Thoughts about Fealty Kink and Anti-Imperialist Fantasy

[sqbr]

You can’t put themes of fealty and anti-imperialism in the same narrative box is a really interesting post, discussing the problem in the context of the Vorkosigan saga but generally worth reading.

If you wanted to put them together, and somehow do both of them justice, I think you’d have two choices:

- Positively-presented fealty angle with the Barrayarans (or at least the Vor Barrayarans) but realistically and narratively terrible actions vis-a-vis the Komarrans and the proles. Which is to say, you have created a subset of the Feudal Fantasy register within a larger picture of Realistic Ack. Many, many people will be lovely to those they consider worthy (or Us), and awful to those they consider not (or Them), so this isn’t a stretch at all. You could re-write VS canon into this mold without too much trouble, I think, but you’d need a lot more narrative criticism of the MCs than you get from LMB.

- Fealty angle where the colonized/vassal desperately wants that relationship to actually work as advertised, perhaps to the point of willful blindness, but, of course, it doesn’t. This is Realistic Ack register all the way down, and probably chock full of whump and angst. This is maybe what I was trying to do with Duv, but I’m not sure I can actually manage it.

- I don’t think you can do anti-imperialism in the Feudal Fantasy register at all (since part of the premise is that feudalism, and by extension imperialism, aren’t inherently bad), but I’m open to ideas.

One other approach I’ve enjoyed is Fealty is Fatally Flawed But Tragically Beautiful, set during the inevitable collapse of feudalism, and not saying that collapse shouldn’t happen, but still wallowing in the appeal of what feudalism remains. So vassals still feel that delicious fealty, but the actual power imbalance is in the process of disappearing. You can show how even the Nice Feudal Lords screw up, but since their power is waning it’s easier to forgive them for it, and there’s no way to fall into the Vorkosigan Saga trap of just giving the Nice Feudal Lords all the power and calling that utopia.

EDIT: Ok it has been pointed out to me that this is EXACTLY as romanticising, it's just a SAD romance. FINE.

I see this mostly in historical fiction set around the end of the 19th century. A lot of it still leans pretty hard into the Beauty of Feudalism (see: Downton Abbey) but some is more interestingly ambivalent. The Upstairs Downstairs remake did some interesting things, in my opinion, even if it was a bit soft on the actual literal fascists.

And now some rambly thoughts which aren't entirely on topic.

Hakuoki did a pretty good job of celebrating samurai while illustrating why they had to go, especially since as a visual novel it lets you get to know both sides of the civil war. The Shinsengumi seem to inspire this in general, since they are seen as the Last True Samurai...and all that fealty may have been beautiful but it also got them all killed. Also by the end they were defending democracy while the rebels re-instated an Emperor, so writers can poke at Imperialism from all sides without having to pick a side.

I've seen a few Japanese fantasy stories set in Europe or quasi-European countries which poke at European feudalism in a way I find interesting: I Favour the Villainess, for example. They're generally still way too in love with those in power for my tastes, and dubious about revolutionaries, but at least don't pretend there's a clear line between the Bad Ones Who Hurt People and the Good Ones Who Can Be Trusted To Run Things. Everyone is complicit and the system has to go.

To be honest I think Americans writers are generally pretty useless at critiquing feudalism in an interesting way, since they don’t have a real life messy aristocracy currently fucking up their society, and tend to exotify aristocrats as somehow fundamentally Different instead of just...rich politicians except nobody even voted for them. English and Japanese people engaging with Imperialism, for good or ill, have to grapple with their feelings about aristocracy because that’s part of how Imperialism manifests in their countries.

But I feel like an American fantasy writer who seriously wants to poke at Imperialism is probably better off doing something like Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence, where the conflict is between capitalism and actual literal gods. I mean I ended up being frustrated at how he handled that conflict, but he started with the right questions. Not that there's anything wrong with American writers being fascinated by feudalism but also wanting to explore it's downsides. I just think they tend to find it harder to engage with the realities of how these power structures work.

I'm not sure how Australians fit into this, since we technically have an aristocracy, and are definitely complicit with Imperialism, but are also a two-bit penal colony descended from criminals. I'm not sure I've ever seen an Australian fantasy or historical writer try very hard to write this kind of story, but now I'm thinking about how I'd approach it.

I'm sure there's a lot of really interesting stuff from other countries, I just haven't read them >.>

Some criticism and following conversation from tumblr which got me to rethink and edit this post a bit.

Comments

[ursula]

Did you read Kate Elliott's Jaran books? I feel like they're chewing on this problem.

[sqbr]

I have not! Are they good?

[ursula]

They're flawed but really interesting? I like Elliott's later books better, but in all of her work you can see her chewing on the conflict between the classic tempestuous romantic hero and the desire for a political system that's for the people.

[muccamukk]

The point the series went full time Barrayar was also the point that I stopped reading. I was there for the space pirates.

[sqbr]

I started with Memory then went back and forth, but looking back...yeah, that was the beginning of the end of th appeal for me.

[lilacsigil]

The Remains of the Day is another interesting one - it starts off with romanticised fealty (butler to the aristocratic household) and then goes to show the whole thing as horribly corrupt and vile (they're Nazis).

The Shinsengumi were really, really not on the side of democracy, though - there was no democracy to defend. Both sides in that series of conflicts were feudal lords, and the only part that could be considered even vaguely democratic was when they were the police force in Kyoto and enforced the law relatively even-handedly.

I can't think of any Australian novels that fit into this trope either - there's all the WWI novels about the horrors of European imperialism played out with Australian/Turkish/NZ bodies, but it doesn't really interrogate why very much, or the character of the aristocracy in general or particular.

[sqbr]

The Remains of the Day is another interesting one - it starts off with romanticised fealty (butler to the aristocratic household) and then goes to show the whole thing as horribly corrupt and vile (they're Nazis).


Oh, interesting. That's from the point of view of the butler, right?

The Shinsengumi were really, really not on the side of democracy

Not for the vast majority of their time, but the remaining ones were when they defended the Republic of Ezo. I mean, afaict this was more an accident of history than something they stood for philosophically, but it's still interesting. Unless I am misunderstanding, since I am mostly working from Hakuoki and wikipedia here.

there's all the WWI novels about the horrors of European imperialism played out with Australian/Turkish/NZ bodies, but it doesn't really interrogate why very much, or the character of the aristocracy in general or particular.

Hmm, yeah.

[lilacsigil]

Oh, the Republic of Ezo guys? I guess it could be seen that way, but voting was limited to men of the samurai class and the reason they could take a large chunk of Hokkaido was that it was populated by Ainu people who they killed and displaced in large numbers. I would consider that more a colonial expansion than actual democracy, even though it was more democratic than any previous form of government in Japan. Most shinsengumi-related media is...very romanticised.

[sqbr]

Haa...ok. I see.

[boxofdelights]

I think what C.J. Cherryh does with fealty kink in the Foreigner series is really interesting, but she has to start with making it a biological drive in an alien species that our human viewpoint character, who has spent his life studying these people, doesn't really understand.

[sqbr]

Ah, yeah, that could be interesting! I read the first Foreigner book like 20 years ago but have forgotten basically everything.