SF fandom. I think because I have never really been part of in-person SF fandom in the way that I saw in the book, but I have read quite a lot of those books and so I naturally connected to that (and to discussing it through the written word, as well). Relatedly, I suppose it's partially that the way books happened to change me was not through people or through a community, but primarily through the texts themselves (people and community came later, and for the books she talks about sometimes much later); and partially because of the strong implication (vague spoiler, I guess) that Mori may have actually made up her fellow community of readers. If I had had magic at that age and I had been able to make up a community of like-minded people, I'd have done it too, and with rather fewer ethical qualms (at least, at the time) than Mori had. (Did I mention I was not a very self-aware child? It's a very good thing I didn't have anything nearly as powerful as magic.) I suppose there's her father, as well, but he's also so very vague that he never really registered to me as a real character either. The solipsistic thread also made it rather ambiguous to me whether in the end it's really a good thing that the people she connects with are solely the people who talk about books with her; is she only really connecting with herself? (I have no way of knowing whether Walton meant that intentionally, but that does echo a bit how I feel about SF fandom; it's a wonderful thing, and I could easily see myself, especially if I'd encountered it much earlier in life, living almost wholly inside it with very little connection outside and being very happy like that, perhaps more happy than I am living outside of it, but... I do feel like it wouldn't be good for me, overall.)

It does have a plot, but the plot is sort of secondary, to the point where I don't remember a lot about it; the heart of the book isn't the plot, it's SF and talking to people about SF, and those are the parts that I (perhaps obviously) remember.

(It's sort of interesting, though -- I'm currently reading Walton's Informal History of the Hugos, and although I can be ambivalent about Walton's fiction I am so not ambivalent about her book criticism. I love it to bits and pieces. It's basically my idealized version of Among Others.)